A quest for knowledge - Ep. 5: On Newton's chair

On the road again, after months of hard work. And although I like the afternoons, and the nights, spent around books, scribbling and thinking, I must confess that I was missing the freedom of travel.

Now, the landscapes were slowly unfolding, as I headed North. The approach to the sea was told on by changes in the air. Then, the crossing of the Channel waters, the sighting of the white cliffs of Dover, amidst the dissipating fog, and the disembarking on the other shore, followed suit.

Resuming the way, over dry land, I passed Canterbury, with its cathedral and castle, exhibiting signs of centuries bygone. I crossed the Thames, to the east of London, where I was hoping to pass on the way back. I continued, through hills green from water, water from the flowing rivers and water that frequently fell from the skies. I finally hit the next stop.

I had left the city with a university for the University with a city.

I was in Cambridge. Buildings full of history and knowledge, with its silhouettes at sunset, chapels, columns and spirals, lawn courtyards, river and bridges. Peterhouse College, dating back to the late 13th century, Corpus Christi, King's, Queen's, St. John's, among others. And, of course, Trinity College. I was stepping on the very same ground Newton had stepped on, not that many years ago!

Newton’s first lecture as Lucasian professor took place at Trinity College in January 1670. It was about his research on optics (…). The audience was small, no-one came to the second lecture, and he continued talking to an empty room throughout almost every lecture he gave for the next seventeen years. After that he gave up all pretence of teaching, which he never enjoyed. (*)

The dilemmas I was, increasingly, dealing with, split between the search for and the transmission of knowledge.

The search, demanding, intense, incessant, absorbent, of answers that will always bring new questions. Know, know more, know first, discover, unravel, somehow create. Isolate from the world to better understand the world.

To share, passing on both knowledge and method, starting the flame, awakening the enthusiasm, unsettling the other. Providing clues, instead of solutions, to make one read and reread, demonstrate, debate, listening, knowing how to listen, teach, repeat, insist.

What would I become, throughout this journey, throughout this life?

(to be continued)


On a journey, riding with Newton, a game of Nestore Mangone and Simone Luciani, Ediciones Mas que Oca (2018) under license of Cranio Creations. 
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(*) Remarkable Physicists - From Galileo to Yukawa, Ioan James, Cambridge University Press (2004).