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In
understanding the complex world in which we live mankind
has always needed models. Models allow our minds to
safely explore reality; and models
scale tiny and huge objects to a size that we can
comprehend and become familiar with. Models are therefore
essential in the scientific quest for a rational
understanding of the physical universe. Visualization is,
moreover, an immense aid to the scientific imagination,
as it seeks new relationships and connections between
concepts and phenomena - the process which is at the
heart of scientific discovery.
Models have been used since the beginning of scientific
thought, and some of the earliest and most detailed
scientific models relate to astronomical observations.
The earth centric cosmologies of the ancient world were
perfected in the Ptolemaic system of the universe. This
highly complex and beautiful structure explains a wide
range of observations on the motions of planets and
stars. The Ptolemaic system was of course swept away by
the Copernican revolution in the 16th century, which
produced far simpler heliocentric models for the solar
system; these explain astronomical data more
straightforwardly and could subsequently be rationalized
by Newton's gravitational theory.
The structure of the enzyme lysozyme.
In astronomy and
cosmology, which are among the most enduring scientific
grand challenges, models are therefore crucial. 'Global
modeling' is also playing an increasingly important role
in new sciences that aim to understand how the earth's
atmosphere, oceans and interior work. Their role in
engineering and applied sciences is obvious, but
contemporary technology is expanding enormously their
range and sophistication. For example, the complex
model of the distribution of pressure over the wings of a
fighter aircraft in flight; and detailed and accurate
information of this type is, of course, a valuable design
tool in the aeronautics industry. Our emphasis is,
however, on the role of models in understanding matter at
the microscopic level - the world of atoms and
molecules - and in revealing the marvellously varied
ways in which atoms combine to give structures of immense
complexity and beauty; structures that support life like
the enzyme lysozyme above whose atomic architecture was first
elucidated at The Royal Institution in 1965.
And structures which
lead to extraordinary and technologically important
properties, such as the high temperature superconducting
material whose crystal structure is shown below.
While the symmetry and
elegance of molecular structures is illustrated by the
spherical carbon molecules of 'Buckminster Fullerene' materials.
A high temperature
superconducting oxide material.
C60 'Buckminsterfullerene'.
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