You are more than chemical functions

I have always loved meeting people who defy my expectations. To my amazement, the seemingly shy girl who sits next to me during class is overwhelmingly outgoing (and hilarious) once I began joking with her. One of the guys in my project group wasn’t completely unrelatable, after all—we have similar tastes in music, and he tells the most entertaining stories about his family.

I constantly try to remind myself that there is more to people than what we initially assume, especially if we learn to ask the right questions.

When I met physics professor Rainer Martini one afternoon, I didn’t know it yet, but my expectations were about to be defied again.

Merriam-Webster defines the hard sciences as “chemistry, physics, or astronomy,”  areas of scientific study that can be observed and measured. Although I knew Professor Martini was a theoretical physicist, my idea of what he would actually be like was clouded by images of a stiff man in a white lab coat discussing the hard science itself.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Martini has been teaching physics at Stevens for over 20 years. He has researched infrared laser communication at ultrahigh speeds, applications of terahertz radiation, and the infrared camera system.

He welcomed me into his lab with a smile, and I quickly noticed how animated he was when he spoke. Even while answering questions about string theory and semi-conductive electronics, he managed to squeeze in a few quips. The Laws of Nature, he joked, were created “simply to shut people up.”

Instead of pretending that he has all the answers to my questions, he’s just honest. I appreciate that. “We [physicists] are supposed to know how things work, and that is bullshit,” he admits. 

He’s not the first physicist to disclose the limits of his own knowledge, especially when it comes to spirituality. As the legendary physicist David Bohm once told Professor John Horgan during a 1992 interview, “the form of knowledge is to have at any moment something essential, and the appearance can be explained. But then when we look deeper at these essential things… We’re not ever going to get a final essence.”

“There’s a lot of stuff we don’t know or understand yet,” said Martini about some of physics’ “unsolved problems.” But he also adds that, in the physics community, it is difficult to garner support for a theory if it cannot be “seen” or proven.

Insight from physicist Steven Barr provides some balance: he sides with the scientists on the procedural side but lets his own conscience direct him spiritually: “my own guiding principle is to trust the experts (generally speaking) on anything purely technical, but to rely more on my own judgment as far as human realities go. I trust the architect on what will keep the building up, but not on what is beautiful.”

Sure, we can trust the experts on the technical details. But our own take on ethics, spirituality, and morality should be up to us. We shouldn’t necessarily have to prove the existence of a higher power in order to believe in one. I think that having faith is something that makes us human.  

I was surprised by Martini when he spoke about his own perspectives on spirituality. “I’m not an atheist,” he told us. “I believe there is something,” he said, perhaps a value system, that can teach us more about our “way of living.”

I assumed he would only want to stick to the science. But, once again, a divergence from the expected proved to be a pleasant surprise. As someone who loves learning about science and the stories that come with it,  I appreciated his vulnerable transparency.

“As a person, you are more than chemical functions,” said Martini. Scientific explanations can’t fully capture who we are. There’s more to us than others might expect. We’re deeper, more complex, and significant. We should remember that more often.