Donald Braben

Donald Braben (29 May 1935 – 23 February 2025) was a British science writer. Quotes Scientific Freedom: The Elixir of Civilisation (2020) It's been forgotten that we did not need special arrangements for finding the Einsteins in the past. There was enough flexibility in the system to allow them to emerge, but that's been removed in the quest for efficiency. Such abstract qualities as freedom are difficult or impossible to define. Freedom's loss may be easier to recognise, but it does not necessarily lead to chains. Increasingly nowadays, freedom is a managed commodity, but the consequences are subtle and varied. If you were standing on the edge of a cliff, you might go over the edge and suffer consequences that would probably be nonlinear and unpleasant. But if linear processes ruled the world, there would be no cliffs. Today's world is truly bizarre. The emperor's new clothes are constantly admired although many can see that he is stark naked. But Smith's invisible hand and other philosophies advocating freedom seem to be denied because it is impossible to see them. For creativity to flourish, it does not necessarily need encouragement. Indeed, since its origins are not understood it may be impossible to encourage. But intellectual pioneers need environments that accommodate dissent. In the 1960s, IBM's chairman, Thomas Watson Sr., began the Fellows Program, in which he appointed Fellows (he called them his "wild ducks") for five years to be "dreamers, heretics, mavericks, gadflies, and geniuses." Their remit was simply to "shake up the system." The Fellows Program has been supremely successful. Only some 165 scientists were appointed, but five of these won Nobel Prizes. General Electric and Bell Laboratories ran similar programs. In 1980, as I have mentioned, BP launched Venture Research, arguably one of the most ambitious and imaginative exploratory research initiatives in industrial history, and supported it for 10 years. On the atomic scale, we do not understand gravity and its relationship with Nature's other forces. At the other end of the scale, current dogma maintains that the universe was created at some specific moment some 13.6 billion years ago. It then requires an almost immediate but transient expansion at speeds vastly exceeding the velocity of light in order that predictions from current theories can be made compatible with what we actually observe. External links Category:Non-fiction authors from England Category:Science authors Category:Physicists from England Category:People from Liverpool Category:1935 births Category:2025 deaths