Ludic Science

Foreword 6
The Leiden Bottle 7
Mendel’s Rules of Inheritance 8
Phosphorus 9
The Seebeck Effect 10
The Pacemaker 11
The Biro 12
The Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction 13
The Positron 14
The History of nuclear Fission 15
The Dream of an Arabian Prince 16
The Vacuum 18
Alfred Wegener’s Game 19
The Voltaic Column 20
Chewing Gum 21
Ayahuasca: playing for Psychotherapy  22
Umami: The fifth Flavour 25
Viagra  26
The Paper Clip 26
Topology and Number Theory 27
Cicadas love prime Numbers 29
If even the unpredictability cannot be predicted 30
An Hourglass that doesn’t need to be turned over  31
The Microwave Oven 32
Fleming’s long Road to the Use of Penicillin 33
Electromagnetism 34
Radioactivity 35
Astrophysics and elementary Particle Physics 36
Chemical Elements 37
The Steam Engine 42
Fireworks 42
The Bubble Chamber 43
Shell and Snail Patterns 44
Cellulose Nitrate 46
The Ig Nobel Prize 47
Bibliography 48
Image Authors  52
Index 54
About the Author 56

At present, research projects are increasingly or even exclusively funded or awarded prizes based on the aspect of concrete applicability. However, our history teaches us that, since ancient times, we humans have stumbled across fundamental new findings in a purposeless and almost playful way out of our inherent curiosity. Intention is a decisive criterion for me here: if the “application” is vanity or the pursuit of a kind of immortality, freedom from purpose is ruled out. This is often the basis for developments in imaging procedures. I would also include striving in sports, because the gain and the activity itself are difficult to separate.

Research endeavours with a purposeless attitude are here called “ludic” (from the Latin ludus, the game), and are described in this book using various examples from the past. Some of these, such as the “oscillating” Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, have not yet found application. Others, such as capacitors, are so fundamental that it is impossible to imagine technology without them.

In his book “Homo Ludens” (1938), the Dutch art historian Johan Huizinga examines the role of play as a creative source in many areas of law, science, philosophy and art. Huizinga defines “Play” as “an action or occupation voluntarily adopted and accompanied by a feeling of excitement and pleasure and an awareness of being different from ordinary life.” According to Huizinga, play is the origin of all innovations, “the place of origin of all great cultural formations”. I agree with him on this, and also that “culture is only initially played”.

I quote Huizinga further: “In its games, the community expresses its interpretation of life and the world... This is not to be understood as meaning that play turns into culture, but rather that culture in its original phases has something playful about it, indeed that it is initially performed in the forms and mood of a game”. For Huizinga, dance, poetry and abstract art are examples of games that do not transform into technology, i. e. exceptions.

This book is intended as a supplement to Huizinga’s thoughts, which are philosophical, i. e. humanistic, while the following describes scientific examples from history. For almost all examples, as Huizinga emphasized, only play made the emergence of innovations possible. This book shows that these innovations later mostly found their way into technology.

In this context, an annual prize is to be awarded as part of a foundation set up by the author of this book. In the first instance, natural scientists of any age, education or nationality may apply. The work submitted should have no obvious technical or commercial application. From two equally good applications, the one that has been produced with the least financial and technical effort will be selected. The work should have been carried out in standard research institutions, such as universities and Max Planck Institutes, or at home.

Information for application to the prize can be found in www.gdch.de/mariomarkus.

I would like to thank Dr. Malte Schmick, (Max Planck Institute, Dortmund), Rainer Maria Gassen, as well as Dr. Ian Copestake for their careful factual corrections. For preparing the English manuscript and the prepress work I would like to thank the publisher Dr. Friedrich Pfeil and his coworker Dr. Maximilian Scheungrab.

Mario Markus was born in Chile in 1944 as the son of German-Jewish refugees. He studied physics in Heidelberg, where he also obtained his doctorate in 1973. He then worked as a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund and as a professor at the university there. He has written numerous publications in international journals on self-organization in physical, biological and chemical systems and has written books on the fusion of science and art. Further information is available at www.mariomarkus.com.