THE PARADOX OF CHOICE 



programs is worrisome, but it can never be as serious as when 

 there is no theory at all. We now have some notable examples 

 or what can happen then. One with which I am especially 

 familiar concerns radioastronomy, founded by Karl Jansky some 

 twenty-five years ago. The reports of his discovery have become 

 clouded, probably because of his early, untimely, death. Many 

 versions of them would seem to demonstrate deep hazards in 

 the paradox of choice. This is indeed starkly asserted in a 

 federal report on "Basic Research, a National Resource," issued 

 in 1957, which says: "It should be pointed out that Jansky 

 failed to obtain support for studies which at that time had no 

 obvious applications to practical matters." The cutting phrase 

 "no obvious applications to practical matters" is, of course, ir- 

 relevant in the case cited, but it does bring out our present cen- 

 tral theme. 



Fortunately, an authentic account on "Early History of 

 Radio Astronomy" has recently been published by my colleague, 

 Dr. G. C. South worth, inventor of the waveguide. In The 

 Scientific Monthly for February 1956, Dr. Southworth docu- 

 ments the case that Jansky found conditions encouraging to 

 make precise, detailed, exploration wp to the limits of knowledge 

 of how to do it at that time, concerning the murmurinos of the 

 universe which he had heard. As techniques and understand- 

 ing advanced, there were further studies by his associates some- 

 time after Jansky's death. The real issue was that we did not 

 have theoretical understanding of the possible sources of such 

 signals, or of the basic physics necessary to extend the study of 

 these effects. Thus in the atmosphere of the laboratory in which 

 Jansky worked there was not yet available this general fabric 

 of concept and interrelationship, that is, of physical theory, to 

 indicate how to have significant further pursuit of radio- 

 astronomy. For instance, it was many years after Jansky's ex- 

 periments that Professor Charles Townes, then a member of 



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