The mind and language of a physicist

From 3-5 a.m. this morning I had the pleasure, indeed the honor, to listen to Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek being interviewed on the radio show Coast to Coast AM, a show on which you're more likely to hear a crackpot than a Nobel Prize winner, yet the only show I know that would give a physicist so much air time. Wilczek impressed me, as many scientists do, with his humility, unbridled curiosity, open-mindedness and wit. His language was filled with things like ... a working hypothesis, which has worked very well thus far ... nothing I know would support this ... I don't know enough to say one way or the other ... unless Nature is teasing us instead of teaching us -- language reflecting a bright, inquiring mind that will go where the evidence takes him. What a contrast to the political talk we get these days! Even Obama, who is far more measured in his remarks than other politicians, does not communicate the deep humility and fairness of Wilczek. The man has a book out, The Lightness of Being, which I plan to read. What a joy to listen to him! It almost, but not quite, renews my faith in humanity.