Cycles
in Science and Cycles in Music
In
these four cases I entertain the notion that
cycles in science are related to cycles in music.
This idea came to me in during work on Sergei
Vinogradskii, who trained as a musician and
continued to play music throughout his long
life (1856-1953) and scientific career (six
decades). In 1896, Vinogradskii gave a popular
talk at the Institute of Experimental Medicine
in St. Petersburg, Russia. At this medical institute
he directed the laboratory of general microbiology
and investigated the role of microbes in soil
processes such as nitrification, which are important
to agriculture. In his talk, entitled "On
the Role of Microbes in the General Cycle of
Life," he revealed his commitment to a
worldview in which microbes were the "agents"
that drove the circulation of matter and energy
in nature from the atmosphere, to plants, to
animals, and back again into the atmosphere.
This is a variation on a much older concept
of the economy of nature from the seventeenth
century, and the ancient theological idea of
Resurrection or "from earth to earth, ashes
to ashes, dust to dust." There is no evidence
that Vinogradskii explicitly correlated the
microbial "cycle of life" with "song
cycles," but, in his daily routine and
mentality, music and science were woven tightly
woven together. |