As a graduate student, more than 50 years ago, I heard Isidor Rabi make a fervent appeal to cultivate common ground, shared by science and liberal arts. Ever since, in my own teaching, I’ve strived to do what he urged: “Scientists must learn to teach … in the light of the history of human thought and human effort, rather than as the geography of a universe uninhabited by mankind.”
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This theme was admirably exemplified recently in science festivals held in Cambridge, Mass., (April 26–May 4) and in New York City (May 28–June 1), melding science with art, music, literature and drama, and in an elegant essay by Brian Greene (The New York Times, June 1). Here I make a kindred appeal.