Bibliography

S. I. Vavilov, The Eye and the Sun (On Light, the Sun, and Vision). Fifth edition, revised and corrected. USSR Academy of Sciences, Popular-Science Series. Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow—Leningrad, 1950, 122 pp., 56 illus. and four portraits on separate plates, print run 25,000, price 4 rubles.

The posthumous awarding of the Stalin Prize, first class, to S. I. Vavilov for his scholarly works The Microstructure of Light and The Eye and the Sun was a new and vivid expression of recognition of his services in the construction of Soviet culture.

There is profound meaning in the fact that these two books have been grouped together: one of them is a monograph intended for the specialist, while the other is addressed to the broad reader*). S. I. Vavilov’s popularizing work is inseparable from his scientific creativity. As a popularizer, S. I. Vavilov always shared with his listeners and readers his deepest ideas and reflections. In 1949 S. I. Vavilov himself formulated his view of the nature of scientific literature as follows: “If in former times only a few—Galileo, Lomonosov, Euler, Mechnikov, Timiryazev—were able to write in such a way that they were understandable and deeply interesting both to specialized scholars and to wide circles, then in our time this must become obligatory for every Soviet scientist.”

The commonly known difficulties connected with the creation of genuinely high-quality popular scientific books are great. Authors often follow the line of least resistance, vulgarizing the basic scientific propositions and, in “descending” to the level of the reader, underestimating his abilities.

V. I. Lenin formulated with remarkable profundity the principle of correct, active popularization. He wrote: “The popular writer leads the reader to profound thought, to profound teaching, starting from the simplest and most generally known data, indicating, with the help of uncomplicated arguments or aptly chosen examples, the chief conclusions from these data, and prompting the thinking reader to further and further questions. The popular writer does not presuppose an unthinking reader, one who does not wish or is not able to think—on the contrary, he presupposes in the undeveloped reader a serious intention to work with his head and helps him to do this serious and difficult work, leads him, helping him to take the first steps and teaching him to proceed further independent-

*) A brief account of the contents of this book was published in Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk, Vol. XLIV, No. 1, 1951.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

...tive” *). Unfortunately, these Leninist instructions are far from always taken into account by the authors of popular-science books, which leads, at best, to the reader’s completely passive assimilation of the book’s material.

The book The Eye and the Sun can serve as a model of active popularization, when the reader is introduced into the circle of ideas that sincerely fascinate and excite the author of the book. It is, of course, quite “difficult,” i.e., it presupposes a serious intention to work “with one’s head,” but the reader who has worked with his head will be rewarded a hundredfold.

The book touches on a very broad range of problems, but all of them are united around a single core, which is aided by the author’s clear materialist orientation. In this book S. I. Vavilov appears as an active propagandist of the ideas of creative Marxism-Leninism. It is important to note that this is reflected not only in individual parts of the book, but also in its general orientation.

The book consists of a short introduction and three chapters: “Light,” “The Sun,” and “The Eye.” Each section is provided with expressive epigraphs, selected as only S. I. Vavilov could select them. The introduction is essentially devoted to the “optics of children and poets.” The range of sources drawn upon by S. I. Vavilov is enormous. Here there are ancient Egyptian hymns to the Sun and verses by Pushkin and Fet, Goethe and Yesenin. Alongside this there is a very interesting exposition of the theory of visual rays, taking into account the dialectic of the development of optics and showing the progressive role of this doctrine for the corresponding historical stage. The illustrations to the introduction have been chosen with great taste. In the introduction the breadth of S. I. Vavilov’s own interests is revealed with particular force.

The chapter “Light” begins with very vivid examples showing the inadequacy of simple visual sensations for a correct assessment of the properties of light. After these examples the reader becomes aware of the full magnitude of Newton’s achievements in the field of optics, and the reader no longer passively believes in these achievements, but begins to understand their concrete historical significance. M. V. Lomonosov’s arguments in favor of the wave theory of light are presented, and they sound quite modern and convincing, not as a mere historical reference.

The polarization of light is described in a fresh and interesting way. Here the example of observing polarized light from L. N. Tolstoy’s Youth with the naked eye is very curious.

Likewise, in connection with photochemical action, the quantum properties of light are explained clearly.

The chapter also touches, in an accessible form, even upon questions connected with the birth of pairs and with the nature of cosmic rays. The comparison of the birth of pairs with the “fairy-tale transformation of a melody into a violin” is remarkable.

The question of the unity of the corpuscular and wave properties is presented with broad and skillful use of philosophical statements by V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin. Here the dialectical character of this unity is shown with the utmost clarity; it is shown how the data of modern physics confirm the fundamental propositions of dialectical materialism. The relation between absolute and relative truths in the problem of the physical properties of matter is also emphasized. The reader is given a vivid conception of light and substance as two forms of matter. Very important is the remark, developed on pp. 34–44: “The very widespread opinion that in experiments of one type (for example, in Newton’s ring experiments) light fully behaves as wave motion, while in experiments of another type (for example, the fading of dyed fabric) light manifests itself entirely as a stream of particles, is, however, erroneous.” Indeed, both in popular and in textbook literature—

*) V. I. Lenin, Works, 4th ed., vol. 5, p. 285.

Such assertions, which are echoes of the idealist principle of complementarity, are often encountered. It is also important that S. I. Vavilov does not fetishize modern theory and points out to the reader its incompleteness. At the end of the chapter the features of the process of the development of science and its connection with practice are characterized.

The logical conclusion of the chapter is the classical formulation by I. V. Stalin of the problem of the knowability of the world and its laws. The chapter devoted to the Sun is also rich in content. The author unfolds before the reader a broad range of physical problems connected with the physics of the Sun and with the role of sunlight on the Earth. Along the way he examines a number of general physical problems. In particular, the question of mass and energy is connected with the works of P. N. Lebedev on light pressure. The role of light pressure in the structure of stars is shown vividly. The chapter also includes such recent data as the results of research on the radiation of the Sun with the aid of rockets and the analysis of nuclear reactions as sources of intrastellar energy.

The chapter is illustrated with excellent photographs of the Sun.

The chapter on the eye was perhaps the most difficult to write. This chapter brings together questions of purely physical, physiological, and even psychological vision. In addition, this chapter is not for nothing adorned with a fine portrait of Darwin; it is wholly permeated with the spirit of Darwinism. Drawings 32 and 33, characterizing the evolution of the eye in animals, are extremely expressive. S. I. Vavilov’s brilliant knowledge of the history of science is evident in this chapter as well. For example, what a striking touch—the “microscope of Leeuwenhoek with ‘lenses’ made of drops of honey.”

The role of “introducing cerebral corrections into the physical image of objects” is vividly outlined (Fig. 40). These questions are far from clear even to specialists in optics. The results of S. I. Vavilov’s well-known experiments on the observation of quantum fluctuations of light are organically included in the chapter’s content. The question of the relation between the Sun and the eye is set forth in a fascinating way, and the reader becomes acquainted with the basic problems of modern illumination engineering.

In presenting the latest data on all the problems touched upon, S. I. Vavilov, as in the preceding chapters, does not conceal from the reader questions that have not yet been resolved. For this reason the science of vision appears before the reader as living, struggling with difficulties, and not frozen in a dead peace. This manner of presentation makes the book interesting for the specialist reader as well.

The edition of the book under review is the fifth in order. Comparison with the old editions of 1927, 1932, 1938, and 1941 shows that the words “supplemented and corrected” reflect only to a slight degree the great work that S. I. Vavilov performed in preparing this last edition.

The remaining minor roughnesses will easily be eliminated by the editor of the next edition.

Without speaking of small misprints and slips, one should point out the need for some clarification of terminology in the question of mass and energy (p. 67). In general, however, the book is written in an excellent, vivid, and at the same time precise language.

S. I. Vavilov’s book is a brilliant example of how one should write popularly about the subtlest scientific problems. In essence it is a heartfelt conversation between a major scientist and a broad readership. In this conversation there rises before the reader, in all the diversity of its colors, and not in the form of abstract dry schemes, the whole grandeur of science, overcoming one difficulty after another. The book not only communicates to the reader, in an engaging form, a definite sum of

of useful knowledge, not only awakens the reader’s thought by showing science in its making, but, above all, cultivates in the reader a correct worldview. After reading such a book, the unity of the material world and the interconnection of phenomena acquire for the reader a concrete meaning, rich in vivid facts.

V. Fabrikant