Editorial - Uncertainty

Hello Dear Reader, and welcome to Issue 2 of Consilience. 

We live in uncertain times… 

Is an all too common opening on most emails these days. And we, for one, are rather tired by this line and its variations. We have always lived in uncertain times; has there ever been a time in which everything has been entirely certain? 

Uncertainty is nothing new, but this lack of novelty does not make it any less alarming, nor any less essential. That’s right, essential; uncertainty is essential for the human condition. 

Take science. 

Science hinges upon uncertainty. The nature of science is to formulate questions, and seek answers; if uncertainty did not exist, what is the purpose of asking ‘why?’ It is deep within the paradoxical corridors of uncertainty that science does its boldest and most accomplished work. Uncertainty is a commodity that is to be cherished, not feared. As the Nobel laureate and physicist, Richard P Feynman observed:

“I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions.” 

Science is driven by uncertainty, its very existence relies on it. From the primordial soup of creation to the fundamental limits of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, science pursues uncertainty, it craves its potentials. Science is like a whale shark swimming in a sea of uncertainty; it knows it must keep swimming to survive, but doesn't know through what strange and invigorating substance it swims.

This is the role of poetry. 

Poetry scoops up a glug of this invigorating substance, puts it into a jar and places it on top of a faux marble mantlepiece, inviting us to look at it, observe it, play with it, tease it, understand it, and come to cherish it. 

In this, our second issue of Consilience, we present a series of poems that do just that. They tease out the uncertainty from the science that consumes it. In doing so they help us to see the fundamental role that uncertainty plays in scientific discourse, as well as the central tenet that it forms for the whole of humanity.

Consilience is also proud to present our exploration of the relationship between science, art, and uncertainty in partnership with our visual arts platform ConciliARTe. The cover art for this issue is a collaboration between water scientists Louise Arnal and Oriana Chegwidden, who traded high-powered computers for paint brushes to explore uncertainty through watercolour. Any pleasing parallels or delightful discontinuities in this collaborative cover art are all thanks to uncertainty.

We are all capable of making judgments in cases of uncertainty, and indeed some of the biggest blunders in communicating science have been when scientists have assumed that other members of society are not equally adept at doing so. From failing to listen to Cumbrian sheep farmers about their interpretation of uncertainties surrounding the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster, to the falsity that communicating uncertainty around COVID-19 will result in a lack of trust, it is clear that non-scientists are just as at swept up in the sea of uncertainty as their scientific counterparts.

As human beings we are uniquely equipped to adapt and thrive in these situations. We live in uncertain times, yes. But we always have. And we need only pick up the jars of uncertainty that are on display in this issue, hold them to the light, and feel comforted in the knowledge that uncertainty is what drives our entire existence. 

So, keep on swimming, and may our poems—and our poets—be a guide in helping you to better understand exactly what the hell this strange and uncertain sea is made of. 

The Consilience Team