Seeking Truth in Mystery
Scientific inquiry, at its core, is one of the purest expressions of truth-seeking. The purpose of science, much like leadership, is not to reduce the unknown to rational clarity…but to integrate it with the known, together in a living whole.
Recently I facilitated a retreat for 30 of the world’s leading quantum materials physicists. Their adaptive challenge: whether to shift from ‘science for the sake of science’ to ‘science for the sake of humanity’.
It’s reasonable to demand tangible outcomes from science, especially with public funding. In the US alone, nearly $1 trillion goes annually to scientific research. Of that, 20% comes from government funders who increasingly require proof that the research will have broader applications to society.
But this system risks stifling the creativity of science as an art with awe as its product. For some scientists, ‘science for humanity’s sake’ sounds suspiciously like code for profit-driven motives. They also ask, “Why must I promise a grand, profitable discovery before I can pay my rent?”
I recall the awe I felt in college while researching superconductors at Argonne National Laboratory, a bizarre world of quantum levitating objects and near ‘absolute zero’ temperatures. Just as bizarrely, my lab mates sometimes engaged in playful antics, spraying liquid nitrogen on each other’s shoes — and then stomping their shoelaces into crushed ice. It wasn’t the best use of taxpayer money, but it was funny as hell.
My career path into leadership obviously diverged from those early lab days. But the importance of humility and humor in the presence of the unknown has remained with me.
The universe, with its 95% mystery, invites us to accept that not all can be explained or controlled. Science and leadership embrace uncertainty, transforming fear into curiosity. Skepticism into wonder. The ordinary into the extraordinary. Mystery into truth.
Mystery is not something you can’t know. It is endless knowability. Living inside endless knowability is a final comfort and source of security. For most of us, it takes much of our life to get there.
