Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Magnetic Personalities

This morning in a hotel cafe in Amsterdam I overheard a pair of hard core scientists talking shop. The beauty of deep discussion is that you really don't notice anything around you -- I made a note to myself to strive to achieve such focus but ideally with slightly more discretion.

Their discussion was a passionate one about magnets. I figure they were physicists of some sort. Physicists are analogous to architects in the sense that physicists see themselves as the center of the universe of science -- architects have a similar claim to the universe of art and design. I'm glad that I'm neither a physicist nor an architect as it would be simply too much responsibility to bear on a daily basis.

One physicist said to the other, "You see, each magnet has a different personality ...." He referred to the unique magnetic profile and properties of each of his magnets as if they had distinct personalities like people. The other physicist eagerly listened on acknowledgingly. Although sitting three tables away, I could definitely sense their mutual attraction.

MIT Alum Jennifer Jamieson in NY comments, While I was doing my chemistry PhD at MIT, my labmates and I would often joke around about the way we personified our molecules. We would catch each other muttering away to the reaction flasks, sometimes pleading for the atoms to behave ("please! work!"), sometimes giving pep talks ("okay, now let's see what you can do!"), sometimes scolding (insert colorful language). I think we attributed human characteristics to the molecules only because they were so unpredictable... just like people, in a way.

And, the best part to me was that, just as a person will sometimes do something awe-inspiringly random (like an act of kindness)... so too, the chemistry would surprise in wonderful ways, magically yielding beautiful ruby-red crystals.