Des del punt de vista d'un científic, la comunicació científica entre col·legues significa la possibilitat de reconeixement dels postulats que es desprenen de la seva recerca, és la ciència de dia, la quietud de la ciència impresa. Però hi ha una altra ciència, la de nit, que comporta tota la part creativa i emotiva de la ciència.For the scientist, science communication between colleagues entails the possibility to make research known, which is day science. But there is another science, night science, which involves the creative and emotional part of science

Jacob, François

Hemeroteca Cientifica Catalana

For the scientist, the theme of this issue,Science communication, has two aspects:communication of his results to other scien-tists and communication of the generaltrends of science to the general public. Inthis assay, I will address the first aspectonly.For a researcher, it is not enough to doexperiments, obtain facts, use them to forma theory. He must also make these resultsknown. Convince his colleagues of the im-portance of his work, of the value of his the-ory. In short, he must seize every opportun-ity to advertise, to peddle his wares. ExposeFROM NIGHT BUSTLE TO PRINTED QUIETNESSFRANÇOIS JACOBInstitut PasteurAddress: Institut Pasteur. 25, rue du Dr. Roux. 75724 Paris. CEDEX 15.E-mail: fjacob@pasteur.frRESUMDes del punt de vista d’un científic, la comunicació científica entre col·legues significa lapossibilitat de reconeixement dels postulats que es desprenen de la seva recerca, és la cièn-cia de dia, la quietud de la ciència impresa. Però hi ha una altra ciència, la de nit, que com-porta tota la part creativa i emotiva de la ciència.Paraules clau: ciència / comunicació / recerca / ciència de dia / ciència de nit.SUMMARYFor the scientist, science communication between colleagues entails the possibility tomake research known, which is day science. But there is another science, night science,which involves the creative and emotional part of science.Keywords: science / communication / research / day science / night science.Comunicar ciència(C. Junyent, ed.)Treballs de la SCB. Vol. 51 (2001) 11-16it to public criticism and commentary. Tojealousy as well. For “what makes the pro-fession of research irksome”, said AndréLwoff, “are the discoveries of others!”Once admitted, once taught, science iscold. As cold as the techniques that derivefrom it. As cold as the texts explaining itscontent or the books reporting its history.Science in books has two aspects, whichcould be called day science and night sci-ence. Day science employs reasoning thatsnaps together like gears, and achieves re-sults with the force of certainty. One ad-mires its majestic arrangements as onewould a da Vinci painting or a Bach fugue.One walks about in it as in a formal Frenchgarden. Conscious of its progress, proud ofits past, sure of its future, day science ad-vances in light and glory.Night science, on the other hand, wan-ders blindly. It hesitates, stumbles, fallsback, sweats, wakes with a start. Doubtingeverything, it feels its way, questions itself,constantly pulls itself together. It is a sort ofworkshop of the possible where the futurebuilding materials of science are made.Where hypotheses take the form of vaguepremonitions, of hazy sensations. Wherephenomena are still mere solitary eventswith no link between them. Where theplans for experiments have barely takenshape. Where thought proceeds along sinu-ous paths, winding streets, most often blindalleys. At the mercy of chance, the mindfrets in a labyrinth, deluged with messages,in its quest for a sign, a wink, an unexpectedconnection. Like a prisoner in a cell, it pacesabout, looking for a way out, a glimmer oflight. Ceaselessly, it plunges from hope todisappointment, from exaltation to melan-choly. It is impossible to predict whethernight science will ever attain the day condi-tion. Whether the prisoner will emergefrom the dark. When that happens, it hap-pens fortuitously, out of the blue. By sur-prise, like spontaneous combustion. Nomatter where, no matter when, like thun-der. What guides the mind, then, is not log-ic. It is instinct, intuition. It is the need to seeclearly. It is the stubborn desire to live. Inthat endless inner dialogue, amidst the in-numerable suppositions, connections, com-binations, associations that constantly flashthrough the mind, a beam of light some-times rends the darkness. Suddenly, thelandscape shines with a blinding light, ter-rifying, stronger than a thousand suns. Theinitial shock spawns a hard struggle withthe habits of thought. A conflict with theuniverse of concepts that governs our rea-soning. One is not yet authorised to saywhether the new hypothesis will get be-yond its initial form of a rough sketch andbecome refined, perfected. Whether it willwithstand the test of logic. Whether it willgain admission to day science.How does one describe a piece of re-search work? How does one retrieve an idéefixe, a constant obsession? How does onerecreate a thought centred on a tiny frag-ment of the universe, on a “system” thatone turns over and over to view from everyangle? How, above all, does one recapturethe sense of a maze with no way out, the in-cessant quest for a solution, without refer-ring to what later proved to be the solutionin all its dazzling obviousness? Of that lifeof worry and agitation, there lingers mostoften only a cold, sad story, a sequence ofresults carefully organised to make logicalwhat was scarcely so at the time. Faces andwords associated with certain events alsosurvive. Days, too, that have emerged fromthe greyness. Days lived with greater force,intensity; days that remained on the level ofconsciousness.There is a style in science. As in art, in lit-erature, in painting. Not just a way of look-ing at the world, but also questioning it. Away of acting with regard to nature and of12 FRANÇOIS JACOBtalking about it. Of concocting experiments,executing them, drawing conclusions, for-mulating theories. Furnishing them with ashape from which a story may be drawn, beit spoken or written. There is an infinite va-riety of styles. Direct or convoluted. Con-cise or multifaceted. A workman’s style or acavalryman’s. An eagle’s or a mole’s. A vi-sionary’s or a follower’s. A great lord’s or ashopkeeper’s. A paranoiac’s or a melan-cholic’s.Endless discussions yet again. But thistime about writing. About putting this massof data gathered over three years in order.About giving it shape. Creating a storyfrom it: the official transcript of this re-search. A story with enough force, enoughpersuasiveness to convince the rest. To getthem to adopt our point of view and shedlight on their own research.A strange exercise. Science is above all aworld of ideas in motion. To write an ac-count of research is to immobilise theseideas; to freeze them, like describing a horserace with a snapshot. It is also to transformthe very nature of the research; to formaliseit. To substitute an orderly train of conceptsand experiments for a jumble or disorderedefforts, of attempts born of a desperate ea-gerness to see more clearly; and also of vi-sions, dreams, unexpected connections; ofsimplifications often childish, randomsoundings in every direction, never know-ing where one is going to end up. In short,writing a paper is substituting order for thedisorder and agitation that animate life inthe laboratory. Nevertheless, as the workprogresses, how can we not seek to ac-knowledge the roles of chance and inspira-tion? But to get some work accepted and anew way of thinking adopted, it is neces-sary to purify the research of all affective orirrational dross. To get rid of any personalscent, any human smell. To proceed on theroyal way that leads from babbling youth toblooming maturity. To replace the real or-der of events and discoveries with what ap-pears as the logical order, the one thatshould have been followed had the conclu-sion been known from the start. There is aritual in the manner of presenting scientificresults. Rather as if one were writing thehistory of a war using only the official pressreleases of the general staff.BIBLIOGRAFIAJACOB, F. (1986). La lógica de lo viviente. Barcelona: SalvatEditores.— (1989). La estatua interior. Barcelona: Tusquets edito-res.— (1990). Posiblearen Jokoa. [s. ll.]: Editorial Elkar.— (1997). El juego de lo posible: ensayo sobre la diversidadde los seres vivos. Barcelona: Grijalbo.— (1997). El miedo a la democracia. Barcelona: Grijalbo.— (1998). El ratolí, la mosca i l’home. Barcelona: Edicions62. [Versió castellana: (1998). El ratón, la mosca y elhombre. Barcelona: Crítica]ABOUT THE AUTORFrançois Jacob discovered, with AndréLwoff and Jacques Monod, the role of mes-senger RNA and mechanisms of gene-tic regulation in bacteria. For these discover-ies they were awarded the Nobel Prize ofPhysiology or Medicine in 1965. Besides hiswork in research, François Jacob has writtenseveral books of science dissemination: Lalogique du vivant; Une histoire de l’hérédité andLe souris, la mouche et l’homme; and a book ofmemories, La statue interierur. He is an hon-orary member of the Catalan Society of Bio-logy.FROM NIGHT BUSTLE TO PRINTED QUIETNESS 13

Catalan

From night bustle to printed quietness

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

For the scientist, the theme of this issue,
Science communication, has two aspects:
communication of his results to other scien-
tists and communication of the general
trends of science to the general public. In
this assay, I will address the first aspect
only.
For a researcher, it is not enough to do
experiments, obtain facts, use them to form
a theory. He must also make these results
known. Convince his colleagues of the im-
portance of his work, of the value of his the-
ory. In short, he must seize every opportun-
ity to advertise, to peddle his wares. Expose
FROM NIGHT BUSTLE TO PRINTED QUIETNESS
FRANÇOIS JACOB
Institut Pasteur
Address: Institut Pasteur. 25, rue du Dr. Roux. 75724 Paris. CEDEX 15.
E-mail: fjacob@pasteur.fr
RESUM
Des del punt de vista d’un científic, la comunicació científica entre col·legues significa la
possibilitat de reconeixement dels postulats que es desprenen de la seva recerca, és la cièn-
cia de dia, la quietud de la ciència impresa. Però hi ha una altra ciència, la de nit, que com-
porta tota la part creativa i emotiva de la ciència.
Paraules clau: ciència / comunicació / recerca / ciència de dia / ciència de nit.
SUMMARY
For the scientist, science communication between colleagues entails the possibility to
make research known, which is day science. But there is another science, night science,
which involves the creative and emotional part of science.
Keywords: science / communication / research / day science / night science.
Comunicar ciència
(C. Junyent, ed.)
Treballs de la SCB. Vol. 51 (2001) 11-16
it to public criticism and commentary. To
jealousy as well. For “what makes the pro-
fession of research irksome”, said André
Lwoff, “are the discoveries of others!”
Once admitted, once taught, science is
cold. As cold as the techniques that derive
from it. As cold as the texts explaining its
content or the books reporting its history.
Science in books has two aspects, which
could be called day science and night sci-
ence. Day science employs reasoning that
snaps together like gears, and achieves re-
sults with the force of certainty. One ad-
mires its majestic arrangements as one
would a da Vinci painting or a Bach fugue.
One walks about in it as in a formal French
garden. Conscious of its progress, proud of
its past, sure of its future, day science ad-
vances in light and glory.
Night science, on the other hand, wan-
ders blindly. It hesitates, stumbles, falls
back, sweats, wakes with a start. Doubting
everything, it feels its way, questions itself,
constantly pulls itself together. It is a sort of
workshop of the possible where the future
building materials of science are made.
Where hypotheses take the form of vague
premonitions, of hazy sensations. Where
phenomena are still mere solitary events
with no link between them. Where the
plans for experiments have barely taken
shape. Where thought proceeds along sinu-
ous paths, winding streets, most often blind
alleys. At the mercy of chance, the mind
frets in a labyrinth, deluged with messages,
in its quest for a sign, a wink, an unexpected
connection. Like a prisoner in a cell, it paces
about, looking for a way out, a glimmer of
light. Ceaselessly, it plunges from hope to
disappointment, from exaltation to melan-
choly. It is impossible to predict whether
night science will ever attain the day condi-
tion. Whether the prisoner will emerge
from the dark. When that happens, it hap-
pens fortuitously, out of the blue. By sur-
prise, like spontaneous combustion. No
matter where, no matter when, like thun-
der. What guides the mind, then, is not log-
ic. It is instinct, intuition. It is the need to see
clearly. It is the stubborn desire to live. In
that endless inner dialogue, amidst the in-
numerable suppositions, connections, com-
binations, associations that constantly flash
through the mind, a beam of light some-
times rends the darkness. Suddenly, the
landscape shines with a blinding light, ter-
rifying, stronger than a thousand suns. The
initial shock spawns a hard struggle with
the habits of thought. A conflict with the
universe of concepts that governs our rea-
soning. One is not yet authorised to say
whether the new hypothesis will get be-
yond its initial form of a rough sketch and
become refined, perfected. Whether it will
withstand the test of logic. Whether it will
gain admission to day science.
How does one describe a piece of re-
search work? How does one retrieve an idée
fixe, a constant obsession? How does one
recreate a thought centred on a tiny frag-
ment of the universe, on a “system” that
one turns over and over to view from every
angle? How, above all, does one recapture
the sense of a maze with no way out, the in-
cessant quest for a solution, without refer-
ring to what later proved to be the solution
in all its dazzling obviousness? Of that life
of worry and agitation, there lingers most
often only a cold, sad story, a sequence of
results carefully organised to make logical
what was scarcely so at the time. Faces and
words associated with certain events also
survive. Days, too, that have emerged from
the greyness. Days lived with greater force,
intensity; days that remained on the level of
consciousness.
There is a style in science. As in art, in lit-
erature, in painting. Not just a way of look-
ing at the world, but also questioning it. A
way of acting with regard to nature and of
12 FRANÇOIS JACOB
talking about it. Of concocting experiments,
executing them, drawing conclusions, for-
mulating theories. Furnishing them with a
shape from which a story may be drawn, be
it spoken or written. There is an infinite va-
riety of styles. Direct or convoluted. Con-
cise or multifaceted. A workman’s style or a
cavalryman’s. An eagle’s or a mole’s. A vi-
sionary’s or a follower’s. A great lord’s or a
shopkeeper’s. A paranoiac’s or a melan-
cholic’s.
Endless discussions yet again. But this
time about writing. About putting this mass
of data gathered over three years in order.
About giving it shape. Creating a story
from it: the official transcript of this re-
search. A story with enough force, enough
persuasiveness to convince the rest. To get
them to adopt our point of view and shed
light on their own research.
A strange exercise. Science is above all a
world of ideas in motion. To write an ac-
count of research is to immobilise these
ideas; to freeze them, like describing a horse
race with a snapshot. It is also to transform
the very nature of the research; to formalise
it. To substitute an orderly train of concepts
and experiments for a jumble or disordered
efforts, of attempts born of a desperate ea-
gerness to see more clearly; and also of vi-
sions, dreams, unexpected connections; of
simplifications often childish, random
soundings in every direction, never know-
ing where one is going to end up. In short,
writing a paper is substituting order for the
disorder and agitation that animate life in
the laboratory. Nevertheless, as the work
progresses, how can we not seek to ac-
knowledge the roles of chance and inspira-
tion? But to get some work accepted and a
new way of thinking adopted, it is neces-
sary to purify the research of all affective or
irrational dross. To get rid of any personal
scent, any human smell. To proceed on the
royal way that leads from babbling youth to
blooming maturity. To replace the real or-
der of events and discoveries with what ap-
pears as the logical order, the one that
should have been followed had the conclu-
sion been known from the start. There is a
ritual in the manner of presenting scientific
results. Rather as if one were writing the
history of a war using only the official press
releases of the general staff.
BIBLIOGRAFIA
JACOB, F. (1986). La lógica de lo viviente. Barcelona: Salvat
Editores.
— (1989). La estatua interior. Barcelona: Tusquets edito-
res.
— (1990). Posiblearen Jokoa. [s. ll.]: Editorial Elkar.
— (1997). El juego de lo posible: ensayo sobre la diversidad
de los seres vivos. Barcelona: Grijalbo.
— (1997). El miedo a la democracia. Barcelona: Grijalbo.
— (1998). El ratolí, la mosca i l’home. Barcelona: Edicions
62. [Versió castellana: (1998). El ratón, la mosca y el
hombre. Barcelona: Crítica]
ABOUT THE AUTOR
François Jacob discovered, with André
Lwoff and Jacques Monod, the role of mes-
senger RNA and mechanisms of gene-
tic regulation in bacteria. For these discover-
ies they were awarded the Nobel Prize of
Physiology or Medicine in 1965. Besides his
work in research, François Jacob has written
several books of science dissemination: La
logique du vivant; Une histoire de l’hérédité and
Le souris, la mouche et l’homme; and a book of
memories, La statue interierur. He is an hon-
orary member of the Catalan Society of Bio-
logy.
FROM NIGHT BUSTLE TO PRINTED QUIETNESS 13


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