Goodstein, Judith R.

Name not available

scientist or engineer is not truly complete 
without this awareness. 
What I am saying is that the humani- 
ties deserved just as much devotion to 
study as my science courses did. Just 
telling myself that even though I did all 
the tests in the sciences and humanities 
honestly (except maybe taking a little 
longer on some tests than allowed) 
doesn't justify in my mind that I wasn't 
guilty of breaking the honor system. 
Many reasons could be given, I guess, 
to say that I had just cause to bend the 
rules a little for a necessary end. 
But the end doesn't justify the means, 
for if I believed otherwise I wouldn't be 
writing this letter. 
A personal evaluation might be that the 
entering of Caltech and the temporary 
modification of my beliefs and ethics 
was a manifestation of Peter's Principle 
-namely, rising to the level of my 
incompetency. I entered Caltech from a 
junior college (where I was doing very 
well) and in due course became almost 
emotionally "poleaxed from the extreme 
work load and separation from home. 
In time this "percussive sublimation" 
seemed to erode away my feelings of 
personal achievement and identification 
brought in from the other school. But 
I'm sure my story is not unique, 
particularly in view of the statistic that 
one out of four fail or drop out before 
reaching the end of the fourth year. 
This letter is not written with the hint 
to ease the Caltech workload, but to keep 
it tough. My personality problems at 
that time are no reason that the school 
curriculum should be changed. Either 
you survive or you don't. I look back 
and see that the experience made me 
mature very fast, but not without the 
aforementioned growing pains. 
You may think that this letter is very 
strange to send after so many years out 
of school. Possibly so, but it means a 
great deal to me, for if I didn't believe 
that the previous mentioned change in 
my beliefs and ethics was temporary I 
couldn't write this letter. The fact that 
I have written it tells me that I still can 
admit an error in judgment and behavior. 
My basic reason for writing is to 
admit a past wrong against the Caltech 
honor system. Furthermore, I want to  
reaffirm the Caltech policy of heavy 
humanities. For I can look back at my 
time at Caltech and see that those 
courses have done much to shape my 
thinking. I wish that I had taken the 
humanities more seriously then instead of 
viewing them as a "necessary evil." 
I will finish by saying that if you have 
ever asked the question, "Am I getting 
through to those science-oriented 
students?," take it from me that you did 
get to this one. 
NAME WITHHELD 
Books 
ALFRED NOBEL, 
THE LONELIEST MILLIONAIRE 
By Michael Evlanoff and Marjorie Fluor 
The Ward Ritchie Press. . . . . . . . $10.00 
Reviewed by Dr. Judith Goodstein, 
Institute Archivist. 
This book about Alfred Nobel 
and prizes that bear his name adds little 
to our fund of understanding about 
science or its impact on society. Authors 
Evlanoff and Fluor explore briefly 
Nobel's career as an inventor of explo- 
sives, including dynamite and blasting 
gelatin; there are also chapters dealing 
with Nobel's family-tree; thumbnail 
sketches of several prize winners; and 
Evlanoff's reminiscences of life in the 
Caucasus, working for Alfred Nobel's 
nephew, Emmanuel. Scant attention is 
paid to the development of his scientific 
thinking, his changing ideas about peace 
movements and disarmament confer- 
ences, or how he came to the idea of 
setting up annual awards to honor those 
making the "greatest services to 
mankind" in the fields of physics, 
chemistry, physiology and medicine, 
literature, and the cause of peace. 
DISCOVERY, INVENTION, RESEARCH 
THROUGH THE MORPHOLOGICAL APPROACH 
By Fritz Zwicky 
The Macmillan Company . . . . . . . $6.95 
Solutions to our scientific, technical, 
and social problems can be found in the 
study of the structural interrelationships 
that exist among all ideas, objects, 
concepts, and phenomena, according 
to this book on the advantages of 
morphological research and planning. 
The problems of designing a telescope, 
an automobile, a power plant, and a 
possible model of the universe, are 
among the suggested instances in which 
integrated engineering, collaboration 
between the sciences and the humanities. 
and an evaluation of available human 
resources might yield the most objective 
and efficient methods of problem-solving. 
Zwicky, professor of astrophysics 
emeritus at Caltech, hopes, in time, to 
subject all types of problems to such 
analyses "in order to find the most 
reliable ways to successfully plan and 
construct a unified and organically 
sound world." 
A HISTORY OF EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA 
TO THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY 
By Basil Davidson 
Anchor Books. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.95 
Beginning with the early African 
Stone Age this history follows the growth 
and expansion of the indigenous East 
and Central African civilizations through 
periods of migration, settlement, 
European colonization, and the final 
emergence at the close of the last century 
of some modern nation-states. Basing 
his writing on the most recent 
archaeological findings and an extensive 
background knowledge, the author 
presents a fresh approach to understand- 
ing the current political, economic, and 
cultural circumstances of the central and 
eastern regions through a cohesive and 
penetrating examination of the African 
past. 
Basil Davidson, visiting lecturer in 
African studies at Caltech, gave the 
November 24 Beckman Lecture, 
"The African Heritage of the American 
Black Man." Among his other books on 
related subjects are: The African Genius: 
An Introduction to African Cultural 
History, and A History of West Africa. 


Alfred Nobel, The Loneliest Millionaire

http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2774/1/books.pdf

Alfred Nobel, The Loneliest Millionaire

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