Shades of Grey

Erin Sams, Erin Carver, Matt Wilson, and Daniel Factor


In March 1926 Werner Heisenberg formulated a principle that changed the outlook of science.  The Uncertainty Principle states that the act of measuring certain properties of an object affects the values of related properties in an unpredictable way.  The effect is so great at the atomic level that measuring a particle's velocity changes its position completely.  As a result, the perception of science as a system of absolutes changed to one of probabilities.

In the play Copenhagen by Michael Frayn Heisenberg talks with Niels Bohr about the events surrounding the development of the Uncertainty Principle. He explains to Bohr that, "…you have no absolutely determinate situation in the world, which among other things lays waste to the idea of causality, the whole foundation of science - because if you don't know how things are today you certainly can't know how they're going to be tomorrow." It's also true that if we don't know how things were yesterday, we can't be sure of why things are how they are today or how they'll be tomorrow. The same idea applies to ecology. By studying the world today, we introduce our own impact on the system and steer what we observe farther from its natural course.


The Maldives from above.  The reef atolls extend no more than a few meters above sea level, and local concerns about climate change are increasing. 
Photo: Matt Wilson.


As we have traveled around the world we have observed the impacts that people are having on the environment around them, and are in a unique position to evaluate the possible impacts.  When we visited the Maldives, where a tsunami has already inundated several islands, we all contemplated the predictions of sea level changes from global warming that could place the entire country under water in the near future.  Changes at the atomic level are "uncertain" because of the number of variables that can affect them.  Similarly, the Earth's climate is a system so complex that the effects of small changes cannot yet be predicted.  In Dubai, the influx of oil money from western countries has resulted in the explosion of an urban center with limited resources and no traditions of how to utilize them effectively in a harsh desert environment.



The waterfront in Dubai, where a modern city has sprung up in the past decade. 
Photo: Matt Wilson.

According to Copenhagen, Heisenberg discovers the Uncertainty Principal when he is finally able to place himself in the role of an outside observer.  One cold February night in Faelled Park Heisenberg equates himself to a particle, as he states "...what we see in the cloud chamber are not even collisions themselves, but the water droplets that condense around them, as big as cities [countries] around a traveler."  On our own travels we have discovered how difficult it is to remove ourselves from our immediate situation and see the big picture.  It is easy to see the effects of draught on the bird sanctuary of Bharatphur in India or those of deforestation on the Aegean coast of Turkey, but not as simple a proposal to extrapolate the effects those changes will have on the planet as a whole and its inhabitants.  We can see bits and pieces, but the future is still uncertain.


A pumping station at the Baratphur bird sanctuary in India.  Recent drought has led to a reduction in tourism income,  so wells are being used to maintain the wetlands.  Photo:  Daniel Factor.


"With the uncertainty of thoughts does have in common with the uncertainty of particles is that the difficulty is not just a practical one, but a systematic limitation which cannot even in theory be circumvented." You cannot figure out logic by looking at the product of logic. Even though we have been able to see the effects of climate change over the past 80 days of our travels we are still not entirely sure how the continual change will effect the environment our the cultures that live in those environments.   

Daniel Factor
dcfactor at gmail.com
Last Modified 23 Mar 2008