With his degrees in biology & society and creative writing, and a good deal of published poetry under his belt, Matthew Shindell, our Predoctoral Haas Fellow, may not seem to be an obvious candidate for a CHF fellowship. Yet his current research, which will eventually earn him a Ph.D. in history of science at the University of California, San Diego, marks him as an excellent mate on the Ship of Fellows: the subject of his scholarly affection is chemist and Nobel laureate Harold Urey—and not just his chemistry.

Urey, depicted in a children's book on his life **

“It would be tragic,” Urey said in 1956, “if science gave man the greatest view of the universe that he has ever had and destroyed the effectiveness of the teachings of our great religions.” *

Matthew is studying Urey’s attempts to keep religion in the scientific picture, a trait of the chemist that few are aware of today. These views influenced Urey’s interactions with his fellow scientists, especially the question of proper practice in science. Matthew argues that Urey’s perspective was an alternative to the more widely accepted cold war secularism.

How do science and religion go together, I hear you ask? Matthew will address this topic in his Brown Bag Lunch presentation in December, which is entitled “From the Small-Town Chapel to the Cathedrals of Cosmopolitan Science: Harold C. Urey, Religion, and Isotope Chemistry.” And in preparation, or just for the entertainment and education of it all, do cast your reading eyes over Mildred Cohn’s personal memories of working with Harold Urey in a back issue of Chemical Heritage magazine right here.

Matthew Shindell

But back to our fellow: seeing as it is October, and October (they tell me) looks like any number of other months in California, Matthew is really looking forward to seeing the seasons change while he muses about Urey and perhaps more poetry.

Here’s to many rustling autumn leaves, a few bouncy snowflakes (eventually), and nary a rainstorm in the coming months!

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* Quotation from Harold Urey, “The Intellectual Revolution,” 1956 revision, HCU Box 141, Folder 12, p. 18.

** Alvin & Virginia Silverstein, Harold Urey, the Man Who Explored From Earth to Moon (1971).