Lingua e traduzione inglese 3

Technology intersemiotically: translating the language of science

The case of audiovisual products

Clearly, the novel Such is a sophisticated work of literature, and it’s really different from a product of mass culture. Other occasions in which we find references to Heisenberg’s principle are the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and the TV series Numb3rs. However, Brooke-Rose doesn’t try to make the text more comprehensible to her readers. On the contrary, other products are really different. For example, in the case of the language of physics, specialized discourse is rendered more ‘popular’ through an intralingual translation, so that it can be enjoyed by the masses. Popularizing strategies are used. We’ll see how Heisenberg’s Principle and the language of physics is adapted to the audiovisual format of TV products.

The representation of Heisenberg’s Principle

Here there is an extract taken from Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time regarding the Uncertainty Principle elaborated by Heisenberg.

The quantum hypothesis explained the observed rate of emission of radiation from hot bodies very well, but its implications for determinism were not realized until 1926, when another German scientist, Werner Heisenberg, formulated his famous uncertainty principle. In order to predict the future position and velocity of a particle, one has to be able to measure its present position and velocity accurately. The obvious way to do this is to shine light on the particle. Some of the waves of light will be scattered by the particle and this will indicate its position. However, one will not be able to determine the position of the particle more accurately than the distance between the wave crests of light, so one needs to use light of a short wavelength in order to measure the position of the particle precisely. Now, by Planck’s quantum hypothesis, one cannot use an arbitrarily small amount of light; one has to use at least one quantum.

This quantum will disturb the particle and change its velocity in a way that cannot be predicted. Moreover, the more accurately one measures the position, the shorter the wavelength of the light that one needs and hence the higher the energy of a single quantum. So the velocity of the particle will be disturbed by a larger amount. In other words, the more accurately you try to measure the position of the particle, the less accurately you can measure its speed, and vice versa. Heisenberg showed that the uncertainty in the position of the particle times the uncertainty in its velocity times the mass of the particle can never be smaller than a certain quantity, which is known as Planck’s constant. Moreover, this limit does not depend on the way in which one tries to measure the position or velocity of the particle, or on the type of particle: Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is a fundamental, inescapable property of the world.

Hawking realizes with his volunteers a video in order to explain the Heisenberg’s principle. The volunteers are standing on a grid composed by numbers on one side and letters on the other. There are several balloons on this grid. Hawking invites the volunteers to imagine that they are in the subatomic world and that an electron is the size of a balloon. The volunteers try to precisely locate the electrons on the grid, to find the exact position. An electron is so tiny that it can’t be seen directly (same as looking for something when you are blind). So, the volunteers wear masks on their eyes, they can’t see. They are now blind and try to find and catch the balloons but it’s too difficult. While they walk, the electrons/balloons move, they’re never in the same position.

What Hawking tries to show is that the lighter an object is, the harder it is to pin down. Everything is completely random, there’s no way to predict where the electrons/balloons are going. The experiment wants to show people that it’s impossible to find the balloons and put them in a specific position, as well as it’s impossible to locate something as tiny and light as an electron (whose position is therefore fundamentally unknowable).

In 1927 a German genius named Heisenberg came up with an idea called uncertainty principle, that suggested that the difficulty of locating small things points to a deeper reality. The behaviour of subatomic particles is indeed a bit uncertain and ill-defined, implying that the universe has randomness at its core. So, we can’t say that things in universe work like a clockwork.

In this clip from Genius by Stephen Hawking, the three volunteers look to discover if the laws of nature also apply to the tiniest structures in the subatomic world. By using balloons to act as electrons, the volunteers can replicate how electrons behave. The volunteers find that the lightness of these balloons makes them hard to catch, there is no constant in how the balloons behave which is similar to electrons. On the smallest of scales, matter behaves in a very strange and indistinct way, and there is a fundamental limitation to the accuracy with which the position and velocity of a microscopic particle can be known. The idea that there is randomness at the core of the universe is known as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

Naturally, the strategies adopted in fictional series are rather different, and we can observe the main differences between crime dramas and situation comedies in the way these notions are treated.

Numb3rs

In Numb3rs, we find a description of Heisenberg’s Principle which can be easily related to the book extract above. Numb3rs is an American crime drama which was broadcast from 2005 to 2010, for 6 seasons. It also follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his brother Charlie Eppes, a university professor of mathematics who helps his brother solving crimes for the FBI. Many notions from the specialized fields of mathematics and physics are introduced.

We saw a scene of the Pilot presenting the case of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Here there is the transcript of the definition given within the episode of the principle:

CHARLIE: ‘Heisenberg noted that the, uh, the act of observation will affect the observed. In other words, when you watch something, you change it. And, uh for example, like, an electron. You know, you can't really measure it without bumping into it in some small way. Any physical act of observation requires interaction with a form of energy, like light, and that will change the nature of the electron, its path of travel […] you've observed the robbers. They know it; that will change their actions’.

In this rather sophisticated series, the language fits the requirements of specialized language, and in each episode, we find one or more fundamental theorem. However, since there is always at least one character playing the role of the learner, the viewer finds explanations of the theories and is able to follow the episode and learn something new.

The Big Bang Theory

Differently, in The Big Bang Theory (where Sheldon explains specialized notions for Penny, his fellow scientists, and the extradiegetic audience), the didactic explanations of Numb3rs are replaced by shorter illustrations or mere definitions of the theorems. For instance, during the twenty-third episode of the second season, Sheldon introduces the uncertainty principle:

SHELDON: Well, now, here's a peculiar e-mail. The president of the university wants me to meet him at his office at 8 a.m.

LEONARD: Why?

SHELDON: Doesn't say. Must be an emergency. Everyone at the university knows I eat breakfast at 8 and move my bowels at 8:20.

LEONARD: Yes, how did we live before Twitter? I guess you'll find out what it is in the morning.

SHELDON: That's 14 hours away. For the next 840 minutes, I'm effectively one of Heisenberg's particles. I know where I am or how fast I'm going, but I can't know both.

Naturally, the situation comedy has to elicit the audience’s laughter and the comic effect depends on the viewer’s partial understanding of specific notions. So, the educational purpose is weak. However, thanks to a ‘popularized’ version of the principle, spectators can better understand Sheldon’s comment. We also analyzed an example in the fourth season, where we met the theoretical physicist Brian Greene, who plays himself in this episode. Here he is presenting his book at a conference in a bookstore. When he refers to the special-order menus of Chinese restaurants, he explains the uncertainty principle, and Sheldon and Amy ridicule him. Of course, the explanation is ‘too’ popular for the two scientists, but it can provide a useful exemplification for the general public. So, in this TV series, even if ‘incidentally’, spectators can learn some basic notions of physics and its language. Consequently, a situation comedy too can become a useful learning tool.

Supernova

To see how differently the language of physics can be translated intersemiotically, we can consider the British sitcom Supernova. In particular, the second episode, which focuses on the discovery of a wormhole (tunnel spaziale, buco nero) 14 billion years old, can be compared to extracts from the pilot of the documentary series Through the Wormhole, in order to observe the similarities between the two products in terms of language and of the visual point of view. There is a distinctive use of informal register and the two products share some linguistic traits.

The popularizing strategies exploited in the sitcom are different from those used in the products seen before, so it can provide other examples. In fact, it shares some aspects with both the documentary and other TV series. For example, the second episode of the first season is characterized by references to British culture and to the TV program Dr Who. There are references to the third Time Lord. Dr Who is a British production and it has become a cult series for science fiction fans and the references can be appreciated by many spectators. If the references to science fiction in The Big Bang Theory can be recognized by an international audience, the visual intertextual references to Dr Who relate to a niche public (di nicchia). So, the scenario activated by these references and their function are appreciated by a more restricted audience, also in the case to the ironic comments made in relation to the Doctor’s role (fundamentally the role of God).

Indeed, the whole episode is based on a misunderstanding caused by a failure in the equipment used by the protagonist, and it provides the main setting to the situation comedy. By analyzing the wormhole, Dr. Paul Hamilton believes he saw God’s face, proving his existence. In the end, we understand that the image appeared among the nebula was created by a crossing of signals between the equipment and the television broadcast featuring Dr. Who.

Moreover, the narrative of the episode concludes with...