The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is another world, distinguished not only by the brainpower of its matriculants, but by its culture. In a world where "very smart" is the default mode, feats of genius (and hacks of all sorts) are appreciated much in the way that touchdown passes are honored at the University of Miami. It's hard to describe, but Fred Hapgood comes very close to nailing it by relating the following anecdote.
It seems one student came from a clan with a weird habit: When displaying approval or contentment in family circles, one mooed like a cow. One day the student forgot himself and bleated out this bovine call. As Hapgood tells it, "To his surprise, instead of ridiculing him, the other students thought that was really witty, that mooing was totally apt, and they picked up the practice. Soon mooing was heard all over his dorm, and here and there in the larger campus, the lecture halls, and library stacks."
Up the Infinite Corridor waltzes deftly around this MIT culture, particularly as it intersects with the art of engineering. The title refers to the long, tradition-drenched hallway that runs straight through several campus buildings, branching off to other corridors. Down each passageway is a new way of looking at nature. Hapgood writes well and has certainly grasped the essence of this national treasure.
Up the Infinite Corridor: MIT and the Technical Imagination, Fred Hapgood, US$22.95. Addison-Wesley: +1 (617) 944 3700.
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