4 February 2026

Arthur I Miller wrote an article in ‘The Spectator’ entitled, ‘Fact and Fiction’. It was all about the relationship between science and drama. He highlighted several recent plays which explore a scientific or mathematical theme. He highlighted ‘Arcadia’ by the late Tom Stoppard.

In the article, he talks about a letter which Michael Baum, Professor emeritus of surgery and visiting professor of medical humanities at UCL,  wrote to the Times following the death of the playwright. He had seen the play and it had a profound impact upon him. I searched the internet for the letter – and here it is:

‘Sir, In 1993 my wife and I went to see the first production of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard and in the interval I experienced a Damascene conversion. As a clinical scientist I was trying to understand the enigma of the behaviour of breast cancer, the assumption being that it grew in a linear trajectory spitting off metastases on its way.

In the first act of Arcadia, Thomasina asks her tutor, Septimus, ‘If there is an equation for a curve like a bell, there must be an equation for one like a bluebell, and if a bluebell, why not a rose?’ With that Stoppard explains chaos theory, which better explains the behaviour of breast cancer.

At the point of diagnosis, the cancer must have already scattered cancer cells into the circulation that nest latent in distant organs. The consequence of that hypothesis was the birth of ‘adjuvant systemic chemotherapy’, and rapidly we saw a striking fall of the curve that illustrated patients’ survival.’

It takes great skill to reimagine complex mathematics in a play which not only entertains but inspires a medical practitioner to see his sphere of expertise in a completely  new light. It revolutionised breast cancer care and outcomes. The Professor concluded, ‘Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia.’