How I hate and fear science!

How I hate and fear science! October 3, 2018

 

The night sky at Paranal
The European Southern Observatory’s various sites in Chile — Paranal, La Silla, Chajnantor — boast enviably low levels of light pollution. However, the skies overhead are rarely pitch-black! As shown in this image of Paranal Observatory, the skies regularly display a myriad of colours and astronomical sights, from the plane of the Milky Way shining brightly overhead to the orange-hued speck of Mars (left), the starry constellations of Scorpius and Orion, and the magenta splash of the Carina Nebula (upper middle). Despite the remote location there are also occasional signs of human activity — for example, the sequence of lamps seen in the center of the frame. These faint lights illuminate the route from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), where this image was taken. Due to the highly sensitive camera used, this photograph also showcases a mysterious phenomenon called airglow. The night sky is ablaze with deep red and eerie green hues, caused by the faint glow of Earth’s atmosphere. Because of airglow, no observatory site on Earth can ever be absolutely, completely dark — although ESO’s do come pretty close. This image was taken by the astronomer and photographer Yuri Beletsky, a member of the 2016 ESO Fulldome Expedition team. This team visited Chile to gather spectacular images for use in the ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Center.    (ESO public domain photograph)

 

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2018 was announced yesterday.  It was apportioned between three people, including (at ninety-six) the oldest person ever to win a Nobel Prize and the first woman to win the Physics Prize in fifty-five years — and only the third to win it in the entire history of the Nobels.  Here are two articles summarizing what this year’s prize honors:

 

“This Is Why The 2018 Nobel Prize In Physics, For Lasers, Is So Important”

 

“Groundbreaking ways of manipulating light win trio the 2018 physics Nobel: The prize honors the inventions of optical tweezers and chirped pulse amplification”

 

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And two additional Nobel Prizes have just been announced, one in Chemistry and the other in Medicine or Physiology:

 

“Speeding up the evolution of proteins wins the chemistry Nobel: The work of the three new laureates is used in everything from drugs to biofuels”

 

“Cancer immunotherapy wins the 2018 medicine Nobel Prize: Two researchers are honored for therapies that unleash immune systems brakes against cancer”

 

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By the way, having just mentioned a very old scientist above, here’s an article that’s coincidentally relevant:

 

“Opinion: When Should Scientists Retire?  Members of the Global Young Academy discuss how later retirement of academics affects the younger generation.”

 

The problem, of course, doesn’t only affect the sciences.

 

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Those of you who live along the west coast of the United States or in other, similar, areas might want to read this and to take a lesson from it:

 

“Would the U.S. Tsunami Warning System Have Averted Indonesia’s Disaster?  Even the world’s best system “is really not a technological solution to the problem of a near-field tsunami.””

 

Posted from Park City, Utah

 

 


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