Mmm. Could this be about the last nighttime shuttle launch? Endeavor is scheduled to launch at 4:39 EST on Sunday morning. (I am planning on setting my alarm to watch the liftoff -but jeepers, that is early for a Sunday Morning.) Then there are three remaining flights before the final countdown. NASA took on the chin this week, with the President's budget canceling Moon 2.0.
I'm intrigued by Are We Witnessing the End of Science? Some believe that mankind has discovered everything but the Grand Unified Theorem and biology holds no new secrets. The Guardian article suggests that if true, there will never be another science revolution.
When was the last great discovery? Wiki tells us that Twitter was created in 2006. Okay, maybe that doesn't qualify. Was it the Double Helix? (Watson and Crick's famous discovery in 1953 that DNA has the structure of a double helix.) The Science Channel has a top 100 discoveries aggregated in eight different categories. #1 for physics is The Law of Falling Bodies. #1 for Astronomy is that The Planets Move. #1 for Biology is Microorganisms.
Perhaps the promoters of the idea have a point. With the world's population of 6.8 billion, compared to say, 1.5 billion in 1880, mankind has achieved very few discoveries in the past three decades. Some might point to the drugs ingested by rebellious youth of the 60s, fathering our present culture (and today's scientists), but I digress. For whatever reason, discovery has slowed down.
No more science means no miracle cures or solutions to population pressure and dwindling energy resources. It is certainly un-American. How do you solve problems if isn't through science?
{Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:31:57 AM EST
Endeavour will remain on the ground this morning after dynamic weather prompted the launch team to stand down for this attempt. It was partially cloudy in Central Florida, so the liftoff would not have been that visible.}
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