Word: dyson
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Between this rock and a hard place, British-born Physicist Freeman Dyson makes a spirited stand for optimism. Will our species end in fire or ice? Fire, the author concedes, would pose a difficult problem, but man might be able to overcome ice: "It is easier to keep warm on Pluto than to keep cool on Venus." Will we blow ourselves up? Probably not: "We shall abolish nuclear weapons, not by a sudden outburst of peace and goodwill but by a slow process of erosion. The weapons will be abolished as the missions for which they were designed come...
...Dyson's good cheer seems rigorously earned. For 35 years he has been a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., where his colleagues have included the likes of Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kurt Godel and John von Neumann. Dyson has had an intimate look at upheavals of contemporary science ranging from advances in particle physics and molecular biology to space travel and artificial intelligence. His long career in the ivory tower has not made him a reflexive defender of his elite brotherhood. "I detest and abhor," he writes, "the academic snobbery which places pure scientists...
...uncanny knack for dazzling Congressmen with his charm and righteousness, even as he squeezed painful concessions out of them. But last week the once cocky cajoler seemed humble, even desperate. To some he was a figure of pathos. "I felt almost bad for him," said Democratic Congressman Roy Dyson of Maryland, one of several lawmakers who met with Reagan in the Oval Office last week. "I remember the power he had and the influence he had. There wasn't anything new he could tell...
...Americans felt no need to spend hundreds of dollars to install computers in their homes, and chief executives of FORTUNE 500 companies began insisting that underlings make better use of the plethora of machines they had already purchased. "They bought too much and ended up with indigestion," explains Esther Dyson, an industry consultant. "Now they've digested lunch and are getting ready for supper...
...plans to contribute by supplementing the salary of the project's executive director, Urban Studies Professor Alan Dyson. The Partnership has an initial budget of $54,000, raised from business and academic contributions. Heroux said Harvard had given $5000 to the fund, in addition to its new fellowship program for teachers...