Word: galileo
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...dramatically demonstrated the vulnerability of space launches. Not surprisingly, many scientists are bothered by the idea of putting these two technologies together. In 1989, antinuclear activists, protesting potential "Chernobyls in the skies," organized the first civil-disobedience demonstrations aimed at halting a U.S. space shot. Their target: NASA's Galileo spacecraft, an interplanetary scientific mission that used as its power source two | radioisotope thermoelectric generators fueled by plutonium. In October 1989, the Galileo launch went off without a hitch, despite the protests...
...nuclear devices go, Galileo's generators were relatively innocuous. Thermoelectric generators are battery-like gadgets that use natural radioactive decay in their fuel cells to produce electric power. Timberwind's engines, on the other hand, are true nuclear reactors that split atoms and generate heat, using the same chain reactions that power atom bombs. Although modern nuclear engineering has virtually eliminated the risk of explosions and meltdowns in such reactors, the problem of disposing of radioactive wastes has not gone away. Nor has the stigma attached to nuclear reactors in general. "If anybody tries launching a reactor-powered rocket," says...
Like Bertolt Brecht's Life of Galileo, this nonsensical play derides those who use the idea of "science" for commercial exploitation. Despondent because people no longer accept any gifts, Santa Claus (Joel Rainey) turns to Death (Ian Lithgow) for advice. Death proposes that Santa find another line of work--namely, selling knowledge. He suggests that Claus use the buzzword "scientific" to peddle his non-existent wares. "Why say fantastic when you mean scientific?" Death asks. Soon he has Santa selling stock in a "wheel mine." The plot becomes even more convoluted after this. Death and Santa exchange outfits...
Molecular biologists and researchers in brain chemistry were already challenging the nurturist doctrine long held by psychologists and social scientists. In a 1979 lecture on comparative social theory, Wilson framed the issue much the way Galileo might have when talking to an audience that still thought the sun revolved around the earth. "To be anthropocentric," he said, "is to remain unaware of the limits of human nature, the significance of biological processes underlying human behavior, and the deeper meaning of long-term genetic evolution...
...precise locations of the events. Says Vogt: "There are proposals pending to build gravity-wave observatories in Europe and Australia, and we're hoping to put together an international network." That will take time, and some of the most important discoveries lie years in the future. But just as Galileo did with his crude telescope in the early 1600s, the first generation of gravity-wave astronomers will undoubtedly learn things right away that will dramatically enrich science's understanding of the universe...