O'Really?

December 8, 2010

Science Careers: The Good, the Bad and the Starry

Filed under: education,web of science — Duncan Hull @ 6:03 pm
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Mauna Kea SunsetOf all the things you can do with a Science degree, being paid money to stargaze from the top of a volcano in Hawaiʻi has to be one of the more interesting.

Tom Kerr is one such lucky astronomer who has been managing operations at UKIRT (UK infrared telescope) – currently the world’s largest telescope dedicated solely to infrared astronomy [1]. So what is it like working more than 4000 metres* above sea level, near the summit of Mauna Kea on the big Island of Hawaiʻi? Can you imagine filling your days and nights  observing the glorious majesty of the night sky, amazing sunsets and sunrises interspersed with surfing sessions on the beach?

Tom’s blog A Pacific View documents what Hawaiian life can be like. A recent post things I’ll miss (and others I won’t) describes the good, bad and starry parts of astronomy in an exotic location. There is also an accompanying set of rather stunning pictures on Flickr. So if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be involved in stargazing for a living, Tom’s blog and photostream tells you more.

References

  1. Song, I., McCombie, J., Kerr, T., & Sarre, P. (2007). The 3.3-μm PAH emission band of the Red Rectangle Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 380 (3), 979-985 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12197.x and arXiv:0707.0541
  2. The interwebs is full of blogging astronomers …

[Creative Commons image of Mauna Kea Sunset by therefromhere, on Flickr]
*4000 metres is about 14,000 feet in real money…

November 2, 2010

Standing on the shoulders of tyrants

Filed under: education,mathematics — Duncan Hull @ 10:04 pm
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Newton (after Blake), by Eduardo Paolozzi, British Library Piazza by chrisjohnbeckett on Flickr.There are at least two ways of looking at the history of Science:

  1. If we have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
  2. If we have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of tyrants.

Take Isaac Newton for example, a giant whose shoulders we all stand on today. During his scientific career he employed plenty of tyranny to get ahead. While devising his calculus Newton had a bitter rivalry with his contemporary Leibniz where he exploited his position of power and influence at the Royal Society [1] to discredit his opponents work. Newton was evidently no gentle giant.

Over at the BBC, Marcus du Sautoy charts some of this murky political territory in the first episode of his entertaining Brief History of Mathematics series. The rest of the programmes introduce some of the other colourful personalities involved in the history of “the queen of the sciences”.

So if Newton is anything to go by, many of the giants shoulders we stand on were (and are) terrible tyrants. While friendly and open collaboration is important in Science, cut-throat competition clearly has a place too.

References

  1. Isaac Newton (1671). A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton, Professor of the Mathematicks in the University of Cambridge; Containing His New Theory about Light and Colors: Sent by the Author to the Publisher from Cambridge, Febr. 6. 1671/72; In Order to be Communicated to the R. Socie Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 6 (69-80), 3075-3087 DOI: 10.1098/rstl.1671.0072

[Creative Commons licensed picture of Isaac Newton (after William Blake), by Eduardo Paolozzi, British Library Piazza by Chris John Beckett on Flickr]

March 17, 2010

Hunkin’s Hypothesis: Technology Is What Makes Us Human

Filed under: biotech,education — Duncan Hull @ 11:27 am
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Tim Hunkin: Technology is What Makes Us HumanCartoonist and engineer Tim Hunkin is probably best known for his exhibits at the Science Museum in London and his Under The Pier Show “a mad arcade of home-made slot machines & simulator rides on Southwold Pier, Suffolk”.  His website is a treasure trove of weird and wonderful things.

Tim has an interesting proposition, let’s call it Hunkin’s Hypothesis [1], that technology is what makes us human:

“Technology isn’t just something outside ourselves, it’s an innate part of human nature, like sex, sleeping or eating, and that its been a major driving force in evolution. Tool using, along with language and bipedalism, is essentially what makes us human. The complicated theories used to explain why we first stood up are largely unnecessary. Our hands simply became too useful for holding tools to waste them on walking.”

He bases this idea, on a paper published by Frances Evans [2] about the creative engineering mind. This idea has at least two important implications:

  1. Engineering is a creative and intellectual process that humans do instinctively, not an obsolete and dying skill practiced by dinosaurs
  2. Engineering is an essential part of education, that needs to be taught more in schools and universities. Tim encourages his grand-children to use spot-welders, glue-guns and soldering irons at every opportunity! In UK schools health and safety regulations, plus the fear of being sued often make this tricky.

I’m not sure what to make of Hunkin’s Hypothesis yet, but it’s an intriguing idea that deserves investigation.

References

  1. Tim Hunkin (2006). Technology is what makes us human. timhunkin.com
  2. Frances Evans (1998). Two legs, thing using and talking: The origins of the creative engineering mind AI & Society, 12 (3), 185-213 DOI: 10.1007/BF01206195
  3. Tim Hunkin – The Seaside Inventor, Southwold Pier, Suffolk

[Picture of Tim Hunkin taken from his talk at Cambridge Science Festival, 2010.]

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