The reality of the existence of anti-matter has been known for decades. The ion track of a positron -- the anti-matter counterpart of an electron -- was first observed in 1932. Positron emission tomography (PET) scanners are used routinely in hospitals to observe metabolic processes within the human body.
But because positrons, and other anti-matter particles, interact violently with matter, their existence has been observable only as short tracks, evidencing the infinitesimal length of their life spans from creation to annihilation. This week, the CERN laboratories in Geneva revealed that their scientists had been able to collect 38 anti-atoms of hydrogen -- each anti-atom being an antiproton surrounded by a positron -- and to keep them in existence for a tenth of a second. This period of existence is much longer than that of prior anti-matter observations. Apparently, even a tenth of a second will be long enough for the chemical properties of anti-hydrogen to be studied.
So far as I can tell, this development is more of an engineering feat -- keeping the anti-matter away from the "matter" walls of its container, using electromagnetic fields and temperatures of 0.5 degrees K. -- than any advance in theoretical understanding. Nevertheless, it's an impressive accomplishment, and scientists hope that it will enable significant advances in our understanding of anti-matter.
What impresses me enough to mention this accomplishment here, however, is not the accomplishment itself, but the on-line reaction from readers. The reaction has been about 90 percent negative, almost violently negative. The negative reactions can be fit into any one of several categories, although many comments cross category lines.
1. This research is just another waste of money. What's in it for me?
2. Only an atheist would be interested in this stuff. Trust in God. Not in these so-called scientists who are trying to play God themselves. Remember the Tower of Babel?
3. This is the first step in building an anti-matter bomb that will destroy civilization.
4. Scientists lie, and so do journalists. There's probably no such thing as anti-matter. Don't believe all the crap you read; I sure don't.
There is also a large category of responses -- I'm disregarding them -- that somehow attempt to use this scientific news as the basis for either anti-Obama or anti-Republican rants, as well as the occasional anti-Switzerland diatribe.
This country desperately needs a revival of interest in pure scientific research -- increased numbers of students majoring in the sciences, more accessible scientific writing for non-scientists, and better scientific journalism to keep the general public aware of how their world is changing scientifically. We need, as a nation, an increased appreciation of the obvious fact that pure scientific research can ultimately result in discoveries that benefit our lives. We also need somehow to inculcate in our citizens -- especially the young people who are still flexible in their thinking and open to new ideas -- an appreciation of pure science, apart from any potential applications to which it may lead, as a valuable and exciting means of understanding the universe and our place in it.
Surely, a generation that so much loves fantasy and wizardry can be shown the excitement of scientific discovery as the door to real-life magic. Once again, we lack only the teachers with the necessary enthusiasm and background, and the ability to bring that enthusiasm and scientific background to children in ways they can understand and appreciate.
Not that many years ago, science, math and engineering were favored majors for bright kids starting college. That excitement was reflected in attitudes shared by the entire society. The Seattle World Fair in 1962 -- Century 21 -- was dedicated to future scientific achievement, and the United States Science Pavilion was the most impressive, and probably popular, attraction of the fair.
Our universities, still the best in the world, are filled each year with increasingly large percentages of foreign students, studying math and science, as American students show decreasing interest in those subjects. But countries like China and India are developing universities of their own, with a quantity and quality of students studying in scientific fields that may eventually surpass our own. Soon, they won't really need our universities. Meanwhile, in this country, we are losing not only our excitement about the world of the future, but our ability to compete economically with other nations.
Somehow -- for both our economic and our psychological welfare -- we need to regain our former enthusiam for scientific studies, our craving to learn more about the nature of our physical world, where it's come from, and how it works.
And we certainly have to be alarmed at the popular scientific illiteracy, and the contempt for scientific education and research, that have been all too amply illustrated by the responses shown today to the news from CERN.
2 comments:
In our small northern California public schools, no regularly scheduled science curriculum is available for children until high school. No wonder there is less and less interest in pursuing science majors in college. Not enough time, not enough money, not demanded as part "teaching for the tests."
It's a huge problem everywhere, not just in California, although California's budget crisis probably exacerbates the problem. Concentration on -- and testing for -- basic competency in reading, writing and math probably withdraws resources from science education, as you note.
But even relatively well-financed suburban schools -- schools that can still afford "luxuries" like music and art programs -- aren't turning out sufficient numbers of students with an interest in science that continues through into college. Besides the factors you mention, something has changed in our culture in the past 50 years that has discouraged too many bright kids from pursuing careers in scientific research.
Post a Comment