18 JAN 2013 by ideonexus

 The "Sagan Effect"

With Cosmos, Sagan sought to put an end to the fear and to inspire the kind of wonder Hubble's lectures had inspired in the 1930s and 1940s and the Moon landing had inspired in 1969. The series was enormously successful. For the first time since Hubble, a huge audience was engaged in exploring the grand questions of life, nature, the structure of the uni¬ verse, mythology, and what it might all mean, how it might all fit together, the mystery of it all. It examined how our search for meaning...
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The fact that Carl Sagan was denied tenure at Harvard because of the jealousy of his peers over his public persona.

17 MAR 2012 by ideonexus

 "Big Bucks" VS "Small Bucks" University Research

Basic research at universities comes in two varieties: research that requires big bucks and research that requires small bucks. Big bucks research is much like government research and in fact usually is government research but done for the government under contract. Like other government research, big bucks academic research is done to understand the nature and structure of the universe or to understand life, which really means that it is either for blowing up the world or extending life, whi...
Folksonomies: research funding
Folksonomies: research funding
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Amusing and insightful.

28 MAY 2011 by ideonexus

 Carl Sagan Punished for Popularizing Science

Yet instead, Sagan was punished by the scientific community for his public endeavors. The persecution began as early as the 1960s, when Harvard University denied him tenure. Nobel laureate Harold Urey, a chemist who had previously served as one of Sagan's mentors, helped quash his chances with a nasty letter objecting to Sagan's budding media and outreach efforts.
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His outreach efforts were used against Sagan's pursuit of tenure at Harvard.

18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus

 Books Changed Everything

For 99 per cent of the tenure of humans on earth, nobody could read or write. The great invention had not yet been made. Except for first-hand experience, almost everything we knew was passed on by word of mouth. As in the game of 'Chinese Whispers', over tens and hundreds of generations, information would slowly be distorted and lost. Books changed all that. Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wisdom of our species; to understand ...
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They made it possible to interrogate the past, see other view points, and communication across time.

29 MAR 2011 by ideonexus

 Humans Are Strong, Civilization is Fragile

We have confidence in our science-based civilization and think it has tenure. In so doing, I think we fail to distinguish between the life-span of civilizations and that of our species. In fact, civilizations are ephemeral compared with species. Humans have lasted at least a million years, but there have been 30 civilizations in the past 5000 years. Humans are tough and will survive; civilizations are fragile. It seems clear to me that we are not evolving in intelligence, not becoming true Ho...
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Humans will survive the death of civilization, which has happened 30 times over the centuries.