Tomorrow's World

[TimberWolf]

I've worked in R & D with many well respected Scientists.

All they are asked to do these days is to design something cheaper, not design something better. They are all downheartened, because that is not what they studied to do!

I was reading about wind turbines the other day and was a bit disappointed to learn that they have a life-expectancy of only around 20 years. That's for the entire structure. It turns out after doing the calculations they found it's more cost effective to replace them every twenty years than design them to last much longer. Perhaps labour in the form of maintenance costs weighed heavily in the calculation.

[expat]

I'd like to see the BBC make a program about critical thinking and scientific method. Some of the Horizon shows are excellent, the Natural World, Coast and so on are brilliant too, but I'd like them to put on a program showing people the method and the way of thinking behind the science, and put it on BBC 1 at primetime; a bit of the old 'educate and inform' could go a long way to helping people seperate media guff from hard facts.

Yes but even Horizon is more about television than science. Here's an example TV producer's trick that I can't help watching for in every programme: they get the filmed interviews with scientists. When they are putting the programme together, they lift one or two choice sentences from the most respected scientist. They put those into the mouth of the journalist early on in the programme; and show the scientist saying exactly the same thing later in the programme. Presto: the BBC becomes The Expert, and the Nobel-Prize-winning scientist becomes just someone in agreement with them.

[lambrini_socialist]

your precious science doesn't have all the answers, people! you can use "logic" to prove anything you want, but you're just imposing your bankrupt western intellectual imperialism onto other peoples' equally valid (if totally unverifiable) viewpoints. thankfully i've got a magnetic bracelet, air de-ioniser, protective anti-wi-fi curtains, crystal healer and a tinfoil hat to block out all the negativity on this thread.

and remember folks, "organised" religion is bad and causes all the wars and stuff, but cherry picking all the most self-serving and/or vacuous bits from various eastern and celtic religions, mixing them up with a fundamental misunderstanding of science, lighting a couple of joss sticks, calling yourself "spiritual" and doing whatever the hell you like is totally OK.

[TimberWolf]

On the plus side, imagine how much cheaper the NHS would be to run if we went back to using voodoo?

[expat]

I found out how to achieve the equivalent of a 100W tungsten bulb.

I use 3 20W CFLs... now saving a whole 40W...

They will actually require about 120W of generated capacity (Power Factor about 0.5). And you will leave them on for longer because you want light when you want it, not after they warm up. And when they get down to less than 80% output (couple of years) you will either bin the toxic stuff, or drive 10 miles to the recycling point.

[zathras]

I'd like to see the BBC make a program about critical thinking and scientific method.

If they did that, then they would also have to question the whole Global Warming orthodoxy - especially as the the corellation between Green House gases and global warming does not follow, but there is one between Solar activity and global warming - which means more cold winters as solar activity does down.

[EternalOptimist]

Probably because the money is better in IT.

Have you ever looked at the science salaries in the back of New Scientist?

some of the salaries offered are pitiful. Study for 3-4 years, mountain of debt for a salary less than 20k

[Mich the Tester]

Probably because the money is better in IT.

Have you ever looked at the science salaries in the back of New Scientist?

I’m going to go back into science in about 5 or 6 years as a volcanologist; I don’t care if the salary’s less than IT, especially if I can get a job in Italy studying Etna, Stromboli or Vesuvius (and of course gastronomy, sunshine and wine).

[TimberWolf]

I’m going to go back into science in about 5 or 6 years as a volcanologist; I don’t care if the salary’s less than IT, especially if I can get a job in Italy studying Etna, Stromboli or Vesuvius (and of course gastronomy, sunshine and wine).

<Drools>

[Mich the Tester]

If they did that, then they would also have to question the whole Global Warming orthodoxy - especially as the the corellation between Green House gases and global warming does not follow, but there is one between Solar activity and global warming - which means more cold winters as solar activity does down.

People would gain the capacity to question this themselves. That's the point; learn to question everything, but question properly, instead of just believing authority figures.