Just ... Musing
This really is a scientific-research, theoretical-potential break-through for Canada. Having a theoretical physicist of the elevated status of Stephen Hawking taking up a new research position in Waterloo, at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. That is impressive, big-time scientific-academic stuff. Breathtaking, in fact, in its potential. That a subject of such immense significance would be studied right here in Canada, by the world's leading cosmologist."Why popular fancy should seize me, a scientist dealing in abstract things and happy if left alone, is one of those manifestations of mass psychology that are beyond me. I think it is terrible that this should be so and I suffer more than anybody can imagine." Albert EinsteinThe public awe and adulation directed toward Stephen Hawking for the mysterious working of a mind able to conceive of abstract imaginings beyond the understanding of all but a handful of the world's geniuses immersed in the close studies of science as it relates to molecular studies, astrophysical, physics, and engineering does not, however, appear to deter Mr. Hawking; he copes well indeed.
Aside from his amazing brain, he is also a study in emotional ingratitude, in having left his first wife (and children) who supported him faithfully during the long early years of his physical decline, suffering from motor neuron syndrome that has locked his body into a motionless prison, leaving his mind free to surmise and analyze and theorize.
The wife of the man who designed his voice box, (enabling him to communicate his theories as a quantum mechanic engaged in cosmology, putting forth brave new theories based on an intense and deep knowledge) and who as a professional nurse cared for him, then became his second wife also betrayed her husband. Emotional betrayals do not mark the moral convictions of a man of high principle.
His personal failings aside, his professional qualifications and triumphs in intellectual discoveries ensured he was well regarded in the world of astronomy, particle physics and quantum mechanics. Those in awe of his monumental brain power attribute to him monumental abilities. His theories and conclusions have been built on a succession of earlier intellectual-theoretical findings, from Galileo and Newton to Einstein.
Human knowledge of the physical world around us and our place within it owes everything to the groundwork and intellectual break-throughs pioneered by scientific minds that predated Stephen Hawking. Just as humankind's incredible leaps forward in technological advancement began with the discovery of the taming of fire and the uses of flints and ores, the world's scientists leap forward on the discoveries of their predecessors.
Professor Hawking must have impressed upon himself, for some reason best known to himself, that the RIM-funded Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics presents a unique opportunity to progress in his search for new theories that would help to explain the vast, often nameless mysteries of the universe. Leaving Cambridge's prestigious and grand hallowed halls of academe as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, for Waterloo, Ontario, might appear as a descent to some.
But Professor Hawking seems to feel that the funding he was unable to access at Cambridge is now available to him here in Canada, in modest, but beautiful Waterloo, Ontario. Thanks to a billionaire whose own brilliant forays into the fields of computer technology and communications earned him the vast riches that now enable him to further the international fortunes of pure scientific enquiry.
From exploding stars, to collapsars, to black holes that swallow everything through the sheer magnetism of their powerful attractive qualities, but which leak radiation that will eventually cause them to disappear - and then what in the universe happens to all the matter that those hungry black holes have swallowed? we, the public, cannot even begin to guess at the discoveries that may emerge, well beyond our basic brain-power to grasp.
One thing many people may, however, grasp: how much in the realm of science fiction of a rather tarnished variety it seems for a brilliant scientist like Professor Hawking to argue his position that mankind should refrain from its obsession with contacting aliens. Believing, it would appear, that any such aliens might prove to be hostile and dangerous; indeed, inimical to our prolonged existence
."I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research ... the only deeply religious people of our largely materialistic age are the earnest men of research." Albert Einstein
Labels: Science, Technology, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Monday, June 21, 2010
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