Note: this topic was posted 6/28/2013. Thanks null and void.
Posted on 06/28/2013 8:13:52 AM PDT by null and void
Radiate?
That was last week. They've evolved since then.
Nope ... I only knew about radium watch dials that were found to be dangerous and it was stopped.
If basic research adds to our stock of knowledge it is worthwhile. That’s why you do basic reserch even if the knowlege doesn’t make a whit of practical difference.
I really shouldn’t have to explain that to a PhD in molecular biology.
So you’ve never had a broken bone x-rayed, never needed radiation therapy, never had a radio iodine uptake test, or a thallium heart scan, never been on an airplane whose critical turbine parts were inspected with x-rays, never used a single watt generated in a nuclear power plant, never been defended by a nuclear powered submarine, know no-one descended from a serviceman who would have died on the Japanese mainland had they not surrendered?
Each of those is a direct result of a useless, purely academic 19th century study of radium.
And radium itself? It still sees some use in treating metastasized bone cancer.
Nonsense!
Last week it was:
“but but but the entire universe is only 6016 years, 6 months, 15 days 1 hour and 16 minutes old”
When I was born 59 years ago I had a birth mark on by one of my knees. I’ve been told they put radium needles on the site to, well, I’m not sure what they were thinking.
I have a small scar there now. No adverse consequences yet that I know of.
“but but but the entire universe is only 6016 years, 6 months, 15 days 1 hour and 16 minutes old”
How can you be sure it was last week? All dating methods have been proven to be unreliable.
Except Primate of All Ireland Ussher, of course...
:)
Obviously a sober and studious man...
Well, it is business hours.....
Not in Ireland, unless your business is a pub...
Unfortunately, I’m not, and it isn’t, so back to my studies I go.
“If basic research adds to our stock of knowledge it is worthwhile. That’s why you do basic reserch even if the knowlege doesn’t make a whit of practical difference. I really shouldn’t have to explain that to a PhD in molecular biology.”
Of course many great discoveries resulted from trivial investigations. But, there is enormous waste in academic research. Very few within these disciplines are willing to state this. Resource allocation is an important issue in an era of limited resources. We simply cannot study anything and everything for the sake of adding to our “stock of knowledge”. If you don’t agree then you sanction departments of women’s and Africana studies, or BS investigations into environmental studies that are more political then scientific. Even basic molecular biology is laden with silly and unimaginative projects.
'COURSE I've had an x-ray ... but as far as I know, none of the rest.
I have no idea (nor do you) WHERE my electricity comes from .. and you somehow think I'm an enemy of research?
This all started with the genomes of ancient horses and you've got me denegrating WW2 vets and their offspring?
GFY, n&v.
Any hard science research that adds to our understanding of the physical world has merit. None of it is silly. How you evaluate any piece of research in the scheme of things depends on your intests.
And even if you insist on judging research by what useful technology it spawns, you can never tell. A seemingly insignificant finding might be the first link in a long chain that ends in a world changing finding. Or a piece of research might sit on a shelf for a century until some new discovery makes it vital.
In mathematics (not physical but a hard science) boolean logic was a pure abstract concept with no practical use in the real world. Any layman looking at Boole's work would have called it silly, a waste of time. Until people started thinking about automatic computing. Then it became core of the technology that civilization is built on.
No, no hard science research is silly.
About what I’d expect from someone who boasts that they didn’t read the article.
You did manage to read quite a few things that were not in my reply, and attribute what you read into it as my malice.
Have a nice day.
(s) offspring of a WWII vet, Pacific theater, Okinawa, Semper Fi!...
Note: this topic was posted 6/28/2013. Thanks null and void.
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