Proposal: On the history and future of Atomic Science

Proposal: On the history and future of Atomic Science

It is a given that almost every member of our species has an intimate opinion on atomic weaponry and/or atomic power. This is far from surprising when simply taking a sociological perspective and examining the influence atomic science has had on the shape of history and modern society. Not to mention the recent trauma brought upon Japan, and the world, by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Which has been a tragedy from both the perspective of human life and nature preservation, but a tragedy for the future commercial use of atomic energy. Any examination of nuclear energy cannot be done at face value and no true comprehension can be reached without understanding both the science and scientific history of the atom, as well as understanding it's crucial role in modern history.

The first fission event that can be thought of in the modern sense of atomic conversion of heavy elements through nuclear decay,was split in 1938 by Otto-Hahn, Fritz Strassman and Lise Meitner. However, to fully understand the path followed by atomic science we need to move back in time at least until 1911 when Ernest Rutherford deduced and proposed the Rutherford model by altering the experiment of two of his graduate students Ernest Marsden and Hans Geiger. The experiment was to measure the scattering of alpha particles fired at a sheet of gold foil. By measuring the angles of deflection, the previous “Plum-pudding” model of an atom could be experimentally confirmed or denied. While a majority of the recorded trajectories after the interaction of the the alpha particles with the atoms of the gold foil, fit nicely into data that would confirm the old models, strange “strays” would register with much higher degrees of deflection than allowed by the previous model. Rutherford, having come to observe his students work, suggesting placing a detector behind the alpha particle source. If the plum-pudding model was correct, there would not have been a significant concentration of neither matter nor charge to cause a reversal of the trajectory of any impacting alpha particle. However, the detector immediately began detecting alpha particles coming back at the source. A new model was needed. Rutherford spent much time in consideration before he proposed a model that had a minute, very dense and positively charged nucleus, surrounded by orbiting protons. Despite the theoretical collapse of any proton orbit existing in this manner under Newtonian mechanics, the “plum-pudding” model of the atom had been experimentally disproved and a new understanding of the inner-working of the atom would have to be undertaken.

Using this new theoretical model, Rutherford would cement his place in history by arranging the first nuclear reaction. While many newspapers at the time popularly named this phenomenon “splitting the atom”, it is not the same as the modern nuclear fission reaction discovered by Meitner's time in 1938. What Rutherford had done, was fire the same alpha particles used in the earlier experiment at an isotope of Nitrogen, which absorbed the particle forming an oxygen isotope and a proton. For centuries before, alchemists had sought in vain a way to transmute metals. Rutherford had accomplished their dream. This was the first true hint that the nuclear energy in the atom could be harnessed.

However, it did not become a viable option for energy generation or weaponry until an Italian scientist named Enrico Fermi constructed a lattice of enriched Uranium allowing for a spontaneous chain reaction to occur, releasing unheard of amounts of thermal energy. The lattice was deconstructed before the reaction was allowed to proceed past the point of no return but the tides of history could not be turned. Not only had it been proved that atomic energy could be released, it could be done so in a chain reaction allowing tremendous energy to be freed from the atom and the course of history and humanity was set.

With these discoveries mankind had effectively learned to harness the primal energies of the universe itself. Because of this, the future of mankind was forever altered, and to not only survive but prosper from nature's gift will require extreme caution, careful planning and strict regulation. Nuclear energy could prove to be the viable efficient alternative to fossil fuels provided we can find a way to manage the inherent dangers of unlocking the secrets of the atom.

Sources Cited:

Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986. Print.

Kliman, Jan, M. G. Itkis, and S̆ Gmuca. Dynamical Aspects of Nuclear Fission: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference, Smolenice Castle, Slovak Republic : 2-6 October 2006. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific, 2008. Print.

Schneider, Erich, and William Sailor. "Nuclear Fission." Science and Global Security 14.2-3 (2006): 183-211. Print.

"Fission." A-to-Z Guide to Thermodynamics, Heat and Mass Transfer, and Fluids Engineering F (2006). Print. 

We are in the belly of the beast and the beast is bleeding to death.

As I've declared definitively in earlier responses on the economic structure that serves as a framework for United States business infrastructure, has fundamentally undermined it's own political integrity as an economic model by being employed to the utmost and fanatic ends of the conservative extremists and the extremely greedy. While this may serve those who have been talented and well endowed with intelligence and pragmatism, it has placed an overwhelming typhoon of poverty on also overwhelming majority of the population. Capitalism has become a new monarchical and tyrannical to replace the serfdom and cruelty of the dark ages and it's flames must be extinguished before it's grip on political and capitol become steadfast and iron-held. This is only if the time to turn the tide has not come and gone. Not only does this have a profound affect on the quality of life for humankind, it has the capacity and potential to end the species. As a student of nuclear physics, I do not fear the deistic energy contained within matter, within the atom; I fear greed and continuation, further development, and the contagious potential for economic models of capitalism.

      America, the country entitled with the title of a land with endless opportunity, boundless resource and capitol, has brought the failures of capitalism under the magnifying glass. It can be seen on the faces of the hungry, the homeless and the oppressed. It is undoubtedly, wholly necessary and crucial for the survival of our species to look beyond capitalism towards new economic and social formulae that bring the balance of justices, both social and economic. It is time to end the inequity and injustice of the ungodly and drastically understated disparity of wealth within the United States. When we are equal in this disparity to African dictatorships, this should be a sign that our country has erred and done so violently.

     There are two primary obstacles to the America dreamed of upon it's inception. The first is the rule of tax law, slanted, crooked and full of loop holes to be exploited by those who could most easily afford to contribute to a establishing a harmonious society. There will always be strife, but if the United States of America does not change it's course, now, this cannot wait, the streets will flow with rivers of blood and violence will be the paradigm. If a people cannot save themselves through monetary or political force, or peaceful protest, they will do it violently. In all situations I am a pacifist, except when the damage done by pacifism is greater than would be the damage done by violence. This may vilify and alienate me as an extremist or a radical and I will face these burdens, but the truth must be spoken, the suffering of the masses for the excessive pleasures of the few must be ended. If you, the bankers, the politicians, the C.E.O's do not sway as a tree in the winds of change than you shall snap, we shall snap you and we shall do so by any and all means necessary.

Someplace Like America

     It's hard to suppress the upwelling of emotion that rises in my throat, like bile, as I read through the introduction to Dale Maharidge's Someplace Like America. Foremost among those emotions is a burning anger, a hatred, towards the utopian lie of the American dream that I'd been expertly peddled throughout my youth. Even then, as a young child, I was rebellious against the ideologies laid in place by my forefathers. I grew up the only atheist in a family generation that included more than thirty children. In my adolescence I became an avowed democratic socialist. This was another first in a fairly affluent family of capitalists. Today, as I watch the rising tides of despair swell all around me, even in this short reading, I am more than reaffirmed in the decisions that I've made. The flames of capitalism must be extinguished.

      In the two decades I've been alive, I've seen the supreme court declare corporations as personages, and grant them rights to unlimited political contributions. This alone makes me markedly ashamed of my country and it's political institutions. I've seen the introduction of the Patriot act, which was merely the first wisps of snow before the damning avalanche of revocation of personal rights, known as the war on terror. I've seen a young populist president with the momentum of a nation behind him fail utterly, either by choice, or fear, to modify the structures of power that brought the American economy to the precipice of disaster. I've watched the bailout of bankers, investors and hedge fund managers, as families lose their home, their jobs and their futures. I've seen the numbers on the record breaking bonus checks of executives. I've seen the writing on the wall.

     Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

     It's past time for realizations and epiphanies. How far must the teeming masses be pushed backwards into a corner of despair and poverty until we speak up in revolt​? Not in violence, but in peaceful unity against the policies smothering our opportunities. We must wage war, not physical war, but war against the failed ideologies of oppression and striation. Every man, woman and child in this country deserves the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as we were promised as children. Instead this country has become a privileged dream for the few and a nightmare for the many.

America stands as the final first-world country to institute a policy of socialized healthcare, stands as the last bastion of a deep wrought greed so powerful that even the medical needs of our fellow human beings do not serve as reason enough to separate grubby fingers from coin. This alone proves as a profound exercise of political cartography and a dangerous precedent to leave as acceptable behavior. If we cannot even stand up to save our own blood, skin, muscle and bone; then the future we leave for our children is grim and dark indeed.

     What liberty and democracy we have left as a nation is slipping quickly from our grasp. Here, and now must be the high water mark. We must turn this tide back before we all drown miserably in a tangled mess of flesh and broken pride.

On the History of Science

     On The History of Science is an interview with director of The Max Planck Institute for the history of science, Lorraine Daston, conducted by David Cayley. It's subject is the framing of the philosophy and history of science. It brings under scrutiny even our modern views of what science is, what science means, and the role of science in the twenty first century and into the future. As a student of physics and science, as well as a lover of history and philosophy, this is a subject near and dear.

     The primary subject of the interview is the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. One of his central arguments is that the manner in which the general population and even scientists of the modern and pre-modern eras have placed science into their worldviews and intellectual frameworks. Kuhn declares the essential problem is the lack of both understanding and examination of the axiomatic philosophies of science and the form of scientific progression. He surmises that a fundamental disconnect exists in the behavior of near religious abstraction by some prolific theorists. He argues that this attitude has seen memetic transfer to humanity and our social constructs at large. Examining the tendency for famous and influential scientists to be taken as a kind of seer or prophet provides a foundation for agreeing.

     The interview's second narrative and an argument I find more effective as it has become quite attachable to and enforced as a lesson of my personal experiences; is that the study of the history and philosophy of science has become far too concerned with names and theory rather than experiment itself. Encompassing the modern tendency within physics culture to garner more attention upon elegant mathematical systems, such as string theory, rather than fully appreciating the basis of empiricism itself. While there are certainly valid reasons to appreciate the deep symmetries and invariance within the art that is theoretical mathematics, experiment and applied mathematics are far more fundamental and crucial to the relevance and importance of science to mankind.

     Especially in modern time where humanity is presented with a practical tsunami of novel devices and information, all owing their origin to the practice science, it has become noticeable that a mistrust of science has slipped in and taken root in the public consciousness. Daston argues that this unfortunate phenomena has resulted from two primary reasons. The first being that scientific inquiry fundamentally clashes with the vestiges and remnants of archaic theological thought that is still firmly entrenched into the shared consciousness of our society. The second is her argument against the Kuhnian theory of periodic scientific revolutions. It is rather, she argues just a continued series of modifications on the older frameworks of thought.

     While it is undoubted that much of humanity, maybe even a majority, hold tightly to archaic modes of thought out of fear, desire or imagination, it is clear to me, at least in knowledge of myself and those I have known that at least some minds have been permanently and thoroughly disconnected from the erroneous perceptions inherited from our fore-bearers of thought. While history itself has many lessons to teach and it is still necessary to understand the ethical, emotional and pathological mentalities of those that came before us we are privileged to a panoramic view of our existence that allows the modern thinker to escape the bondage of thought that preceded the previous three centuries.

Poltical Compass Results

Five Questions

Five Questions:
1. Where are you from?
A:I'm from Lexington' Kentucky but I'd like to answer the question in a more abstract manner. To be fully encompassing of of the thought I'm trying to emote I'd like to say I'm a fundamental manifestation of existence itself, an expression of the universe comprehending itself.

2.What is your experience with writing?
A: My primary experience has been recreation. Though I have been gearing up for more scholarly objectives.

3. What do you believe in?
A:Before anything else, I'm primarily a physicist and a scientist. In modern terms you could describe me as an atheist and a skeptic, to the point of asceticism.

4.What kind of pop culture do you consume:
A: I don't watch television or listen to much popular music but I do enjoy popular internet culture.

5.Why are you in college?
A: From an early age you could say I'd like to know the mind of god (Interpret this in a pantheist way, in the manner of Spinoza, not the biblical god) and I've found that I can best accomplish this through mathematics and science.

ἀγωνία

I start to think my own thoughts of the situation in which I find myself. I even think that I think of it, and divide myself into an infinite regressive sequence of "I's" who consider each other. I do not know at which "I" to stop as the actual, and in the moment I stop at one, there is indeed and "I" which stops at it. I become confused and feel a dizziness as if I were looking down into a bottomless abyss.