Friday, December 12, 2008
Steven Chu has been selected to be Secretary of Energy in the Obama
Cabinet. Physicists in particular are elated; at last a genuine scientist
will head the agency that funds the majority of physics research in the
US. The position had usually been filled by political insiders. Chu
shared the 1997 Nobel Prize with Bill Phillips for laser-cooling of atoms,
and is currently the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory. Under Chu the lab is a center of research into biofuels and
solar energy. He is a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council. Alas,
there will be pressure worldwide to abandon carbon reduction to ameliorate
the economic downturn.
Yesterday, in the middle of the afternoon, I turned on CNN to see if there
was any news. Two heads were talking about BlackLight Power, which had
found "a way to extract all the energy we need from water." There was a
picture of Randy Mills in the background holding something technical.
The "she" head said "it sounds like a great idea." The "he" head agreed.
(So do I, if you can make it work.) He said big companies have invested
$60 million, so it must work. I tried to find yesterday's exchange on
Google just now. No luck, but I found other CNN reports from last summer
that sounded just like it. CNN should talk to Steven Chu; In 2000, Chu,
along with other Nobel Prize winning physicists, was asked by a reporter
about people investing in BlackLight. Chu's response was not as colorful
as some. "I feel sorry for them," he said softly.
NASA is a thorny problem for Obama. NASA administrator Mike Griffin is
focused on the Constellation program, the much delayed, way-over-budget
and thoroughly useless moon rocket, which seems to be the U.S. entry in a
space-race with emerging nations. The Orlando Sentinel reports a squabble
between Griffin and Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator for
policy, who heads the Obama NASA-transition-team. Griffin says she's
unqualified. She has no background in science or technology. It's past
time for a complete restructuring of NASA focusing on the future, not the
past. Cede the Moon to China and the ISS to India. Space ships, along
with sailing ships and covered wagons, are relics of bygone eras. There's
a universe out there to learn about, let's get on with it.
It's never mentioned, but the elephant is there when we talk about the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a sea of discarded plastic trash the size of
Texas that floats inside the North Pacific Gyre. The garbage patch grows
exponentially. We try not to notice the elephant. It's an
embarrassment. I hope Barack Obama and Al Gore noticed it when they met
this week to talk about energy and the environment.
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