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Frontiers of Exploration:
From the Cell to the Solar System
Student Handout
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Sylvia Earle, Ph.D. is one of the most acclaimed oceanographers
and marine biologists in the world. In the 1970s she led the first team of woman
aquanauts during the trailblazing Tektite Project in the Virgin Islands and went
on to set the world's record for solo diving (3,000 feet). Dr. Earle later advanced
deep sea diving in the "Jim suit" and descended to 1,250 feet, the existing
record for an untethered dive. This "explorer of the dark frontier" and
"champion of the deep" has logged more than 5,000 hours underwater during
some 50 expeditions. She is the recipient of many honors, including the Society of
Woman Geographers Gold Medal, the Explorers Club Award, the Charles A. Lindbergh
Award, and the Order of the Golden Ark.
Richard L. Garwin, Ph.D. is IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas J. Watson
Research Center. One of the world's great scientific problem-solvers, for over four
decades he played a central role in the design of America's nuclear weapons and safety
systems. He has co-authored half a dozen books, published more than 500 scientific
papers and been granted 42 U.S. patents. His discoveries were crucial to the development
of the first U'S space-based reconnaissance system. In addition to his career at
IBM and his work as consultant to the U.S. government on defense technology, arms
control and energy policy, he has taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia University,
and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D. was Professor of Geology at Harvard University's
Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Gould was an eminent
paleontologist and evolutionary theorist. As historian of science, field scientist,
teacher, and author, he was the "most articulate advocate of the controversial amendment
to Darwin's theory of evolution." He was acclaimed as a "general who
has helped transform the entire landscape of evolutionary theory, pushing back by
a few inches the frontiers of knowledge." Professor Gould was the recipient of
the National Book Award, the MacArthur Foundation prize, the National Book Critics
Circle Award, and the "Scientist of the Year" Award. He died in May, 2002, at the age of 60.
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- What does it mean to be an explorer?
- What can it cost in personal and emotional terms to be an explorer?
- How does exploration change the explorer?
- What personal insights does exploration engender?
The life of your community is fertile ground for exploring areas of work that go
on in our society. Not only are many career paths already at play in any neighborhood,
there exists a vast potential of needed but currently missing work. Brainstorm all
the jobs, careers, professions, and avocations that you expect to find in a five-block
radius of your school. Then, brainstorm all the others that perhaps should be there
but aren't. How could you fill that vacant spot? What would you need to know? What
would be the benefit to the community if you did your life's work there?
Every explorer from ancient history to the present has been responsible for both
positive and negative outcomes. Choose an explorer from the list below (or one of
your own choice), research his/her explorations and report to the class the positive
and negative effects of his or her discovery.
- 1st Apollo Crew
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Schweitzer
- Amelia Earhart
- Christa McAuliffe
- Christopher Columbus
- Ferdinand Magellan
- George Washington Carver
- Henry Stanley
- James Cook
- John Glenn
- Lewis and Clark
- Mahatma Ghandi
- Marco Polo
- Marie Curie
- Margaret Mead
- Mother Teresa
- Robert Oppenheimer
- Sally Ride
- Sieur De La Salle
- Thor Heyerdahl
HAVE WE CREATED ANOTHER FRANKENSTEIN?
In exploration, the act of discovery is merely the beginning of the adventure. The
consequences and implications can have dramatic and unforeseen results. Films like
Frankenstein, Jurassic Park, and Outbreak, for example, focus on chaotic
systems and human fallibility.
The following scenario is also set in the world of science. Read through the set-up
below, and then, with a group of your fellow students, create a skit to be performed
for the class; write and tape a short video; write a film script; or write a short
story and post it on your school's web site.
THE SCENARIO:
Imagine that a team of exploring scientists have found a way to
reverse and stop the aging process. They must now investigate the ramifications of
this discovery.
Some of the things that they should take into consideration are:
- Should the discovery be announced at all, or kept under wraps?
- If it is announced, how shall it be announced-- in a general news release, or
to a small group of fellow scientists and government officials?
- Who will be in charge of the discovery and its dissemination out to the people?
- Will a fee be assessed for its use, or will it be given out to anyone free of
charge?
- Will everyone have a chance to get access to this discovery, or only a "certain"
few?
- Who will control the access to the discovery, the scientists, the government,
or a select group of the privileged few?
- How will someone who chooses not to take advantage of the discovery be treated
by those who remain forever young?
There are two ways that this exercise can be performed, either the committee of
exploring scientists can decide to withhold the discovery, or they can decide to
let it out. In the first case they must examine all of the previous seven considerations
and justify why they made their decision, what specifically they saw as the negative
ramifications of the discovery and why they felt it was better that the discovery
was withheld. In the second they must also examine the possible problems that the
discovery will cause to the social, economic and political makeup of the human society.
Can they ensure that the discovery would be used so that everyone would benefit and
no would be harmed? What guarantees can be enacted to ensure that most people benefit
and that the fewest number of people are hurt?
Of course these are only suggestions and starting points. Please feel free to
add or limit the scenario as necessary i.e. create characters and a variety of settings.
Story Musgrave, M.D. is the oldest astronaut in the U.S. space program. He
has logged more than 850 hours in space, and has more Space Shuttle missions to his
credit than any other astronaut. He was the first to perform a space walk from the
Shuttle and gained widespread fame when he performed three spectacular space walks
to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Besides his medical degree from Columbia University,
Story Musgrave has bachelor's degrees in mathematics and chemistry, and master's
degrees in business, computer programming, biophysics and literature. It should surprise
no one to learn that, in his seventh decade, Story Musgrave is studying for yet another
graduate degree, and preparing for further missions in space.
Bert Vogelstein, M.D. is Director of the Molecular Genetics laboratory at
the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, at the forefront of cancer research in America.
A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he received
his medical degree at Johns Hopkins, then went on to play a pivotal role in the dramatic
advances made in our understanding of the genetic basis of cancer. He led the elite
team that discovered the mutations that are responsible for tumors of the colon and
rectum and turned the worldwide search for cancer genes into the hottest field in
medical research. His classic studies of colon cancer are the most highly quoted
papers in scientific literature. This trail-blazing geneticist, branded by his peers
as "the most influential scientist alive," has expanded our understanding
of human cancer with profound implications for diagnosis, prevention and treatment.
Lowell Wood, Ph.D. is an astrophysicist at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory. His research contributed to the international effort to achieve controlled
thermonuclear fusion through the use of lasers. Under his supervision, computers
were first used in the design and development of other computers, an endeavor that
led directly to the development of the computer-assisted design and engineering industry.
He collaborated on the development of x-ray lasers, and has been an advocate for
their further development and application in the laboratory. He is best known for
his role in the design, development and early-stage testing of space-based defenses
against ballistic missile attack. His concept, called Brilliant Pebbles, was adopted
by the Pentagon as the most technically apt of missile defense proposals. In recent
years, Dr. Wood has efforts to apply the Brilliant Pebbles technology to unmanned
space exploration. His work was applied in the lunar probe Clementine, which performed
the first complete, high-quality mapping of the surface of the Moon. |
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