(August 8, 2013 at 7:01 pm)ManMachine Wrote:(August 8, 2013 at 7:22 am)Rahul Wrote: When NASA put men on the moon it wasn't just seen as a victory for the US. It was seen as a victory for all of humanity.
Remind me, is this a scientific fact or nationalistic hyperbole?
I get the point entirely and I see the damage it can do (and is doing). I personally think this is exactly the kind of egotistical nonsense that will undermine genuine, disinterested scientific discovery.
MM
Except that NASA is no longer simply about "national egos". NASA partners with many international agencies from Europe, Russia, Japan, and elsewhere. The ISS would not have happened were it not for those partnerships. Neither would Cassini, Hubble, Curiosity, even the Shuttle, and many other space projects. And we aren't going to get to Mars and elsewhere by ourselves. Those are the facts on the ground. Moreover, NASA isn't just abut outer space anymore. Its outreach to schools all over the world inspires children to get into stem science fields. And there is nothing disingenuous about that.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
