Word: caltech
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Such single-minded devotion to problem solving has led to criticism that Caltech turns out scientists who have little understanding of life outside their fields and works its students so hard, despite the high jinks, that they have little time for politics or social problems...
...build another orbiter when the whole purpose of the shuttle program has been thrown into question is illogical," contends Caltech's Murray. "The shuttle has become a substitute for a goal instead of a means of obtaining a goal." Murray and many other space specialists argue that manned flights should be confined to those missions that require a human presence. Placing satellites into orbit, they argue, rarely requires that astronauts go along on the dangerous ride...
...could this happen? Richard Feynman, the Caltech physicist who turned out to be one of the commission's most insightful members, probably explained it best. The joint hazard was often discussed before a flight, Feynman pointed out. "It flies and nothing happens," he theorized at a commission hearing. "Then it is suggested, therefore, that the risk is no longer so high for the next flight--we can lower our standards a bit because we got away with it last time. It's a kind of Russian roulette." In fact, with each pull of the launch trigger, the odds...
...light from each of the quasars was converted into a spectrum, from which a quasar's characteristics and even its distance can be determined. Most scientists believe that each of the some 3,000 known quasars, and thus the spectrum of each, is unique. Says Charles Lawrence, a Caltech astronomer and a co-author of the Nature paper: "Quasar spectra are something like fingerprints, and no two are the same...
...seemed out of a distant past. William Rogers, the New York City lawyer and former Secretary of State who had lost Washington turf battles to Henry Kissinger in the Nixon Administration. Neil Armstrong, who had taken "one giant leap for mankind" on the moon in 1969. Richard Feynman, the Caltech physicist who won his Nobel Prize 20 years ago. Others were fresher, including Astronaut Sally Ride, who in 1983 became the first American woman in space. They and nine other experts were appointed last week to a presidential commission charged with finding out why the space shuttle Challenger had blown...