The Best Australian Science Writing 2012 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1742233481 ISBN 13: 9781742233482

Verlag: NewSouth, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

How were Ned Kelly's bones finally identified? What makes cockroaches some of the most successful creatures on the planet? Could some obscure bacteria finally rid the world of dengue fever? How did infant reflux become the disease of the moment? Why does the discovery of a planet made of one huge diamond cause so much media excitement? And do video games really rot children's brains? From the furthest reaches of the universe to the microscopic world of our genes, science offers writers the kind of scope other subjects simply can't match. Good writing about science can be moving, funny, exhilarating or poetic, but it will always be honest and rigorous about the research that underlies it. Editor Elizabeth Finkel showcases the nation's best science writing, drawn from some of this country's best publications. With a foreword by Nobel Prize-winning astronomer Professor Brian Schmidt, the anthology includes contributions from Margaret Wertheim, Ashley Hay, Wilson da Silva, Jo Chandler and a host of new voices.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Elizabeth Finkel is an award-winning journalist and a former professional research scientist. Her work has been appeared in numerous publications, including the Age, the Lancet, Nature Medicine, New Scientist, and Science, and has been broadcast for ABC Radio National. She is the author of The Genome Generation and Stem Cells: Controversy at the Frontiers of Science.

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The Best Australian Science Writing 2012

By Elizabeth Finkel

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

Copyright © 2012 University of New South Wales Press Ltd
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-74223-348-2

Contents

The Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing, 
Advisory panel, 
Contributors, 
Foreword: A new era for science writing Brian Schmidt, 
Introduction: Masters of the popular treatise Elizabeth Finkel, 
Gateway to heaven Wilson da Silva, 
Neutrinos and the speed of light ... not so fast Jonathan Carroll, 
Blank canvas Corey Butler, 
Under the hood of the universe Margaret Wertheim, 
The ill-effects of quackery v scientific evidence Cassandra Wilkinson, 
A hero's legend and a stolen skull rustle up a DNA drama Christine Kenneally, 
The rise and fall of infant reflux Pamela Douglas, 
Earthquakes: When the world moves Emma Young, 
Seven billion reasons to be a feminist Rob Brooks, 
Balancing act Adrian Hyland, 
Under the influence Frank Bowden, 
Why clever people believe in silly things Craig Cormick, 
Painting the rainforests REDD William Laurance, 
The evolution of the inadequate modern male Peter McAllister, 
A wee solution Lachlan Bolton, 
Diamond planets, climate change and the scientific method Matthew Bailes, 
Storm front Jo Chandler, 
I want to play video games when I grow up (and so should you) Michael Kasumovic, 
Licence to heal Nick Miller, 
Secret life of Enceladus Richard A. Lovett, 
The roach's secret Wendy Zukerman, 
Australia in 2050 Julian Cribb, 
Doctor's orders: Debunking homeopathy once and for all I an Musgrave, 
The Aussie mozzie posse Ashley Hay, 
Life in Lake Vostok? The link between Antarctica and extra-terrestrials Helen Maynard-Casely, 
The doctor is in Ranjana Srivastava, 
A dream of goldfinches Vanessa Mickan, 
Acknowledgments, 

CHAPTER 1

Gateway to heaven

Wilson da Silva

If humanity has a beachhead to the stars, this is it: Cape Canaveral. This sandy promontory, jutting out into the Atlantic from a barrier island on the midway point of Florida's eastern coast, is the site of most of the manned space launches in human history.

Inhabited for more than 12,000 years, and the scene of some of the first encounters between Europeans and Native Americans, it's often hot and humid, a lowland speckled with marshy lagoons in every direction. Often sunny year-round, it's also prone to sudden thunderstorms and lightning.

To the north is the Canaveral National Seashore, a national park of pristine beaches and sand dunes that are sanctuary to an abundance of wildlife, from dolphins and manatees to giant sea turtles. It's a spawning ground for saltwater fish, and alligators swim the rivers and lagoons. It is from this subtropical setting that more than 880 passengers have been lofted into the cold of space.

As long as I can remember, I've wanted to come here to see a manned launch. And ever since staying up as a child to watch live pictures on TV of the first space shuttle heaving into the sky in April 1981, I've wanted – most of all – to see a shuttle launch.

So here I was, 30 years later, as the bold – and at times tragic – era of the shuttle draws to a close, and with the last three remaining orbiters facing retirement, finally ready to see my first manned launch, and my first shuttle takeoff. I'd come to see the farewell flight of Discovery, the most travelled and successful of them all.

Discovery was the third shuttle to join the fleet, and made her maiden voyage in August 1984 – when Ronald Reagan was in the White House, Bob Hawke was in his first term as prime minister, sprinter Carl Lewis had just won four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics, apartheid reigned in South Africa and Prince's Purple Rain was top of the charts.

The actual spacecraft is even older: construction began in August 1979, based on designs proposed a decade earlier. In fact, the whole fleet's tailor-made onboard avionics computer had 424 kilobytes of magnetic core memory, could process 400,000 instructions per second, had no hard drive, and loaded software from magnetic tape. Upgrades in 1990 boosted memory capacity to about 1 megabyte and processor speed to 1.2 million instructions per second.

Considering how often the space shuttle is billed as the most complex vehicle ever built, and its decades-long poster child status for everything futuristic, it's amazing just how much of a technological relic it is. My iPhone has more memory than the avionics!

But it was the first civilian craft to use a computerised fly-bywire digital flight control system, with no mechanical or hydraulic links between the pilot's joystick and the control surfaces or thrusters – the kind we take for granted on modern aeroplanes. It did not burn out its heat shield on re-entry, and it was the first reusable spacecraft.

Since its maiden flight, Discovery has completed 39 missions, making it the most successful in NASA's fleet. It benefited from lessons learned in the construction and testing of its sister craft, which is why it weighs some 3000kg less than the first shuttle, Columbia.

Unofficially, it's considered 'the lucky shuttle': after the disasters that destroyed Challenger at takeoff in 1986 and Columbia on reentry in 2003 (its two sisters from the original fleet of three), Discovery was twice chosen to restart the shuttle program.

And she has indeed had a colourful run: launching the Hubble Space Telescope, flying the first female shuttle pilot, Eileen Collins (who also became the first female shuttle commander, also aboard Discovery). It was the first – and the last – shuttle to dock with Mir, Russia's space station, put Australia's first communications satellite, Aussat 1, into orbit, twice repaired Hubble, and was the first shuttle to dock with the International Space Station. It flew the highest altitude, and carried the oldest human into space: John Glenn, who was 77 and a US Senator at the time, and who had made his name as the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.

'It's just amazing what this vehicle can do,' astronaut Eric Boe, the pilot for Discovery's final flight, told a news conference. 'It can launch like a rocket, go into orbit, change into a spacecraft and then land as a hypersonic airplane. What's amazing is just how well she sails. It's an honour and privilege for all of us to get the chance to fly on her final voyage.'

* * *

The drive to the launch site is a collage of multi-lane highways and abundant elephant grass interspersed with rivers and lagoons and, of course, bridges and causeways. It's not hard to believe that there are almost 7800 lakes and 19,000km of waterways in Florida.

More surprising is the unending banality of crass Americana: multi-coloured signs atop tall towers are everywhere, advertising Dennys, Jack in the Box, Burger King, TGI Fridays, U-Haul – along with a plethora of makeshift signs hollering daily specials in large magnetic letters.

I'd arrived the night before in Orlando, the nearest international airport, and driven to my motel in Titusville, a sizeable town just across the Indian River from the Kennedy Space Center. Having breakfast at a diner that morning, I watched the morning news shows excitedly discussing the last flight of Discovery, with a live cross to reporters at Cape Canaveral,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: NewSouth
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1742233481
• ISBN 13: 9781742233482
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 246
• Herausgeber: Finkel Elizabeth
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland