Eating Blackberries
Some people have made fun of a recent comment made by one of John McCain’s aides, that the grizzled senator helped to invent the RIM Blackberry. Ok, so in reality Douglas J Holtz-Eakin (why do all these guys have names that sound made-up?) was pointing to McCain’s time on the Senate Commerce Committee, but it seems to me like another example of taking credit for an idea after it’s been successful. The idea in question here being mobile telephony.
The latest Nokia
Some of the older ones around here remember the collective media and public laughter at London bankers who were some of the early adopters of mobile telephones. I recall the original phones in the mid-80s, which were huge and sometimes had to be physically connected to a car (hence the name Carphone Warehouse, of course). ‘Why would anyone want one of those?’, they said; ‘why not just use the phone you have at home?.’ Even the notion that a phone number referred to a person rather than a location was difficult to grasp. By the way, am I the only person who thought these phones looked a lot like the radios the police had in the French Connection (the film, not the clothes shop)?
But now of course, nearly all of us have these wonderful gadgets in our pockets, and therefore don’t refer to them as gadgets any more, even though they possess a huge array of functionality that most people rarely use, such as mobile internet, calendaring, document reading, and so on. Similarly the iPod, where I recall a similar cry of ‘why not just listen to your CDs individually?’. Of course, nowadays most of us use them not just for music, but for TV programmes and movies, and crucially for the growing phenomenon of podcasting, which few people thought of when these devices were introduced - especially people like John McCain, who by all accounts doesn’t know how to use a computer. I wonder what he would make of the iPhone 3G, which is a combination of the above two things, and is a Satnav too. I guess he would say that his fondness of military spending would support the satellite developments that gave us GPS. Actually, maybe he would be right there! Anyway, there are a lot of people like McCain who decry technological developments while early adopters are eagerly consuming them. I am reminded of a notable physicist at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory who is well-known locally for never touching a computer himself, and employs a secretary (of sorts) to perform his programming; this man will remain nameless.
And then there are those who think that more development is not worthwhile. Sir David King has achieved a rapid notoriety for his disparaging comments about the LHC, which of course did not destroy the Earth last week when it was switched on; why would it, when the collisions which will make those pesky black holes are scheduled to occur some weeks from now? Anyway, Sir David intimated that 4.4 billion quid on solving the mysteries of the universe is a waste of money, a notion that has unfortunately gained traction in some of the science press (for example Research Fortnight). Brian Cox (who I now live next door to at Manchester, girls) said exactly the right thing, and completely demolished Sir David. After all, we are presently chucking a lot more money than that at dodgy banks, and to put it into context we need to be building a great many power stations in this country over the next few years, each of which has a similar price tag to the LHC. Brian rightly pointed out that there are a lot of us (me included) who work on machines not just for particle physicists play with, but which also have a lot of practical uses, nuclear power, X-ray production and radiotherapy being just three insigificant ones.
Sir David’s comments smack a great deal of a mythical quote by US patent commissioner Charles Duell at the end of the 19th Century, who supposedly declared that ‘Everything that can be invented, has been invented’. It’s only a short step to fundamentalism and the rejection of novelty in all its forms. ‘What more do we need to know? Don’t we know enough already?’
I prefer Mark Twain, who said perceptively: ‘The man with a new idea is a crank, until the idea succeeds’. Cue Edison, of course…
Senator McCain having trouble texting
So, back to John McCain. Less well-reported is that a group of scientists have posed a set of key questions on science policy to both Obama and McCain. Their replies are interesting, being prepared comments from their likely policy. Much of the response of both candidates is the usual generic fluff, and Senator McCain in particular likes to make reference to his time in the army (and the navy, apparently), and also gets an oblique reference to his invention of the Blackberry whilst on ‘that committee’. Amongst all that, there are a couple of things worth pointing out. Firstly, Obama is clearly less keen on space and NASA than McCain is (no surprise there).
‘…work toward a 21st century vision of space that constantly pushes the envelope on new technologies as it pursues a balanced national portfolio that expands our reach into the heavens and improves life here on Earth.’ (Obama)
‘…Ensure that space exploration is top priority and that the U.S. remains a leader (against China).’ (McCain)
Second, McCain comes out with very clear targets for new-build nuclear power, whilst Obama is more circumspect:
‘As President, I will put the country on track to building 45 new reactors by 2030 so that we can meet our growing energy demand and reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. Nuclear power is a proven, domestic, zero-emission source of energy and it is time to recommit to advancing our use of nuclear energy.’ (McCain)
‘A new generation of nuclear electric technologies that address cost, safety, waste disposal, and proliferation risks.’ (Obama)
Finally, the issue of stem cells expose the typical Republican/Democratic split in the US:
‘I oppose the intentional creation of human embryos for research purposes and I voted to ban the practice of “fetal farming,” making it a federal crime for researchers to use cells or fetal tissue from an embryo created for research purposes.’ (McCain)
‘As president, I will lift the current administration’s ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001 through executive order, and I will ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight’ (Obama)
It will be an interesting autumn for science, and for physics in particular.
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