Tag: Science

How One Man Overcame Ridicule and Changed Rocket Science Forever

Creativity, SciencePublished onUpdated on30 Comments on How One Man Overcame Ridicule and Changed Rocket Science Forever

The New Horizons space probe has been on a decade long mission to reach the dwarf planet Pluto, and the imagery is amazing. It would seem that this is just the first waypoint. Next on the itinerary is a Kuiper Belt object, 1 billion miles away.

[UPDATE] “As of March 2019, New Horizons was about 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion kilometres) from Earth, operating normally and speeding deeper into the Kuiper Belt at nearly 33,000 miles (53,000 kilometres) per hour.”

Imagine for a moment how complex the New Horizons project has been. Persisting for over a decade with such a specific purpose. But in many ways, the first part of the journey was the hardest. Leaving our Earth’s atmosphere is hard – gravity will do that for you.

Robert Goddard is now considered one of the founding fathers of modern rocket science. He was visionary. It is due to his discoveries and his own form of persistence that we even have interplanetary missions.

One of the reasons I share the story with you is that it wasn’t such a smooth ride for Robert Goddard. The number of doubters speaking out against him at times must have felt like a gravitational force he may never draw away from. The creative conflict in his story is intriguing. We may add his tale to many who were considered ahead of their time, but ostracised for their originality.

Inspiration and Support

Robert was captivated by the allure of space. This came primarily from reading The War of Worlds by HG Wells – he was hooked. Fast forward twenty years and he was making pioneering discoveries in rocket propulsion. His contemporaries did not understand him and he found it almost impossible to gain financial backing to continue his work. In 1915 he even considered abandoning his efforts in the face of such continued challenge and isolation.

The Assistant Secretary of The Smithsonian, Charles Greeley Abbot, did not hold the same opinion. After reviewing an application for support from Goddard he provided a grant of $5,000 in 1917 to accelerate his efforts. This proved pivotal to Robert Goddard, encouraging him to persist when so many around him were full of doubt.

Squashing Ideas

In 1919, the Smithsonian published Goddard’s classic treatise “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections” (Vol. 71, No. 2). This scientific report exacerbated the challenge and doubt from his peers. Goddard had outlined a proposal for a rocket leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. His proposed rocket flight to The Moon drew wider public ridicule from the press. Everyone doubted his theory, and the press made a mockery of his ideas.

This had a profound effect on Goddard’s perspective and disposition. He became more guarded and isolated in his work. The list of those he trusted with his thinking dwindled. At the time a peer at the Californian Institute of Technology highlighted the challenges of not collaborating:

The trouble with secrecy is that one can easily go in the wrong direction and never know it.

Despite this on March 16, 1926, Goddard constructed and successfully tested the first rocket using liquid fuel. A flight as significant to history as that of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.

He never got to see the fruit of his labours and died in 1945 from throat cancer. He was posthumously awarded over 200 patents for his discoveries and pioneering thinking in the field of rocket propulsion. Nowadays he is a celebrated creative scientist who paved the way for human exploration.

Creative Traits

In my opinion one of the most important traits of creative individuals is vision. It is clear that due to Goddard’s unique insight into the field he brought the horizon closer much more quickly than others. It is perhaps his Tenacity and Courage in the face of such widespread doubt that defines his creative spirit.

A further element that is clear within this story is the impact of the people around him. The negative voices were there from the start and they persisted. But it is the people that championed his ideas and said, “Yes!” that had the crucial impact. His wife continued to share and celebrate his work after his death, raising awareness and appreciation for his foresight. The support he received throughout his career from the Smithsonian in finances and belief is likely to be regarded as having the most impact. When others doubted, Charles Abbot believed. Mirroring the foresight that Goddard showed himself. In Goddard’s own words of appreciation to Abbot:

I am particularly grateful for your interest, encouragement, and far-sightedness. I feel that I cannot overestimate the value of your backing, at times when hardly anyone else in the world could see anything of importance in the undertaking.

Your Next Steps

Ideas do not exist in a vacuum and the story of Robert Goddard is as much about those who encouraged him. The open-mindedness to encourage and nurture nascent ideas is a critical dynamic as new thinking develops. Yes, we may need to show Courage and Tenacity when our ideas are out there, but new ideas rely on the courage of others too.

  • Something we can do, with our colleagues and students, when developing new creative ideas is to say “Yes“. It changes everything and signals openness to what might be next. It signals encouragement.
  • When we know that ideas are at an early phase we need to adjust our critique appropriately. In other words, when we hear new thinking we must be more delicate and encouraging as they take their first steps into the wild.
  • “Hold your ideas lightly“, is a good way to explain the mindset we need to have when sharing early ideas too. As the bearer of those new ideas, we have to be willing and open to others helping to make them better.

Just imagine the conversation fifteen, maybe twenty years ago:

“I think we should try and send a probe into the furthest reaches of our solar system. To Pluto.”

“That’s over 4.6 billion miles away.”

“Yes and the technology has not been invented yet and it will take us over a decade to get there.”

“Yes, great. We’ll call it the Decadal Survey. Let’s start.”

Goddard would have cherished the opportunity to see the images of our solar system and those from the New Horizons mission. I am certain he would have quietly approved of the tenacity and conviction of those who held the early theories and ideas. But also he would have recognised the value of those who showed similar “far-sightedness” in their unwavering support and encouragement.

References

“See New Horizons’ Entire Pluto Flyby in 23 Seconds.” 2015.
“Robert H. Goddard: American Rocket Pioneer | Smithsonian …” 2012.
“Robert H. Goddard – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” 2011.
“NASA – Dr. Robert H. Goddard, American Rocketry Pioneer.” 2004.

The Big Bang Breakthrough: a cosmological self-examination

CuriosityPublished onUpdated onLeave a Comment on The Big Bang Breakthrough: a cosmological self-examination

“We are talking right now about a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, so we see the face of the Big Bang. It is an image of the gravitational waves which are purely quantum gravity feature of what was produced in the Big Bang.”

This is footage of Professor Andrei Linde being told there is evidence that supports his life’s work. Along with Alan Guth he proposed a theory of cosmological inflation, the expansion of space in the early universe. The original ideas were proposed in 1980 by Guth and have now been supported by this latest discovery from a team of American physicists.

“Reaching back across 13.8 billion years to the first sliver of cosmic time with telescopes at the South Pole, a team of astronomers led by John M. Kovac of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics detected ripples in the fabric of space-time — so-called gravitational waves — the signature of a universe being wrenched violently apart when it was roughly a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second old. They are the long-sought smoking-gun evidence of inflation, proof, Kovac and his colleagues say, that Guth was correct.”

I don’t profess to understand the science behind what they were looking for or indeed how they could explore such evidence in the first place. What strikes me though about the film is how it signals the twilight of a period of time for those scientists involved. A prolonged time of theory, of uncertainty and exploration is, perhaps coming to an end. The evidence still needs to be corroborated, but the emotional moment when Linde was told of the emerging evidence is incredible.

There is much to admire in those people around us who choose to remain in a place of acute uncertainty, often in science, who become accustomed to working against orthodoxy or popular belief. Individuals who have the will and determination to stand by a theory and bide their time over decades are part of a select group of explorers.

It reminds me of the Higgs boson particle discovery from the work at CERN. This emerged from the theoretical work of François Englert and Peter Higgs fifty years ago. They proposed the mechanism that suggested the existence of the particle, leading to a forty year scientific search and of course the development of the Large Hadron Collider one of the largest and most complex experimental science facilities ever developed.

We can only wonder what it must be like to have wondered, theorised and developed ideas for such a protracted length of time. What must it have been like for Englert, Higgs, Guth, and Linde to have lived with unanswered questions for so long? How must it feel to be told that you were right all along? What defines the character of such a determined group of individuals? We owe a huge amount to these individuals who for many years wrestle and struggle with the unanswered questions of our world.

For Linde the emotion comes across clearly in the footage and his disbelief, even scepticism is apparent towards the end of the film. The dawn of certainty for Linde is captured beautifully on his doorstep – as monumental a discovery as it is for him and Guth, it is also a fascinating glimpse into our cosmological self-examination.

One blog commenter sums up the revelatory moment from the film perfectly: “the universe regarding itself, and being overwhelmed by what it learns.”

Oil’d – How Could Our Pupils Make an Animation Like This?

Curriculum, Literacy, SciencePublished onUpdated onLeave a Comment on Oil’d – How Could Our Pupils Make an Animation Like This?

I’m fascinated by the representation of data using infographics. I like their bold visual approach and how the style and composition signals the content it is communicating.

Chris Harmon a designer and animator from the Greater New York City area created this beautiful and thought provoking animation called Oil’d. It explores how dependent we are to oil and how much was lost into the ocean from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

Oil’d from Chris Harmon on Vimeo.

Just from the presentation of information about the oil spill we could go in many different directions with our classes.

  • Exploring he sources of information used
  • Verifying the accuracy of the data included in the film

However if we unpick the animation layer by layer we get a much better idea of the great skill with which Chris used to complete it. Wouldn’t it be great to have Chris in front of a class of students explaining how he went about creating the animation, the stages of planning and execution.

For me there are many elements and skills that would on their own make excellent projects for children to explore and be engaged in:

Data
The maths involved in comparing and cross referencing the data, and what so many good infographic do the data-metaphor, juxtaposing information against something we find easy to refer to. For example the number of plastic bottles inside the Empire State Building, which we know is big!

Authentic information and research
Finding accurate information and data would be another important skill that would challenge a student to create something equally authentic and meaningful. We have the tools with which to find huge amounts of information and data but we need to know how to filter it. I don’t think teaching children how to search is enough, that is the first step, it is how we then process that information that needs time to be demonstrated and improved.

Persuasion
With my literacy hat on this animation pushes us to consider the impact of oil on our lives and has a strong persuasive message. The art of persuasive writing and in this case the careful scripting would be great to develop in this sort of medium, perhaps about a local issue.

Animation
The artwork and animation are obviously professional, but there is much to explore about the use of colour to convey meaning and an overall message. The colour schemes remind me of the Breathing Earth which also depicts an environmental message. It would be good for children to explore symbols and how we might convey a message in a visual way – a comparison type task would fit well here.

I think this animation is a great example of the sort of cross-curricular, multi-skill outcome that should be challenging our pupils in our schools. Making an animated infographic film about a local issue would cover so much. Furthermore if you had the opportunity to involve expertise, like Chris Harmon’s, it would provide that spark that would spur such a project onwards even further.

#UKSnowDepth

Mapping, MathsPublished on11 Comments on #UKSnowDepth

The snow in the UK has really kicked in this week and many, many schools are closed – I thought we could take the opportunity to create some learning resources related to the conditions.

I discovered this list of snow depths but then thought perhaps we could simply crowd-source some accurate data from colleagues across the UK adding their own personal measurements. Collaborating on a map would also provide us the location too.

Here is the map so far – use the link below the map to add your own measurements.


View #UKSnowDepth in a larger map

I expect there are a great many different ways we could use this data (and this snowy experience) when we get back to classes. Here are a few thoughts of mine:

  • Create simple graphs and chart to represent the data. Answer questions to interpret the information.
  • Develop your own map for the snow depth on your school site, taking measurements in different locations. Explore the conditions that might have brought about the highest depth.
  • Gather information from other countries in Europe that have been effected.
  • Make comparisons to countries that have a constant or more regular snowfall.
  • Cross reference the snow depths to the temperatures – repeat for other countries.
  • Design a snow depth instrument.
  • Learn about the depth of snow during expeditions to Everest or the Poles.
  • Read historic accounts of expeditions and references to snow depth.
  • Learn about different types of snow and how it changes under different temperatures and conditions.
  • Explore freezing and melting.
  • Look at insulation and conduct an investigation about keeping something cold or hot.

What ideas do you have for back-to-school-after-the-snow days – leave a comment with your thoughts.

Making Superheroes to Represent the Planets

Superheroes, VoicethreadPublished onUpdated on1 Comment on Making Superheroes to Represent the Planets

TerraFirma

We returned to our information Voicethreads today that we created yesterday about the different planets in our solar system. I wanted the children to consolidate some of the information that they had learned about the planets.

To do this we asked the children to create a superhero that represented a planet and some of it’s characteristics. Clearly this ties in well with the topic we are running, and provided the children some rehearsal for when they create their own original hero. But I think works well whether you are doing this topic or not, as a superhero is ideal for personifying the different physical characteristics of the planets.

We had a look at two different free online superhero creators: from Marvel Kids and HeroMachine from UGO. Both are very good but we decided that the HeroMachine had more choice in terms of customising the hero. This would of course provide better choice for the children when creating their own. (We used HeroMachine version 2.5 rather than the Alpha version 3.0) Both creators give you a massive palette of masks, skins, tails, accessories, wings, auras and insignias (plus much more) these can all be coloured, layered and customised.

The children were working in pairs on laptops in the classroom. I gave each pair a planet to work on and directed them to three things for information:

  • The Voicethread we made that gathered everyone’s information in one place, a good starting point.
  • Websites tagged with “planets” from our Delicious account.
  • Any other web based resources they can find.

Before they set off I opened HeroMachine and demonstrated making a character representing Earth and highlighted the choices I was making and the reasons I made them – like a modelled writing session. For example the colours green and blue and why I used more blue to show the ratio of water to land. I emphasised the need to understand the planet they were representing and asked them to think of colour, size and atmosphere. This kept it simple and achievable as some planetary facts are too complex to represent.

Jupiter

You can see the start of a Jupiter based superhero here in which children have chosen the largest hero body to show it’s size and also a red belt which they explained represents the red spot on Jupiter.

VenusVenus is represented here and is shown with the colours of heat as it is close to the Sun with surface temperatures over 460 degrees Celsius.

One pair spent some time looking at a Wikipedia article on Saturn and decided that they would make a male superhero because Saturn was a God, which is great – they went on to explore ways they could represent the rings with either superhero clothes or objects he would carry.

I am looking forward to finishing these off with the children, it has been a great way to personify the facts about the planets and has really helped to consolidate their understanding of the solar system.