On Tue, Jan 06, 2004 at 11:39:41AM -0800, Steve Schear wrote: > As has been discussed on this list many who graduated college before the > late '70s were able to pursue independent science experimentation (esp. > chemistry and rocketry, etc.).
> Now almost all science can only be learned in the classroom.
What's your motivation for saying that?!
Are you saying that new science has gone too far ahead of the layman's understanding, that tools are expensive/inaccessible, or that knowledge is being hoarded by a conspiracy of Illuminati scientists? I don't buy it. Nature is still out there to be studied by those willing to look.
Just try setting up a well-equipped personal chem. lab w/o inviting a visit from the BATF or FBI. Its next to impossible for minors to purchase chemical reagents, I had no trouble in the 60s.
Try building and finding a place to launch an amateur rocket (it can be done, but now only with the greatest of regulatory red tape). I did. Some of my group's rockets achieved heights over 100,000 ft (confirmed by Edward's AFB radar.)
Try doing independent research in bacterial or viral genetics and see who shows up on your doorstep.
> Many of the greatest scientific break throughs were made by amateurs.
who are alive and well, AFAICT...
http://www.sas.org
What about:
ftp://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/pub/astro/SL9/animations/keck-R.mpg
Notice that none of the science avenues presented are the one's I've discussed.
steve
