One Giant Leap For Mankind (backwards)

Reuters reported today(Reuters) how the debate over the teaching of the "Intellegent Design" that has some scientists warning that this trend threatens achedemics and science.

"Among the most significant forces is the rising tide of anti-science sentiment that seems to have its nucleus in Washington but which extends throughout the nation," said Philip Pizzo, Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Hunter Rawlings, acting President of Cornell University , speaking about the challenge to science represented by "intelligent design" which holds that the theory of evolution accepted by the vast majority of scientists is fatally flawed, said, "When ideological division replaces informed exchange, dogma is the result and education suffers." Rawlings also said that the dispute was widening political, social, religious and philosophical rifts in U.S. society.

Also, Entrepreneur wrote in its November 2005 issue,(Entrepreneur Article) that only 6% of American undergraduate degrees were in natural sciences or engineering. Furthermore, only 29% of the papers presented in the top physics journals were by American scientists.

American teens ranked 24th of 29 in basic math skills.

The United States is losing its innovative edge. We are regressing technologically by leaps and bounds.

It is to our shame if we allow this to continue. We put men on the Moon and brought them back alive with technology that pales by today's standards, using computers that can not compete with today's video games.

This must be remedied.

We should all work together to fund and support education and the sciences. Let us halt this great backward leap.

Science Daily anounced today that an international consortium compleated a map of human genetic variation.

In a paper in the Oct. 27 issue of the journal Nature, more than 200 researchers from Canada, China, Japan, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States describe the initial results from their public-private effort to chart the patterns of genetic variation that are common in the world's population. The results provide overwhelming evidence that variation in the human genome is organized into local neighborhoods, called haplotypes, that usually are inherited as intact blocks of information.

What this landmark achievment means is, an acceleration in finding the genetic causes for heart disease, cancer, asthma, and a host of other common diseases.

Please find the complete article here: International Consortium Completes Map Of Human Genetic Variation

It is achievments such as this that prove the need for the adequate funding for research, adequate funding for education, and just as important, support of those doing blue-sky research.

Imagine the potential breakthroughs that could be made.

Please join us, The United Federation Foundation, in our quest: aiding humanity in its evolutionary obligation of self-betterment.

A new way of thinking

We must do better. As a species we must do better. If we hope to mature as a

people we must explore the new ways of thinking that will bring us to a brighter

future. I've heard it said that we do not inherit the world from our ancestors; we

hold it in stewardship for our children.

Wise words.

I know a couple men who carried on a years-long debate about the vehicles the

drove. The debates could escalate into arguements given enough room. Years later

it is amusing to see them drive by..... in vehicles their "rival" advocated. Each

rethinking their choices based on points made by the other.

Funny how we can become addicted to an old way of thinking. Sad how greatly we

limit ourselves with this same old pattern repeated only too often.

Author Whitley Streiber wrote a wonderfull article about this addiction to our old

lables and outdated irrational addiction to old ways of thinking. I invite you to

read his article: Unknown Country article

Yet another bit of science fiction evolves into science fact.

The super strong transparent aluminum Montgomery Scott of Star Trek fame "leaked" to the metallurgists is now a reality.

October 17,2005. The Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs at WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) has announced a new testing phase for the substance aluminum oxynitride.

Aluminum oxynitride is a glass like material which may very well replace traditional laminated armored glass. Both light weight and resistant to scratching, aluminum oxynitride has withstood both Russia's.30 caliber M-44 sniper rifle and the Browning .50 caliber Sniper Rifle with armor piercing bullets. The winsow samples also foiled .30 caliber anti-aircraft fire. Testing with .50 caliber machine gun fire and explosives are forthcoming.

Please find the Air Force release here:Air Force Link

Military uses aside, one can only wonder at the myriad uses for transparent aluminium. Space craft, submarines, medicine, architecture, and a host of other applications. We could very well discover new areas of science that may not have occured to us. Having a new transparent ultra light super strong material could lead to new ways of thinking, or seed lines of research that would not otherwise have been possible. Consider this: if one is going to concieve of and construct a "nanoscopic camera" it's going to need an awful light lens and housing.

A New defense against the Superbugs?

It may be the most important breakthrough since the discovery of pennicilin. The October 13th issue on Nature reports the discovery of a new class of antibiotic that is proving to be highly effective against the bacteria Streptococcus Pneumoniae, and Streptococcus Pyogenes, including strains that are now resistant to antibiotics. These are the bacteria responsible for such diseases as meningitis, community-acquired pneumonia, strep throat, life-threatening sepsis, and flesh necrotic skin infections.

The team who made the discovery was a collaberation between researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Denmark-based biotech company Novozymes.

Please find the complete Science Daily article here: Article

Nasa will host a press conference Oct 19 to present recent Hubble Images. These images show the Earth's moon bathed in ultraviolet light.
Full article:
Recent images from Hubble's ACS (Advanced Camera for Surveys) suggest that the Moon may hold rich deposits of iron oxides and titanium. These substances could be used fuel, oxygen and other material necessities of space exploration.

Also today, Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory announced a new stellar nursery in the the least likely of places: Spawned by super-massive black holes.

"Massive black holes are usually known for violence and destruction," said Sergei Nayakshin of the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. "So it's remarkable this black hole helped create new stars, not just destroy them." Nasa release:

With discoveries such as these happening more often, it begs the question: Why haven't we gone back to the moon yet? Why have we not made it to Mars ? By today's standards the computers and equipment were rudimentary, our knowledge quite limited, yet: We made it. We left the Earth and walked on the Moon. Why have we been content to wait these 30 plus years, and are just now getting around to discussing the moon again and considering a manned Mission to Mars?

We must give serious though to this laurel-resting. Probes and telescopic images are not exploration. They mearly point us to the future.

More and more we kept finding fact in what was once thought to be know more than myth. Troy was thought to be nothing but a fairy tale until a few years ago when we found the ruins of the city. The hanging gardens of Babylon were nothing more then myth until a satellite took photos of it. And today the AP reported that found in a remote Indonesian cave they have found still more evidence that a being similar to the hobbit did at least once roam the earth. http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/ap_051011_hobbit_jaw.html

And recently it is speculated that the land of Homers Odyssey has been found. http://www.livescience.com/history/ap_050930_homer.html

Just imagine what tomorrow will bring.

The sky is not the limit

If you stop and consider for a moment, while the sky may be a limit, it is not the limit. This is why we of the United Federation Foundation are staunch supporters of “Blue Sky Research”.

In a near infinite universe, nearly anything is not only possible, it is probable. By supporting Blue Sky Research, Humanity stands to learn remarkable things. The potential for ground breaking discoveries in science, medicine, space exploration, ecology, alternative energy, and many other fields is staggering.

Cancer treatments are being found in tree bark and under the sea. We owe Teflon and pace-makers to the space program. Mitochondrial DNA can be used to trace our maternal bloodlines. The temperature differential between various depths of sea water can be harnessed to generate power. In ancient Iraq, they had the means to electroplate metal. Stem cells have been used to repair damaged spinal cords in laboratory animals.

If you think about it, even such simple things as wine, escargot, and the truffle are products of a simple form of blue sky research. It does after all take a bit of dedication to drink that sour frothy liquid in a flagon or eat something a pig just dug out of the ground.

Had it not been for that dedication, that will to find out the why and the how of the universe, the world would be a poorer place. Had it not been for that dedication, there would be that much more suffering to be found on our world. We should all consider dedicating ourselves to making sure the study and research is being funded and utilized to the betterment of all.

The United Federation Foundation invites you to join us on this quest for a better, brighter tomorrow. After all: The sky is not the limit anymore.

The UK government's short-term and results-driven attitude to science funding is jeopardizing blue-sky research. So says Professor Mark Walport, director of Britain's biggest biomedical research charity, the Welcome Trust.

Professor Walport told The Times (London) this week that by ring-fencing funding for areas of science that are likely to bring quick economic or practical benefits, the government is undermining forward-looking inquiry. He argues that blue-sky research often leads to breakthroughs that are far more significant than targeted programs of research.

Professor Walport raises some serious issues. Many great scientific breakthroughs have been achieved not through pursuing immediate goals, but through open-ended inquiry, where the scientists have no idea where their work will lead.

As American science writer Ronald Bailey points out, 'when the optical laser was invented in 1960, it was dismissed as "an invention looking for a job". No one could imagine of what possible use this interesting phenomenon might be. Of course, now it is integral to the operation of hundreds of everyday products: it runs our printers, runs our optical telephone networks, performs laser surgery to correct myopia, removes tattoos, plays our CDs, opens clogged arteries, helps level our crop fields, etc. It's ubiquitous' (1).

As science writer and TV producer Simon Singh has argued on spiked, 'I think non-scientists often feel that science is about finding answers to problems, but this misses out half of the scientific method, as suggested by the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss: "The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers; he is one who asks the right questions"'.

We could miss out on unforeseen future benefits

The danger with ring-fencing funding is not only that we could miss out on unforeseen future benefits. There is also, as Professor Walport warns, 'a serious danger that we will spend money on projects that are less good'. Instead scientists should be forced to play by the same rules as each other, he says, as 'it is absolutely key that funding is used to support the best scientists with the best ideas', rather than on the basis of what area of science they are pursuing.

Professor Walport has announced that the Welcome Trust is prepared to put its money where its mouth is, with plans to invest over £2billion during the next five years to support biomedical research (2). He said 'we will build on the progress made so far, continuing our commitment to invest in excellence by funding the best scientists to conduct outstanding research'.

The Trust's commitment to blue-sky research is welcome. If only more people, particularly in the scientific establishment, would consistently put the case for the advancement of knowledge for knowledge's sake, a real challenge to the government's defensive short-term outlook could be mounted.

"For that one fraction of a second you were open to options you never

considered. That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and

studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existance!" ... John de

Lancie speaking as "Q".

It is for moments like this that Mankind was born to strive for.

All is as it was and as it shall evermore be. And then, a new door is

discovered. A door leading to a new way of thinking.

Consider the following: A naked mathematician running through the

street, an 18th century alchemist sitting under a tree, and an achedemic "failure"

watching a man fall from the roof of a neighbor's house.

Three trivial examples of three people doing three seemingly unrelated

things. Do you know who these three men were? Do you know what they did? Do

you know the debt we owe them?

Archemedes was the naked guy running the streets when he conceived his

principals of specific gravity when lowering himself into a bath. Sir Issac Newton

was sitting under the tree when his laws of motion were conceived. Albert Einstein

watched a man fall and conceived his theory of relativity.

For that "one fraction of a second" They SAW what was possible. They

changed the way we think. They opened up new possibilities.

Would you not do the same if presented the opportunities?

We all have this potential within us. If not for the actual discoveries, can

we not find it within ourselves to give of ourselves to nuture this potential in

others?

We of the United Federation Foundation have this belief.

Will you join us in this quest to nurture humanities potential? Will you be

the one to aid in discovering the next pariadigm of humanities evololution?