Archive for ‘Science’

February 4th, 2012

Lowell-born Roger Boisjoly Warned of Shuttle Challenger Danger

by Marie

In yesterday’s New York Times Douglas Martin wrote of Lowell-born Roger Boisjoly who died a few weeks ago just before the anniversary of the 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. Why link these two events? Remember the O-ring question? An O-ring seal in Challenger’s right solid rocket booster failed at liftoff – a situation that Morton Thiokol, the company that made the boosters, was warned about by one of it’s own engineers – Roger Boisjoly. In a memo to the company, Boisjoly warned that if  the weather was too cold, seals connecting sections of the shuttle’s huge rocket boosters could fail. He wrote: “The result could be a catastrophe of the highest order, loss of human life.”

After the Challenger disaster – Roger Boisjoly gave a presidential commission investigating the disaster internal Morton Thiokol corporate documents – the memo he had written six months before – it was a bombshell. He became a whistle-blower both praised and reviled. He  became sought after as an expert in forensic engineering but his health suffered and suits against his former company were dismissed. Of his former space-project colleagues he remembered that only Sally Ride – the first woman in space – made any positive gesture to him.

Exerpts from his obituary:

NEPHI, UTAH — Our beloved Roger Mark Boisjoly’s time on earth has ended. He passed away January 6, 2012, in Nephi, Utah, after a courageous battle with cancer. He was born April 25, 1938 in Lowell, MA to Joseph Antonio Boisjoly and Isabell St. Cyr.

He was raised and educated in Lowell, MA and graduated  from the University of Lowell with a degree in mechanical engineering. He married Roberta Malcolm on April 21, 1962…  In his college years Roger enjoyed hockey and tennis. Roger worked in the aerospace industry for 27 years. Later he started his own business in forensic engineering and enjoyed speaking to universities on ethics…He will be missed

My note: Besides his wife, the former Roberta Malcolm, he is survived by his daughters Norma Patterson and Darlene Richens; his brothers Ronald (retired Lowell High School teacher), Russell and Richard; and eight grandchildren.

Read the NYTimes article here:    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/04/us/roger-boisjoly-73-dies-warned-of-shuttle-danger.html?_r=1&src=twrhp

Read more about Roger Boisjoly here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Boisjoly

 

 

CategoryHistory, Lowell, Science | Comment3 Comments »

January 7th, 2012

Iconic Cookbook For Middle-Class First Published in 1896

by Marie

Young brides were given a copy of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook as a must-have staple to begin married life. Middle class housewives and “ladies of the house” used it religiously. Later, it became the basis of those science of home economics classes taught in public high schools.

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, one of the best-selling cookbooks in American history, began life in 1896 as the Boston Cooking-School Cookbook. Its author, Boston-born, Medford-raised Fannie Farmer, was writing for the growing number of American women “who aspired to the new ideal of middle-class family life: home ownership, with a wage-earning male head of household and a full-time mother and housewife to oversee the home and family.” The book was a tool for learning what most women tried to learn from other women in their families – mother, aunt, grandmother. In the Preface to the 1919 edition – the last one completely written by Miss Farmer herself – she writes:

With the progress of knowledge the needs of the human body have not been forgotten. During the last decade much time has been given by scientists to the study of foods and their dietetic value, and it is a subject which rightfully should demand much consideration from all. I certainly feel that the time is not far distant when a knowledge of the principles of diet will be an essential part of one’s education. Then mankind will eat to live, will be able to do better mental and physical work, and disease will be less frequent.

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  At the earnest solicitation of educators, pupils, and friends, I have been urged to prepare this book, and I trust it may be a help to many who need its aid. It is my wish that it may not only be looked upon as a compilation of tried and tested recipes, but that it may awaken an interest through its condensed scientific knowledge which will lead to deeper thought and broader study of what to eat.

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Read the full entry from MassMoments.org here to learn more about Fannie Farmer.

CategoryCulture, Education, History, Science | CommentNo Comments »

October 12th, 2011

MassMoments: Life-saving Iron Lung Combats Polio Paralysis.

by Marie

Mass Moments reminds us today of the first use of the so-called “iron lung” developed by Harvard’s Dr. Philip Drinker. He was responding to a terrifying new disease that was causing sudden paralysis. Doctors called it poliomyelitis — or polio. First used on this day October 12, 1928 at Children’s Hospital in Boston,  Drinker’s machine was designed to do the work of the lungs while they were paralyzed. Vacuums connected to it worked like a huge bellows. Although polio was commonly called infantile paralysis because of its tendency to strike children, youth and adults were not immune to the disease. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was struck by polio as a young adult. Iron lungs were eventually built in all sizes. In the 1950s, a vaccine was developed finally developed to combat polio. The number of cases and the need for the iron lung plummeted. By the 1960s, patients with difficulty breathing were using a modern compact respirator. Today an “iron lung” is a museum piece!

On This Day...

…in 1928, Children’s Hospital in Boston was the scene of the first use of an “iron lung.” Developed by a young Harvard doctor, it was little more than a galvanized iron box, a bed, and two household vacuum cleaners. A little girl whose lungs were paralyzed by polio was placed in the airtight metal cylinder with only her head exposed. The 700-pound, 3X 7 foot, galvanized metal machine breathed for her. Vacuum pumps connected to it drew the air in and out of the cylinder, causing the child’s lungs to rise and fall in regular breaths. For the next 30 years, this invention would mean the difference between life and death for victims of polio. It breathed for them. 

 

Read the full article here at MasssMoments.com

CategoryHistory, Science | CommentNo Comments »

October 8th, 2011

Creative Economy and Steve Jobs: NYT Business Day

by PaulM

Mr. Jobs’s legacy will be ‘the blending of technology and poetry. It’s not about design per se; it’s the poetic aspect of the entire enterprise.’

James B. Stewart today writes about Steve Jobs’s passion for great design in a long article in the Business Day section of the NYTimes. If you want to know what I mean when I use the term “creative economy,” this article captures the meaning better than most of what I’ve read about the creative economy. It’s not about “the arts”—it’s about a way of seeing the world through the dual lens of ideas and emotion and doing things that haven’t been done or haven’t been done better up to now. Read the article here, and get the NYT if you want more.

“Most people underestimate his grandeur and his greatness,” Gadi Amit, founder and principal designer of New Deal Design in San Francisco, told me. “They think it’s about design. It’s beyond design. It’s completely holistic, and it’s dogmatic. Things need to be high quality; they have to have poetry and culture in each step. Steve was cut from completely different cloth from most business leaders. He was not a number-crunching guy; he was not a technologist. He was a cultural leader, and he drove Apple from that perspective. He started with culture; then followed with technology and design. No one seems to get that.”

 

CategoryCulture, Current Events, History, Lowell, Poetry, Science | Comment1 Comment »

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October 6th, 2011

Reflections on Apple’s Steve Jobs

by Tony


Last month when Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple I wanted to write something about him and what he accomplished.
I didn’t.

Truthfully, I never felt confident enough that my meager writing ability could do Steve Jobs and his accomplishments justice.
I feel the same today as I try to digest his death.

I am not an Apple fanatic. In fact I own and have owned Windows PC’s all my life.
But Apple’s accomplishments are undeniable and Steve Jobs was the catalyst.
He was a game changer and the game he changed, altered the world.

Last night around 8:00PM I got a breaking news alert informing me of Steve Jobs’ passing on my iPhone 4.
I was stunned. Sure, I knew he was failing. Sure I knew it was only a matter of time…but every time I thought of Job’s inevitable death I thought maybe next month or maybe next week or maybe even tomorrow, but I never thought today. He could never die today. Jobs lived in the future.

As the media world grabbed the story of his death, I watched several shows celebrating the life of Jobs. More than once I heard him compared to another genius, Thomas Edison.
I disagree.

Edison was a scientist. He took electricity and made it light.
Steve Jobs was a time technician. He took tomorrow and made it today.

My favorite Jobs story occurred in 1983. Apple was emerging as a major computer company and Jobs needed someone to take care of the day to day business. He set his sights on Pepsi CEO John Scully. During their meeting Scully resisted Jobs’ offer to take over Apple. Scully told Jobs he knew nothing about computers. But the persistent Jobs knew what he wanted, and he wanted Scully. Here is how John Scully tells the story:

Steve was dressed in his mock turtleneck, blue jeans and running shoes. In those days, he had very dark hair and deep brown piercing eyes. He looks at his running shoes a long time. Then he said, ‘Do you really want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?’

And change the world he did!

RIP Steve Jobs

CategoryCulture, Current Events, Science | CommentNo Comments »

September 18th, 2011

UMass Lowell Authors in New Book on Science & Health Protection to Be Launched Sept. 26

by PaulM

Book Launch: From Critical Science to Solutions: The Best of Scientific Solutions

Monday, September 26, 4:00 pm, at the Allen House, South Campus, UMass Lowell

Richard Clapp edited the book, which is a selection of New Solutions articles published over the past two decades—articles  by scholars and staff from UMass Lowell’s Center for Sustainability and Toxics Use Reduction Institute and other friends in the Boston area.  The book is part of the Work, Health and Environment Series of Baywood Press. Series editors are Charles Levenstein, Robert Forrant, and John Wooding.

IN PRAISE OF THE BOOK:

“This book is a must-read for anybody interested in how science can be used to improve our lives—or to undermine health protection. Dr. Richard Clapp, editor of the “Scientific Solutions” section of New Solutions for 17 years, has chosen wisely from the many articles published during this period. From Critical Science to Solutions provides important insights and will captivate a wide range of readers—from students to experienced public health scientists.”
—Les Boden, Professor of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health

“This thought-provoking collection serves as a call for a science that is unabashedly supportive of intervening to protect the health of working people from occupational and environmental hazards in the face of scientific uncertainty. The contributions in this volume, first published in New Solutions between 1994 and 2010, illustrate how scientific research can be a foundation for action to change public policy. They call attention to the need to develop a science that embraces the precautionary principle to protect workers and the public from the toxic assaults to which they are subjected, and the need for a movement that places the health of working people as its organizing principle.”
—Joel Shufro, Executive Director New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health

CategoryHistory, Lowell, Science | CommentNo Comments »

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September 7th, 2011

“There’s a lot to like about Lowell” ~ Lowell as Geek!

by Marie

We do seem to like lists – “the best places to live,” the “front runners” in the presidential campaign, our bucket list as so on. Even “geekiness” is fodder for list makers. According to Forbes Magazine – Lowell, Massachusetts is #6 on the list of the 20 “geekiest” cities in America. Now there are many ways to define “geekiness” – for Forbes the National Science Foundation’s latest description guided the making of their list. The current version defines “geeks” as “any worker with a bachelor’s level of knowledge and education in science or engineering-related fields or workers in occupations that require some degree of technical knowledge or training.” It’s no surprise that San Jose, California in the heart of Silicon Valley has been deemed “the geek capital of America.” Our South Middlesex neighbor city of Framingham copped the #3 spot on the geek list. Boston is listed at #15. In describing Lowell’s listing, Forbes notes:

Lowell, Mass.14.1% of workforce
16,580 workers employed
Named after Francis Cabot Lowell, the City of Lowell is often cited as “America’s first industrial city.” While most of its mills are gone, the Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford area has attracted a number of technology companies, including Kronos Inc., Jabil Circuit and Juniper Networks.

Read the full article and access the full list here at Forbes.com.

Not surprising that UMass Lowell is big part of the Lowell cloak of geekiness. It’s all about vision, persistence and clout!

CategoryEducation, Greater Lowell, Lowell, Science | CommentNo Comments »

August 29th, 2011

A Post in Reply to a Comment

by Andrew

On my last post, there were a number of comments, but I wanted to highlight one thing Cliff wrote. I thought that this part of a comment he left was worth a full response. Quoted directly: “We can pound Gov Perry for pandering to those of his supporters who don’t believe in evolution.  But, in fact, if God created the whole shebang six thousand years ago, how would we know?  I don’t think that is the way it came to be, but I would not dismiss someone who did.”

Before I get into how we know the creation hypothesis is incorrect, I would like to address a more philosophical point. We live in a culture that encourages us to have strong opinions, be it about whether politician X should be president or whether Jersey Shore can be considered “culture.” Is this a good thing? Maybe, maybe not. It is good to disagree; it keeps life interesting and ensures that we are exposed to many different viewpoints. Currently in our culture, there are several disciplines of science that are subjected to this type of handling. I would argue that this does a great disservice to our society. read more »

CategoryScience | Comment18 Comments »

August 5th, 2011

For Perspective: Juno Set for Jupiter Mission

by PaulM

Read the latest from NASA on today’s planned launch of the Juno spacecraft for its journey to Jupiter five years from now.

“Juno will help us understand how the solar system formed, and how all the planets formed, from the solar nebula some 4.5bn years ago,” said Jack Connerney, deputy principal investigator on the Juno mission at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland.

“After the formation of the sun, the vast majority of mass left over in the solar system resides in Jupiter. The planet is so massive that none of the material that was originally there could escape its gravity, so Jupiter is effectively a sample of the primitive solar nebula that all the planets formed from.”

CategoryCulture, History, Lowell, Science | CommentNo Comments »

August 4th, 2011

Lowell Region Is Sixth Most Geeky in USA: Forbes Mag

by PaulM

This is an extraordinary announcement from Forbes Magazine. San Jose Calif, Boulder Colo., Framingham Mass., Huntsville Ala., and Durham N.C. are the five regions listed as more Geeky than Lowell (figures based on percentage of workers in science, technology, engineering, and math-based jobs). See the list here. Both the City Manager and leftinlowell.com blogged about this announcement, and UMass Lowell Facebooked it early today, thanks to Mike P. on the campus web squad. Forbes online used a picture of the UML Inn & Conference Center with National Park Service canal boat in the Pawtucket Canal in front as the iconic Lowell image (I believe that’s a Jim Higgins photo—nice work, James.)

CategoryCulture, History, Lowell, Science | Comment10 Comments »

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