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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1989, PAGE 7 PAGE SEYEN ... AND THE MEEK (SCIIENT[STS) SHALL P41URIT TE1E SUN A few weeks ago a couple of chemists, Stanley Pans and Martin Fleischmann, shocked the scientific world by annaun- cing that they had achieved fusion in a test tube. Shares in Consolidated Seawater rose sharly on world exchanges. The shockçing thing is not the discovery itself but rather the billions of dollars that have been spent on huge expensive facilities in the assumption that such a simple experiment was clearly impassible. As a former research assistant, I find this ironie. The true scientific rnethod - the ability ta observe and measure events, analyse them, and deduce the cause and effect relationships - began with Newton in the 1700's and started withering soon after. As long as science was the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, it fiourished; as soon as people made careers of it, it became an end ini itself. Test tube experiments just aren't sexy enough, so nobody does them any more. Cheap, clean energy fromn nuclear fusion is a dream that governments can put their money on and take pride in the expansive facilities and mini-empires they create. Scientific prestige is measured in the size of your labs and the number of staff. A multi-biflion dollar tokomak fusion reactor is the ultimata status symbol. Fusion is the power of the sun and it'sbeen generally assumed that the temperatures of the sun - a few hundred million degrees - were necessary for the reaction ta occur. In order ta be able ta harness fusion, the reaction would have ta be contained but obviously nothing could survive such temperatures. Most research bas been aimed at suspending the reaction in a huge donut shaped magnetic field. The logistics were immense, the bill even more se . ..and cdimbing. The irony is that very few of the really great scientifie breakthroughs have needed much equipment or expense. Newton, after ail, discovered gravity while sitting under an apple tree (or so, the stary goes). Insulin was discovered by a small tawn doctor, Frederick Banting, who had an idea and a medical student, Charles Best, ta, help him. They were provided with the most rudimentary facilities by a medical establishment which wanted as little as passible ta do with such crazy ideas. Even the first controlled fission reaction was performed in a makeshift atomie "pile" under the stands of the Chicago University stadium. And, of course, there's the theary of relativy itself, on which ahl current fission and fusion research is based. It was developed by a patent office clerk named Einstein in his spare time. Sa, while perhaps Pans and Fleischmann may have been working in the backwaters of science, they were right in the mold of the great scientific pioneers. Great discoveries are just waiting for the few true scientists who can recognize a breakthrough when they see it. Reading between the limes I suspect that Pans and Fleischinann were really studying the unusual ability of palladium metal ta absorb vast quantities of hydrogen. With a few simple calculations, they realized thnat the nuclei of these atams were being forced far dloser together than would normally be possible. The next stage, that of realizing that this inter-nuclear distance was in the range required by fusion, was crucial. How many other scientists have done the saine (or similar) experiment and, when the electrode got hot, have thrown the results out because the experiment didn't wark? The sad fact is that most science being done taday is se, narrow and se focused on its own particular set of hoped-for results that the unexpected is seldom recognized as anything more than a failed experiment., I spent twa years doing immunology research at the University of Toronto and I-came ta the conclusion that very few of the people doing research would ever achieve anything that would benefit mankcind. Our research was supposedly medically oriented but the only patients invalved were sirnply research material. If it had been directed taward specific goals, it might have achieved something, but instead it meandered in and out of "interesting" tangents. The money spent would have had a better return sitting: in the bank. »At the time there was a starage raom in the basement of the medical building (it may stili be there) which contained millions of dollars warth of sophisticated equipment which WOODWORIKER!S FLOAT FOR EIGHWAY PAVEMENT PARADE, SEPT. 29, 1921 This float, constructed by the United Society of Woodworkers at the Ontario Haspital, won a prize in the parade held ta, celebrate the opening of the pavement on H-ighway 2 through Whitby. Whitby Archives photo 10 YEARS ADO from the Wednesday, April 1il 1979 edition of the WHITBY FREE 'PRESS " One Parent Families Association will receive its W;hitby charter on April 23. " The future of the County Town Carnival is in doubt as a dispute develops over booking town facilities. " A painting at the Ontario Ladies'College may be by Fred Varley of the Group of Seven. " Mail delivery to about 500 homes in the Otter Creek subdivision will begin April 30. 25 YEARS ADO frm the Thursday, April 9, 1964 edition of the WHITY WEEKLY NEWS " Whitby General Hospital Board of Governors have approved building a hospital near the Ontario Hospital, south of Victoria Street. " Dreging of a tumning basin in Whitby harbor will assist shipping. " Ninety-eight per cent of those polled in a Whitby News survey want the oid County Court House saved from demolition. " Councillor William Davidson abjects ta having campaigns for the cancer and retarded children's funds in the same manth. 75 YEARS ADO from the Thursday, April 9, 1914 edition of the WHITY GAZETTE .AND CHRONICLE " The Whitby Board of Health has asked that aIl milk dealers in tawn be registered. " The Myrtie post office is the distribution office for rural mail to, Ashburn, Balsam and Myrtie Station. " A Bd. of Education inspection reveals that Whitby's schools are badly in need of repairs. " Whitby's taxes are reduoed by 1.57 milis this ye-ir. ------------------ M r7N mm m