Robert Jastrow, one of the noted astronomers of our time and, as it happens, a former professor of mine at Dartmouth, died earlier this year. This is my overdue tribute to his life and work.
Jastrow was one of the great popularizers of science. One of his books, Red Giants and White Dwarfs, became a national bestseller and conveyed to a whole generation of Americans the excitment and mystery of space exploration. When American astronauts landed on the moon, Jastrow provided expert commentary for the TV networks covering the event.
But Jastrow never permitted popularization to get in the way of serious professional accomplishment. After getting his doctorate in physics from Columbia, he became head of the theoretical divison at NASA. Later he was appointed head of the Goddard Space Institute. In 1992 he became chairman of Mount Wilson Observatory in California.
In addition to medals for scientific achivement, Jastrow also won acclaim as a gifted teacher. At Dartmouth, I always found him friendly and accessible. Later our paths crossed because Jastrow became an energetic and resourceful defender of President Reagan's strategic missile defense initiative, dubbed by its critics as "Star Wars."
While critics like physicist Hans Bethe said Star Wars would never work, the Russians agreed with Jastrow that it would, and they desperately sought to outlaw it. (Obviously if the Russians felt it was a boondoggle they would have supported it, since this would be a great way to waste America's defense budget.) In his last years Jastrow became increasingly skeptical of claims that global warming is destroying the planet. He saw global warming as an effort to exploit science for ideological ends.
One of Jastrow's gems is a little book called God and the Astronomers in which Jastrow, although himself an agnostic, made a startling argument. He argued that "the astronomical evience leads to a biblical view of the origin of the world." Jastrow not only documents his claim but shows why leading scientists including Einstein resisted the new discoveries, because they threatened the dogma that scientific laws enjoy eternal validity. Jastrow showed that in reality the laws of physics themselves came into existence with the Big Bang; beyond or apart from our universe, there are no such laws.
Jastrow's story reads like a detective novel, with the only difference that the facts he recounts are true. And here is his stunning conclusion: "For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."
Reader Comments ( Page 36 of 36)
526.
Father Preter, the Catholic Church and Vatican has shown itself to be lacking in morality in the coverup of pedophile priests.
There a solution, we should round up all the Catholic priests and torture them to find out which ones are pedophiles and homosexuals. After all, those priests and the Vatican subverted justice by hiding pedophile priests. This would end the speculation for this year.
Those priests were a threat to Americanns and should not have been granted rights, since they owe allegiance to a foreign power and leader.
JefFlyingV at 1:36PM on Jul 6th 2008
527. What the hell are you talking about? The Depression was pretty much constant throughout the 1930s. The New Deal did not get us out the Great Depression.
xxxxx
Eric, this is not something out of a book for me.
I was born in 1943. My parents were born in 1915. Most of their siblings and cousins were born between 1885 and 1925. That was in the Dust Bowl.
Everyone of the generation preceding me went through it, knew it took a terribly long time to correct, and knew that Franklin Roosevelt was at the helm throughout. They saw the nation rise up again, and yes it took a lot of years.
And here you come with some cockamamie crap off a neofascist propaganda web page like you're the first puppy that ever pulled a nugget out of a litter box.
The new deal saved the United States. Not every one liked it but it did what was needed.
Your fantasies are revisionist history by people who want to reprise 1890 and are chumping you into helping them.
You don't know one damned thing about the depression, WWII or its aftermath. I lived every day with the aftermath of them. Every adult went through it and went through WWII.
That was not your planet. If your disc is finalized you might as well admit you've been brainwashed.
You want 1890 again, the same thing will happen, but it will be more damaging this time. Robber barons have computers now.
You have a choice between a future and a sentence.
Liberalism and the New Deal brought you the strongest industrial nation on earth with the manufacturing capability of mobilizing the best fighting force in the world.
Conservatism since 1980 turned it into what it is today - a military superpower that's riddled with debt, can't win a war and ranks about 17th among nations in health, education, longevity and most other criteria that typify a first world nation.
The postwar comfort you enjoy now that wasn't eroded away by republicanism was brought to you by liberals over the objection of fascists like Prescott Bush. As was civil rights and the regulation of our economy that made and preserved the middle class.
This is the history of the country we all grew up in. I lived it as did my relatives and I believe what they all told me with respect to the new deal and I saw the benefits with my own eyes, day after day.
I believe what others told me about the new deal and I benefited from it as much as anyone in our generation. I see retired people enjoying a better quality of life because of Medicare and Social Security and have seen this for over half a century.
Try playing a tune you know.
Clif Kuplen at 1:36PM on Jul 6th 2008
528. Preteristvision is like a rock that reason and logic break upon. A big, dumb rock.
Ryan Anderson at 2:58PM on Jul 6th 2008
529. Ryan: Preteristvision is like a rock that reason and logic break upon. A big, dumb rock.
PV: Back to personal attacks so soon?
preteristvision at 5:19PM on Jul 6th 2008
530. PreterV, less of an attack and more of an observation.
Ryan Anderson at 5:53PM on Jul 6th 2008
531. Ryan: less of an attack and more of an observation.
PV: Really? Of what practical use was said "observation"?
preteristvision at 8:36PM on Jul 6th 2008
532. PV: Really? Of what practical use was said "observation"?
That is practically pointless to converse with you.
Ryan Anderson at 9:01PM on Jul 6th 2008
533. Why I love America….
http://sagebrushpatriot.com/america.htm
American Soldier at 12:59PM on Jul 8th 2008