stekas@hou2g.UUCP (01/24/84)
In the last few years, Nova has become less of a science show
and more of a sociological look at science. Examples which come to
mind are shows like the one on a severely burned boy and another
about the psychiatrist specializing in death. "Zo, how das you
really feel about having only two weeks to lif?"
It has gotten to the point where even the hard-science shows spend
most of the time clarifying sociological and political implications
of the work. A show on gene-splicing was devoted entirely to the
risks of dangerous mutations and the attempt to ban experiments in
Cambridge, Mass.
The recent ESP show is a good example of what Nova SHOULD be doing,
even if they could have done a more thorough job. Nova talked to a lot
of people working in the field and showed how experiments were done
and what their results were. The personalities of those involved came
though as well, naturally, and without the need for psychological questions.
Let's get Nova back to the science in science. I would like to collect
a list of topics for them to cover - like cosmology, color perception,
artificial intelligence, etc. Please mail suggestions to me and I'll
post a review to the net and forward the requests to Nova.
Thanks,
Jim hou2g!stekasPoskanzer.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (01/26/84)
From: Jef Poskanzer <Poskanzer.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA> Great idea. Here are my suggestions for NOVA shows: - Another show on ESP, but this time less credulous and more skeptical. Get Martin Gardner to write the script. See his "Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus" for more details. - Any number of shows about the new ideas in space exploration. For instance, the various proposed uses for the shuttle's external tank could take up a whole program. It could even have a 60-minutes style expose' tone, which NOVA sometimes imitates. "NASA is dumping millions of dollars worth of tanks into the Indian Ocean, and is even using extra fuel to do it..." I'm sure Jerry Pournelle could point them in the right direction. Other topics could be the various uses for Kevlar (this ties in with the tanks), aerobraking missions, off-the-shelf satellite frames, lunar polar orbiter to look for ice, the various private enterprise space ventures (Bob Truax, Gary Hudson, etc.), the search for Earth-crossing asteroids, etc. etc. etc. - If they want to do a sociological show, how about examining the reasons for and effects of radiophobia - irrational fear of "radiation". Just this morning there were two letters in the paper expressing outrage about the possibility of sterilizing food with gamma radiation. Then there's the recent batch of Diablo Canyon protesters who seem to think that even \routine emmisions/ of radiation from the plant will be deadly - even though the emmisions from the equivalent coal-fired plant are not only more toxic, but MORE RADIOACTIVE. - And so you don't dismiss me as a knee-jerk technocrat, how about a show examining some of the dangerous aspects of the electronics industry (sacrilege!). Toxic waste, for one, all-too-often carelessly disposed of or simply released into the atmosphere. The possible dangers of excess VDT usage. There might not be enough here for a whole show. Then again, if there is, I certainly would want to hear about it!! --- Jef
markb@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Mark Biggar) (01/27/84)
I would like to see a NOVA show on IRAS. How it worked, what has been
found so far, some of the more wilder theories etc.
Mark Biggar
{ihnp4,burdvax,cbosgd,sdcsvax,trw-unix,allegra,hplabs}!sdcrdcf!markb