Life, the Universe and Everything Friday November 5, 1999 Imperial Hotel, Coonabarabran Science in the Pub comes to Coonabarabran, the astronomy capital of Australia, to look at how our culture and the Universe are enmeshed, and ask whether astronomy plays a role in defining who we are and what we believe in. Two eminent astronomers from the Anglo Australian Observatory lead he fray: Dr Fred Watson and Dr David Malin, in a discussion compered by ABC TV Quantum reporter Wilson da Silva. This event features as part of the Festival of the Stars and of Astrofest 1999 in Coonabarabran. Fred Watson Fred Watson comes from a long line of Freds, but seems to be the first one to have become an astronomer. Born and raised in England's north-country, he was educated in Scotland, gaining his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh. He has worked at both of Britain's Royal Observatories, and has observed with large telescopes in Hawaii and the Canary Islands. In Australia, during the 1980s, he helped to pioneer the use of fibre optics in astronomy. Fred is now Astronomer-in-Charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory near Coonabarabran, where he is responsible for the scientific output of the Anglo-Australian and UK Schmidt Telescopes. Fred's own scientific interests are in the motions of stars and galaxies, and in the development of new instrumentation for astronomy. When time permits, he also carries out research on the history of optical instruments. He does the odd bit of writing and broadcasting and, like many astronomers, spends a lot of time wondering what the Universe is for (and why it is in such a mess). Fred's activities outside work centre on his family and his passion for music. Fred offers the following poem for Science in the Pub: Forbidden Lines The Universe, a largish place, Is blessed with lots of empty space Where things go on, behind our backs, Things too hot for tabloid hacks. Here, atoms, free from earthly pressure, Cavort in rare and wanton pleasure, And, in their frenzied celebration, Emit forbidden radiation. Back on Earth, it took a while For scientists to spot the guile With which such nuclei betray Their games in distant nebulae. An unknown substance, it was deemed, Produced the spectrum lines thus seen. They christened it `nebulium'. (They should have guessed---it rhymes with `dumb'.) Then, in nineteen-twenty-eight, Someone came who put them straight. A clever chap called Ira Bowen, Told them things they should have knowen. "Forbidden lines, you see, become Permitted, when the pressure's gone. The secret's there in vacuo--- Nebulium's just N and O". "How brilliant!", his peers exclaimed, "Old Ira's got nebulium tamed!" Unfortunately, in the street, Few people heard of Ira's feat, And, in the folklore of the sky, Nebulium's still riding high. Alas, I fear, it's much the same With all things done in science's name. Once ideas get recognition, They regress---to superstition. Reference: I. S. Bowen, Astrophysical Journal, 67, 1-15, 1928. David Malin was born in 1941 and spent most of his younger life as a child. During puberty he trained as a chemist and joined a large chemical company in the north of England. There he developed a vision, which has never left him, and viewed the workings of world through ever more powerful microscopes, learning more and more about less and less. After 18 years of painful squinting he tired of this, and in 1975, he left for Australia and joined the fledgling Anglo-Australian Observatory, more or less fully grown. In these early times, before computers and sliced bread, the southern sky was almost unexplored. With access to two fine new telescopes, only a fool could fail to make exciting discoveries right from the start. In 1987 he found a funny faint galaxy which is now known as `Malin-1'. He has also given his name (more or less freely) to another class of galaxy he discovered, Malin-Carter ellipticals (galaxies with faint shells). It is also applied to a technique (`Malinisation'), which he does not understand, and to an asteroid, which he has not yet seen. He now spends his time making colour pictures of things which really only exist in black and white, and, as childhood slowly re-asserts itself, explaining them to people of all colours. He now needs a microscope to see almost anything. David offers us the following thoughts: A dotty universe The sky at night is spread with spots whose random scatter suggests 'join the dots'. The shapes we see are in the mind, and are different for all of human-kind. Join the dots is the game we play when we have nothing much to say. The stars are silent, we hear them not, we cannot say if they are cold or hot. Stars don't smell, they are beyond our reach; how to make sense of this, I beseech? There's nothing like it in the natural world, a great puzzle, still being unfurled. But if we find we are short of facts we devise fine stories to fill the gaps. The ancient Greeks were good at this, and invented constellations hard to miss. Great legends abound, mixing fishes and sex, huge monsters and horses with human necks. Naming the signs embodied strange Greecian arts And they wrote kinky stories of bodily parts. David also offers us the following thoughts from Manilius (c 15 AD): Now learn what Signs the several Limbs obey Whose Powers they feel, and where Obedience pray. The Ram defends the Head; the Neck the Bull; The Arms, bright Twins, are subject to your Rule; I' th' Shoulders Leo, and the Crab's obeyed I' th' Breast, and in the Guts the modest Maid: I' th' Buttocks Libra, Scorpio warms Desires In Secret Parts, and spreads unruly fires: The Thighs the Centaur, and the Goat commands The Knees, and binds them up with double Bands, The parted Legs in moist Aquarius meet, And Pisces gives protection to the Feet. Manilius Astronomica Bk II, ll 453-465 trans Thomas Creech (London: Jacob Tonson 1697) 67. `Science in the Pub'(TM) is an initiative of the Australian Science Communicators (NSW) and supported by the Australian Broadcasting Commission. SciPub has received two grants from the Science and Technology Awareness Program (an initiative of the Department of Industry, Science, Tourism), the most recent of which will be used for presenting Science in Your Pub during National Science Week 1999 in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne. For further information on `Science in the Pub' please contact Robyn Stutchbury on rstutch@ozemail.com.au of Peripatus Productions Pty Limited, 1 Carisbrook Street, Lane Cove 2066, Tel: 02 9427 6747, Fax: 02 9418 9605 Next Science in the Pub session Thursday 18 November, SciPub XXX, at the Australian Museum in Sydney, on the question of whether we should be farming our native fauna for food rather than exotic species like cattle.
Science in the Pub™, © 2000. Stutchbury, R, Burton, M.