Comments on: Sputnik: The greatest thing to ever happen to America https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/ Mon, 13 Feb 2017 02:29:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Brainstorms https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547938 Mon, 13 Feb 2017 02:29:34 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547938 One of the more interesting “secrets” regarding Sputnik is that Werner von Braun was quite able to beat them into space, and chafing at the bit to do so.

Fortunately, he was stopped by his superiors in the Army from doing so — and the Soviets were allowed to “be first”.

It wasn’t just that the wiser generals in the military knew that this would light a fire underneath U.S. STEM education — and provide blank checks for the Apollo mission…

They also had a more important military-political issue to deal with, and allowing the Soviets to succeed solved that problem rather neatly:

http://www.inventionandtech.com/content/how-america-chose-not-beat-sputnik-space-0

]]> By: Edgar Carpenter https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547937 Sun, 12 Feb 2017 23:39:50 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547937 It was 60 years ago, not 50. We lived in the desert, a long way from any light pollution, and my dad (a USDA scientist) took us out to see it the night after it hit the papers. We waited until Sputnik left the shadow of the Earth and moved, a tiny bright speck, across the sky – one of my earliest memories.

And yes, we started getting more science and math in school after that. The set theory I learned in 8th grade, a New Math innovation, has been extremely useful as an adult; thanks, Sputnik!

]]> By: Anne Gilbert https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547936 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:28:00 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547936 Oboy! Do I ever remember those “post-Sputnik” days! People were actually in awe and in fear of the Russians, for a short time, and absolutely fascinated with these satellites(and they went absolutely nuts once the Russians put Yuri Gagarin into space). The things I remember. . . people actually watching the satellites in the sky, on a summer night. . . .and the fears about science, of course. But somehow, we all survived!
Anne G

]]> By: Diane G. https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547935 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:36:19 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547935 LOL! Greg, I sure do appreciate the way you stay a part of the discussion in your comment threads; and even let your opinions evolve (along with ours) when appropriate…

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547934 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:46:19 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547934 My point? In the post? My point in the post is that what looked like a major embrace of science in the 1960s in this country wasn’t. Thinking it was has led to complacency in relation things like religious fundamentalism, and this, in turn, has left us in the mess we are in.

Or at least, that’s my point now.

]]> By: Lorax https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547933 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:41:42 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547933 So using your logic, when your enemies score a hit using ultra-fundamentalist religious dogma, then we should go all right-wing evangelical Xian in response?

Wait, that actually explains a few things…

]]> By: El Guerrero del Interfaz https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547932 Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:27:46 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547932 Does anybody remembers “The Martian Shop” by Howard Fast?

Maybe we need some “Martians” to set shop on our pale blue dot to get back this Sputnik effect worldwide.

]]> By: Amplexus https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547931 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:38:49 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547931 Two words: space boners

]]> By: Diane G. https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547930 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:38:27 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547930 The sad underlying context being that fear for survival is necessary for full appreciation (encouraging, funding, etc.) of science. After all, it wasn’t just resentment that Sputnik showed the Russkies were ahead of us intellectually; it was the fear of what they might see/accomplish from their new vantage point…

Quite similar to the impetus for the Manhattan Project…(at which time, von Braun was “their guy.” [Germany’s, not the USSR’s, of course.])

OTOH, what a thrill it’s been to live to see the Evil Empire humanized (not to mention dissipated), and for that matter, even “Red China” brought more or less into the fold.

Though come to think of it, the older, more traditional threats were probably easier to live with than terrorism; which doesn’t seem to provoke any response other than stupid wars, self-defeating legislation, and general hassles (e.g., TSA idiocy).

And that leaves scientific urgency…where?

Onkel Bob, I couldn’t agree more. Which is why my early 70’s fellowship amuses me…(tho as soon as epiphytes in old-growth forests become strategic, I’m your gal!).

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547929 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:20:19 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/08/sputnik-the-greatest-thing-to/#comment-547929 The Apollo program was an outcome of the cold war, not an alternative impetus. This is not a hard to do analysis. It is what everyone said and acted on at the time. We were trying to beat the Russians. The term “race” in “space race” was an overt direct reference to the race with the USSR. A space ship in a movie or some other graphic medium with CCCP on the side was scary. I had stamps like that when I was a kid … soviet space stamps with CCCP on them and they were scary.

Braun was our guy, and again, he was part of the process.

Regarding technology vs. science, I don’t want to conflate them, but what did in fact happen is that the higher education system was not world class. Then it was. And the difference was the funding, expansion, and building of many new campuses, new buildings on existing campuses, and the faculty and staff to fund them. All the disciplines gained.

The GI Bill of course was a factor in some of that but the majority of the new students going to those universities were not GI’s.

Despite appearances, people at universities are not stupid. Well, not all the time anyway. The cold war generally was used as an impetus to build the U’s and all the fields of study were expanded, even the arts. BUt, at the same time, huge,huge, huge amounts of money went into certain areas, and here I’m happy to conflate many areas of engineering with many areas of science. As in the intersection in and around materials science, for instance.

I went to a high school that was located on the old university campus. Our high school had 360 students, and we occupied half the old campus or less, in terms of classrooms. That was the NY State university unit in Albany. There couldn’t have been more than a couple of thousand students in that school in 1960. SUNY Albany’s new campus opened for classes in 66. The SUNY system went from important to mega over those years from Sputnik to the end of Viet Nam. Same with CA, and so on.

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