[gameprogrammer] Re: Innovation and Creativity. Getting OT?

On Tue, May 04, 2004 at 07:22:51AM +0200, Alexander Whaley wrote:

> To take an example from my field of research: Analytical Chemistry. I 
> work with something called a Mass Spectrometer. The technology is about 
> 80 years old. It seperates ions of different mass/charges in order to 
> classify them. Then we can identify the different molecules making up a 
> mixture (big simplification there). While some people can say that the 
> technolgy was being developed prior to WWII, we must not forget that 
> during WWII the researchers on the Manhattan project were given 
> permission to melt all the silver in Fort Knox to build a massive Mass 
> Spectrometer. It's purpose? To extract the correct Uranium (235) Isotope 
> to make a nuclear bomb.  Why the need? Because you must push its 
> abundance from about 0.7% to 99%. The technology was also used to test 
> organic gas mixtures by the petroleum industry during the same period.
> 
> Would the Mass spectrometer have developed as fast without WWII? Not 
> really. People need money to do research.
> Would it have eventually reached its pervasiveness in the modern world? Yes.
> Is it useful? There is not a single aspect of life that hasn't been 
> affected by this technology. This goes from paint to the latest medical 
> advances.
> Have scientists recieved any Nobel prizes for this technology? I can 
> remember at least 5 nobel winners.

Would you be willing to do without the spectrometer and its benefits if
it returned life to the tens of millions killed in WWII?

Was the spectrometer all that needed at the time if noone was willing to
invest into its development?

Humanisms tells us that there's nothing whose value can bear comparison
with the value of human life.

> Besides: just look at the games out tere. How many people like to play 
> First person shooters? Why is it so importnat to them? Why do so many 
> programmers try to get cutting edge graphics and very high frame rates? 
> Why are PCs getting faster if all we did was to type reports on the PCs?

And finally, what does this have to do with military research? ;-)

        latimerius

Other related posts: