Wise Up (2-08-10)

Scientists

"¢ In 1996, Nathan Myhrvold and Jack Horner met on the set of "œThe Lost World," the sequel to "œJurassic Park." Mr. Horner, a consultant to the movie, is a dinosaur expert, and Mr. Myhrvold is a genius whose genius has made him very, very wealthy. The meeting was fruitful: The two men decided to hunt dinosaur bones in earnest in Montana, and with Mr. Myhrvold funding the expeditions, they uncovered many, many dinosaur bones. Mr. Myhrvold found some dinosaur bones of his own: vertebrae as big as apples. He remembers, "œIt was seven years ago. It was a bunch of bones from a fairly rare dinosaur called a thescelosaurus. I said, 'Oh, my God!' I was walking with Jack and my son. Then Jack said, 'Look, there's a bone in the side of the hill.' And we look at it, and it's a piece of a jawbone with a tooth the size of a banana. It was a T. rex skull. There was nothing else it could possibly be."

The expeditions have been widely successful. Mr. Myhrvold says, "Our expeditions have found more T. rex than anyone else in the world. From 1909 to 1999, the world found eighteen T. rex specimens. From 1999 until now, we've found nine more." Myhrvold has the kind of laugh that scatters pigeons: "We have dominant T. rex market share." As a wealthy man with wit and genius, Mr. Myhrvold can do much as he likes. What does he like to plant in his front garden? Only vegetation that was common in the Mesozoic era. He says, "If the 'Jurassic Park' thing happens, this is where the dinosaurs will come to eat." And what does he want in his living room? He has a life-size T. rex skeleton, and a lot of other dinosaur artifacts, including a nest of oviraptor eggs. Each egg is the size of an eggplant. His wife describes the house he had built near Seattle as "the place in the sci-fi movie where the aliens live."

"¢ Albert Einstein was often not like other people. As a boy, he did not start speaking until he was 3 years old. Unlike other boys who enjoyed watching military parades and wanted to be soldiers when they grew up, young Albert stated, "When I grow up, I do not want to be one of those poor people." As an adult, he seldom wore socks, and he used his brain to investigate questions of space, time and the universe that other people seldom thought about. After he became famous, a 12-year-old girl wrote him to complain about math. Mr. Einstein wrote back, "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure that mine are still greater."

"¢ While doing research for her second book, the best-selling "The Sea Around Us," environmentalist Rachel Carson asked many scientists many questions. Several of the scientists she approached were very generous with their time. For example, the curator of the Marine Studios in Florida, Arthur McBride, handwrote her a 16-page letter on July 4 giving her the answers to her questions. In her thank-you letter to him, she wrote, "If I had had any idea you would give me such a wealth of detail I would have lacked the courage to ask so many questions, but the material was exactly what I needed."

"¢ As Thomas Edison was in the process of inventing the electric light, he tried several public demonstrations of his new light, but the demonstrations failed because the light burned out so quickly. Eventually, however, he came up with an electric light that stayed on longer without burning out. He and his assistants were present when the electric light was turned on, and they waited and waited for it to burn out. After 40 hours of waiting "“and no sleep "“ Mr. Edison said, "If it will burn 40 hours, now I know I can make it burn a hundred." In 1880, Mr. Edison held another demonstration of his invention. This one was successful.

"¢ In 1928, Alexander Fleming recognized the importance of the antibacterial properties of penicillin after penicillium notatum mold contaminated an uncovered culture plate "“ the mold came from a mycology laboratory located a floor below his lab. Years later, Mr. Fleming toured a modern dust-free, extremely clean, air-conditioned research lab. One of the lab technicians told him, "What a pity you did not have a place like this to work in. Who can tell what you might have discovered in such surroundings." Mr. Fleming replied, "Not penicillin!"

"¢ Edward Jenner, the man who discovered a vaccine for smallpox, believed in experiments. Once a couple of friends were wondering which was the hottest part of a candle: the flame itself, or the area just above the flame. Mr. Jenner put his finger directly in the flame and held it there for a moment, then he moved his finger to the area just above the flame "“ and he removed his finger very quickly. He then said, "Gentlemen, the question is answered."

"¢ Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician, told Hieron II, King of Syracuse, that he could move a heavy ship all by himself. He did just that. A heavy three-masted ship, just constructed, lay on the land. Archimedes connected his system of pulleys to the ship, and he moved it by himself to the water. After witnessing this amazing event, King Hieron II proclaimed, "From this day forth, Archimedes is to be believed in everything he may say."

"¢ Research scientist Jonas Salk defeated polio by inventing a safe vaccine to prevent the disease. To prove that the vaccine was safe, he used human beings to test it "“ himself, his wife, and their children. In 1954, nearly 2 million schoolchildren received the vaccine, and this further demonstrated that the vaccine was safe. In the United States today, polio has been eradicated.

"¢ When Florence Bascom studied geology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in the 1890s, professors thought that the presence of a female student in the classroom would be distracting to the male students, so they made her sit behind a screen so the male students couldn't see her. Ms. Bascom, the first American woman geologist, later became known informally as the "Stone Lady."