BOOK REVIEW: Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World
Barely two centuries after Columbus found that the world wasn?t flat, scientists set out to establish whether it was really round. The question required comparing the distance between degrees of latitude in Europe ? which had been measured ? with that distance in the Arctic or at the equator.
In his latest book, Ferreiro gives life to three French scientists and their 1736 geodesic mission to the equator. Astronomer Louis Godin, mathematician Pierre Bouguer and geographer Charles Marie de La Condamine offer a snapshot of another time.
The scientists traveled to a plateau near Quito in South America. There they surveyed a 215-mile line and used it to calculate giant imaginary triangles using geometry, trigonometry, a device called a quadrant, star sightings and land distance measurements. Triangulating nearby peaks of the Andes with points on the ground, they found that one degree of latitude was shorter at the equator than in Europe. In other words, the Earth bulges at the equator.
At times the story can bog down in detail, but surprises make up for it. The mission was the first large international scientific expedition attempted and led to the discoveries of rubber and cinchona bark ? the source of quinine ? and the naming of Ecuador.
Not until 1743, after the calculations were complete, did the scientists realize they had also determined Earth?s size. La Condamine found out belatedly; he was on the first scientific expedition down the Amazon. Another time indeed.
Posted: September 8th, 2011 | Author: Michael Courtenay | Filed under: Applied Science, Cankler, Engineered Life, Favorite New Thought, Michael Courtenay, Science | Tags: Entrepreneurialism, Innovation Corps, Insurance, National Science Foundation, science, Stanford University, Steve Blank, Venture Capital
Outwardly it may seem that two vocations couldn?t be further apart. Throughout my life I?ve known a heap of really smart people, people with really high IQ?s that excelled in school, that went on to become?intellectually?impressive.?I?ve also met and worked with a lot of extremely successful entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs worth 7, 8 and even 9 figures.?Intriguingly, the two groups are pretty much mutually exclusive. With one exception, SCIENTISTS. Why?
The answer isn?t a huge stretch, ask yourself what it takes to be a?successful?entrepreneur, the answer is risk. Entrepreneurs have a lust for risk . We must draw a?distinction?here, your average businessman is not an?entrepreneur! To become successful as an entrepreneur, you must take risks. You must get out of your comfort zone and try things that might not work. Being an entrepreneur has nothing to do with running a business that has a simply defined?existence, it has everything to do with?maximizing?what is possible, then stretching that?boundary.?An?entrepreneur is accustomed to rejection and failure, it?s an?inherent?part of success.
An?entrepreneur?is a business owner who makes money through risk and initiative, a person who is willing to help launch a new venture or enterprise and accept full responsibility for the outcome.?The ethos was first defined by the 17th century Irish-French?economist?Richard Cantillon, author of?Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en G?n?ral?-?Essay on the Nature of Trade in General. ?Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist, is believed to have coined the word ?entrepreneur? in the 19th century ? he defined an entrepreneur as ?one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor, acting as intermediatory between capital and labour?.?A broader definition by Say: ?The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of lower and into higher productivity and greater yield. ?He is well known for?Say?s Law?summarized?as:
?Aggregate supply?creates its own?aggregate demand?
?Supply creates its own demand?
?Supply constitutes its own demand?
?If you build it, they will come?
So where do scientsist fit into this equation? Consider: Lab life and research has taught most scientists to disregard their natural fear of failure, scientists must by the nature of research be exceptional team leaders. Most importantly though is a scientists ability to find the unobvious, the ability to root out every possibility and?dexterously?find a path to success, as if that path was always an axiom. Sound familiar?
Steve Blank has a brilliant piece ? and pitch ? in Nature. Blank gives the elegant example of Fairchild Semiconductor, ?the first silicon-chip company in what would become the entrepreneurial sprawl that is Silicon Valley, was founded in 1957 by researchers: three physicists, a metallurgist, a physical chemist and a trio of engineers ? electrical, industrial and mechanical.?Unnoticed by those in mainstream commerce, scientists turned out to be great capitalists. For scientists do not fear failure. Silicon Valley took the approach that failure is an inevitable consequence of experimentation. Fairchild?s founders built a company in which, when you hit a wall, you backed up and tried a different path.??Surely the essence of?Entrepreneurialism?has just been eloquently described by Blank.
Blank is part of a National Science Foundation ? NSF ? project that is hoping to shift science back into it?s?righteously?held seat at the helm of clever business. The NSF has announced a new initiative called the Innovation Corps, who?s aim it is to take the most promising research projects in US university laboratories and turn them into start-ups. The Innovation Corps project will train scientists for business by teaching them a process that gets them back to the roots of Silicon Valley, by embracing experimentation, learning and discovery. The NSF plans to give US$50,000 each in seed funds to up to 100 science and engineering research projects each year, which it will select on the basis of the best science with the best potential for commercial success.
This is a serious call for researchers to take the next step, your world needs you! I realise that sounds entirely tongue-in-cheek, it isn?t! This is exactly the?innovation?science requires to assist in resolving a backward slide that not only the U.S.A is facing, but indeed the entire world. ?In a world hungry for innovation, who better than our most clever could we call upon ? ok, that was tugging at the heart strings a little hard. Mr blank puts it a little more succinctly,?Common wisdom assumes that to become entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers must know about business. Instead, the Innovation Corps will teach them to approach business start-ups as research projects that they can solve through familiar scientific methods?
Check Mr Blank?s Stanford blog posts at http://stvp.stanford.edu/blog/?p=4055?and the blog in it?s entirety at?http://stvp.stanford.edu/blog/
From Stanford Universitys Blog:??The combination of Venture Capital and technology entrepreneurship is one of the?great business inventions of the last 50 years. It provides private funds for untested and unproven technology and entrepreneurs. While most of these investments fail, the returns for the ones that win are so great they make up for the failures. The cultural tolerance for failure and experimentation, and a financial structure which balanced risk, return and obscene returns, allowed this system flourish in technology clusters in United States, particularly in Silicon Valley.?
?Yet this system isn?t perfect. From?the point of view of scientists and engineers in a university lab, too often entrepreneurship in all its VC-driven glory ? income statements, balance sheets, business plans, revenue models, 5-year forecasts, etc. ? seems like another planet.?There didn?t seem to be much in common between the?Scientific Method?and starting a company. And this has been a barrier to commercializing the best of our science research.?
Posted by?STEVE BLANK? JULY 28, 2011 at: ?http://stvp.stanford.edu/blog/?p=4055
Chill.com, the infamous Turntable for video, is announcing today that it has raised a $1.5 million angel round from Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint, Atlas Venture and investor Paul Kedrosky. The site, entry to which was then shut down at some point due to popular demand, is also now open to all users. Chill co-founder Brian Norgard tells me that a lot has happened to Chill since early this August, when the startup garnered attention from mainstream media due to an offhand Facebook comment from Mark Zuckerberg on the app's Facebook wall spamming.
Worlds largest fusion experiment back in operation Public release date: 7-Sep-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nick Holloway info@jet.efda.org 0044-012-354-66232 European Fusion Development Agreement
On the 2 September scientists from throughout Europe start the first experimental campaign at JET after the installation of the "ITER-Like Wall". The upgrade comprises new materials inside the JET vessel, more heating power and additional diagnostic systems.
JET's researchers are investigating the potential of fusion power as a safe, clean, and virtually limitless energy source for future generations. The research is coordinated under the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA).
EFDA Leader Francesco Romanelli commented: "This is probably the largest effort that has been put into JET apart from the construction of the machine itself. With the expertise and contribution of many fusion laboratories, the JET team has succeeded in building a small ITER. We had a very good start with high purity plasmas readily established in ITER relevant conditions a promising sign for the use of these wall materials in ITER."
The inside of the JET vessel is now made of beryllium and tungsten tiles forming an 'ITER-Like Wall'. Between October 2009 and May 2011 engineers from Culham Centre for Fusion Energy removed and replaced approximately 86,000 components, largely using remote handling technology.
Lorne Horton, Head of EFDA's JET Department, explained: "The coming experiments will aim to verify that the wall materials chosen for ITER will behave as expected." Beryllium is being used in the main wall, whereas tungsten, with its high melting point, is the choice for the exhaust component known as 'divertor' that has to withstand high heat flux.
The other main enhancement is a 50% increase in the heating power. With the extra power, JET will achieve higher plasma temperatures and approach ITER conditions. New diagnostics and control systems, developed by the EFDA associate laboratories, will allow a deep investigation of the scientific challenges in preparing for ITER.
Maximos Tsalas is one of the visiting scientists in the control room. He has worked for many years at JET and has recently moved to FOM Rijnhuizen, in The Netherlands. He explained: "I left JET more than a year ago. Coming back, the developments I see are amazing. JET has become a brand new machine. I feel extremely privileged to take part in the first set of experiments. The coming campaign will be very challenging, and we are all eager to see how the new systems perform and to learn how to operate with the new wall."
JET will be progressively brought up to full power to allow a proper investigation of the ITER materials under conditions approaching those of ITER.
Francesco Romanelli looks positively to the future: "We have plans to use the deuterium-tritium fusion fuel mix of ITER in 2015, to allow full exploitation of JET's new capabilities. We hope to set new performance records and provide the best possible preparation for ITER."
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Worlds largest fusion experiment back in operation Public release date: 7-Sep-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Nick Holloway info@jet.efda.org 0044-012-354-66232 European Fusion Development Agreement
On the 2 September scientists from throughout Europe start the first experimental campaign at JET after the installation of the "ITER-Like Wall". The upgrade comprises new materials inside the JET vessel, more heating power and additional diagnostic systems.
JET's researchers are investigating the potential of fusion power as a safe, clean, and virtually limitless energy source for future generations. The research is coordinated under the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA).
EFDA Leader Francesco Romanelli commented: "This is probably the largest effort that has been put into JET apart from the construction of the machine itself. With the expertise and contribution of many fusion laboratories, the JET team has succeeded in building a small ITER. We had a very good start with high purity plasmas readily established in ITER relevant conditions a promising sign for the use of these wall materials in ITER."
The inside of the JET vessel is now made of beryllium and tungsten tiles forming an 'ITER-Like Wall'. Between October 2009 and May 2011 engineers from Culham Centre for Fusion Energy removed and replaced approximately 86,000 components, largely using remote handling technology.
Lorne Horton, Head of EFDA's JET Department, explained: "The coming experiments will aim to verify that the wall materials chosen for ITER will behave as expected." Beryllium is being used in the main wall, whereas tungsten, with its high melting point, is the choice for the exhaust component known as 'divertor' that has to withstand high heat flux.
The other main enhancement is a 50% increase in the heating power. With the extra power, JET will achieve higher plasma temperatures and approach ITER conditions. New diagnostics and control systems, developed by the EFDA associate laboratories, will allow a deep investigation of the scientific challenges in preparing for ITER.
Maximos Tsalas is one of the visiting scientists in the control room. He has worked for many years at JET and has recently moved to FOM Rijnhuizen, in The Netherlands. He explained: "I left JET more than a year ago. Coming back, the developments I see are amazing. JET has become a brand new machine. I feel extremely privileged to take part in the first set of experiments. The coming campaign will be very challenging, and we are all eager to see how the new systems perform and to learn how to operate with the new wall."
JET will be progressively brought up to full power to allow a proper investigation of the ITER materials under conditions approaching those of ITER.
Francesco Romanelli looks positively to the future: "We have plans to use the deuterium-tritium fusion fuel mix of ITER in 2015, to allow full exploitation of JET's new capabilities. We hope to set new performance records and provide the best possible preparation for ITER."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Egypt's military has started to close smuggling tunnels to Gaza, witnesses said on Saturday, amid Israeli warnings of plans by Gazan militants to attack the Jewish state through Egyptian territory. Witnesses along the 12-kilometre border with the Islamist ...
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Public release date: 7-Sep-2011
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