Behind the Shouting Decay that Marks American Politics, Science Still Has its Hope-Inspiring Triumphs ─ the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

© 2010 Peter Free

 

21 October 2010

 

NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) told us a lot about the universe

 

Forget the embarrassingly stupid and destructive antics of those who lead our nation’s politics.

 

For little kid excitement and trusting optimism, look to science.  And to the children-become-grownups who never lost curiosity’s integrity, or the heart’s need to implement discovery.

 

Launched in June 2001, the WMAP makes a strong case to be considered one of the greatest scientific experiments of all time. It turned cosmology from informed guesswork into a precision science . . . .

The probe showed that the Universe is flat and probably endless, and produced the first fine-resolution, full-sky map of the cosmic microwave background. . . .

Physicists have yet to encounter dark matter or dark energy, but the WMAP has already audited the expected contribution of these components to the Universe: 23.3% and 72.1%, respectively.

And it has determined that ordinary matter makes up just 4.6% of the Universe, to within 0.1%.

 

Editorial ─ Probe retires to a place in the Sun, Nature 467(7317): 752 (14 October 2010) (paragraphs split)

 

There’s a lot in that excerpt to inspire wonder and aspirations to discover more

 

With most of the Universe’s gross components mostly uncharacterized, what a wonderful field of inquiry and physical exploration is left for us.

 

The moral?

 

Discovery and innovation ─ combined with genuinely democratic freedom, not plutocracy ─ is the United States’ destiny.

 

Aspire.