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Science and Society (2) The Past and Future of Rocket Engine Propulsion  From: University of Michigan Marking 100 years of powered flight (2003), this seminar focuses on advances in propulsion science, taking us from the entertainment origins of Chinese rocketry, through the early days of Konstantin Ziolkovsky and Robert Goddard and chemical propulsion, and finally through more recent developments in electric propulsion. While chemical propulsion requires large amounts of propellant, which it burns completely over the course of several hours or even minutes, to create greater thrust, electric propulsion demands far less propellant and over weeks, months or even years can surpass chemical propulsion speeds by a factor of 10 or more. Currently more than 100 spacecraft (most are communication satellites) use some form of electric propulsion. The reduction of propellant cost, the potential to reach greater speeds and the ability to more carefully position spacecraft in orbits are just some of the advantages of electric propulsion. The Scientific Article: From Galileo's New Science to the Human Genome From: University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory From its modest beginnings in seventeenth century Paris and London to its central role in today's online world, the scientific article has been essential to the development of modern science. This seminar traces the rise of scientific journals, the development of the article, and the ways that scientists used text, images and graphs to communicate their latest findings. | |||||||||||||||
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