Michael Rosenthal
(9/2019)
In July of 1969 we went to the moon. The launch date was
July 16, 1969, at 13:32:00. Who would have dreamed that we
could do this? The duration of the mission was 8 days, 3
hours, 18 minutes, and 35 seconds. The landing date was
thus July 24, 1969. The mass of the vehicle was 100,756
pounds on launch. The three crew members were Neil A.
Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin,
Jr. The launch took place from the Kennedy Space Center on
Merritt Island, Florida, and the vehicle landed upon its
return in the North Pacific Ocean. The flight was
designated Apollo 11. This was the fifth crewed mission of
the NASA Apollo Program.
All three of the astronauts had
flown one previous spaceflight, and this flight was the
final flight for each of them. Armstrong was the
Commander, Collins was the Command Module Pilot, and
Aldrin was the Lunar Module Pilot.
An estimated one million
spectators watched the Apollo 11 launch. Among them were
President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, the first
lady, as well as many government officials who watched the
launch from highways and beaches in the vicinity of the
launch.
At 12:52:00 Aldrin and Armstrong
entered Eagle, the lunar lander, and made final
preparations for lunar descent. At 17:44:00 Eagle
separated from Columbia with Armstrong and Aldrin, leaving
Collins alone aboard Columbia. Armstrong piloted Eagle,
and Aldrin chose navigation options. Eagle’s hatch was
opened at 2:29:33, and at 02:51 Armstrong began his
descent to the lunar surface. More exact details of the
activities on the Moon’s surface can be found in the
Wikipedia article.
The astronauts spent some 21.5
hours on the lunar surface, and left behind many
mementoes, as well as scientific instruments. After seven
hours of rest, the crew began to prepare for the return
flight, and they lifted off in Eagle to rejoin Collins
aboard Columbia. The astronauts landed at 16:50:35 on July
24, 1969 in the North Pacific Ocean, and they were
recovered by the U.S.S. Hornet. The splashdown occurred
safely with Columbia upside down but was righted within
ten minutes by flotation bags. The astronauts were safely
home!
On August 13 the three astronauts
rode in ticker-tape parade in New York and in Chicago,
with some 6 million attendees. Each astronaut was
presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
Nixon and Vice-President Agnew. Many more fascinating
aspects of this experience can be found in the Wikipedia
article. The United States Postal Service issued two
stamps commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Moon
Landing on July 19 of this year.
Now 50 years later there are still
people who believe the whole project was a hoax. This has
received recent attention because The Trump administration
has ordered NASA to put astronauts back on the moon by
2024. The Internet has allowed the doubters to spread the
word of their theories. Polls indicate that about five
percent of the public believes the Moon landing never
happened. There is solid evidence to support the landing
such as some 842 pounds of Moon rocks brought back by the
astronauts. In 2002 Buzz Aldrin was confronted and
hectored by a conspiracy theorist in Beverly Hills. Aldrin
decked him with a right cross. This is yet another example
of people believing what they want to believe, rather than
what is supported by scientific fact. I am so amazed, as
I’ve often stated in this column, how susceptible people
are to believing what they want to believe, ignoring
scientific facts. As we’ve written previously there are
still people who believe the earth is flat.
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The global vaccine issue
continues. The World Health Organization has named vaccine
hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats.
This is not the first example of anti-science medical
dissent. A vaccine boycott occurred in 2003-2004 in
Nigeria, and it sparked the retransmission of polio across
multiple countries. The belief generated was based on the
false assumption that vaccines were contaminated with
antifertility drugs. This event cost the Global Polio
Eradication Initiative over $500 million to regain the
progress that was lost from this false assumption. In
Japan complaints about side effects caused vaccination
against human papilloma virus to plummet. The vaccines
have been scientifically proven safe.
The plastic accumulation problem
continues. However, I read about one piece of good news.
Researchers have engineered a new variety of plastic that
can be easily and endlessly recycled. Only 10% of the
plastic used in the United States is recycled now. And why
can’t we just go back to paper straws? The worked just
fine when I was growing up. This new type of plastic
requires less energy to break the chemical bonds and can
be split apart at room temperature in a strong acid
solution. Conventional plastics require heat and catalysts
to break down their structure.
How about some good news. Maryland
is taking a strong position on developing sources of
renewable energy, with ambitious goals to derive half its
electricity from renewable sources by the end of the next
decade. Governor Hogan has recently issued an executive
order forming a task force of cabinet officials,
representatives from local government, and the renewable
energy industry to recommend new state laws on selecting
renewable energy sites. Governor Hogan is especially
interested in developing solar farms. People have objected
to solar farms, and say that they would obstruct their
views, an argument similar to the objection to wind farms
offshore along the east coast. It amazes me how some
people can be this selfish. I guess I may be a minority in
liking to see solar farms and wind farms, aesthetically as
well as in support of my scientific and social values.
There is a widely prescribed
prescription drug named gabapentin, which is being taken
by millions of people to relieve pain. The drug was
originally approved 25 years ago to treat seizure
disorders, but is now prescribed for a wide range of
problems, including relief of acute and chronic pain of
all kinds. When a drug is approved by the FDA, it can be
prescribed for any condition the prescribing physician
chooses, and that is the problem here. This drug is now
shown to be highly addictive, in the manner of opioids.
The drug is only formally approved for four conditions:
postherpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia,
and spinal cord injury. Even for these conditions the drug
has been found to be more a placebo than really helping
the patient overcome the condition. But this drug is being
prescribed by physicians for other pain conditions. This
drug is expensive. In 2016 some 64 million prescriptions
for it were issued. Though not as dangerous as opioids,
overuse can cause long-term problems. The moral of this
story, at least to me, is that one must choose a physician
who is willing to
do research on treatment before
offering solutions. I spent many years as the premedical
advisor in an excellent small college in which I taught
chemistry, and though I saw many students go to medical
school whom I was sure would become good scientists and
continue to study their treatment protocol, including drug
prescription choices, there were a few in whom I did not
see utilizing that scientific approach to the practice of
medicine. Choose your physician carefully.
Read other articles by Michael Rosenthal