I came across an article in the New York Times about a Nobel prize winner. His name is Dr. David Hubel and he, unfortunately, died on Sunday at the age of 87. The article caught my eye due to Dr. Agre coming in and speaking to our class. Dr. Hubel was responsible for finding the notion that visual information is processed in the retina. Dr. Hubel and his partner Dr. Wiesel also found that sensory deprivation at a young age can cause visual birth defects. They measured the electrical impulses in the visual cortex in order to make the discovery.
I found the article very interesting because it is not often that we hear about scientific discoveries in everyday life. However, I never understood why. Scientific discoveries should be put on a higher stage because they often times relate to the untold mysteries of the world. I don’t understand why people do not find scientific discoveries interesting but I don’t think that this cultural norm will change. Just as Andrew has spoke about in class, scientists often time spend years in order to make one discovery and the hard work that they gave is often times not appreciated. Even if I do not learn much about actual science in this class, I have already learned to appreciate science and all that it does for society.
I also do agree with the fact that scientists should be more popular and more well know. They make such imperative discoveries and are not given the attention that they deserve. I was interested in learning more about Dr. Hubel and found an autobiography by Hubel himself. He said, “My main project while at Walter Reed was a comparison of the spontaneous firing of single cortical cells in sleeping and waking cats.” His research is very interesting along with the story of how he achieved the amount that he did. More information about him can be found at: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1981/hubel-bio.html
I agree with you. I too feel that scientists should be more popular. If it weren’t for the collective contributions of the science community, the world would be vastly different. This lack of attention can also lead to occasional thievery of ideas and work. One famous example is how ruthlessly Nikola Tesla was taken advantage of by Thomas Edison. Details on this can be found at the link below:
http://reinep.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/what-did-edison-steal-from-tesla/