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{ Category Archives } Science

John P. Meehan, MD: Scientist and Diplomat to the USSR

President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the USSR not only had their red telephones so they could communicate on a moment’s notice, but also were “pen pals” of a sort.  They scribbled notes to each other that were probably taken to their offices through diplomatic pouches.  This was most likely the means [...]

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2011 09 29 admin History Comments (0)

Pres. Kennedy’s Joke on the American People

…in this country, we three knew alone knew of the very brave things the scientist accomplished. Of course, two Intel agencies knew, but it all took place over forty years ago, and most of them are dead or retired by now.

2011 02 02 admin History Comments (0)

Unintended Consequences

Congress often passes laws that have unintended consequences.  The sociologist Robert K. Merton wrote a paper about the subject as early as 1936.  Some of unintended consequences are serendipitous, but others are negative or perverse.  It seems that Congress has a way of introducing negative or perverse consequences.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was designed [...]

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2010 08 30 admin History Comments (0)

DNA Tests and Reality

(This is an edited post of May 31, as corrected by Kent Pryor, to whom I am very grateful.)
I just call it the Fiske curve because I don’t have any other name for it. Others may have found it and named it something else. In any case the curve sets out principles worth remembering about [...]

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2009 05 31 admin History Comments (0)

Beating Ploughshares into Swords

It’s over. My ninth book is on the market and I can turn to more important things, such as my tenth book. And Ham radio. And maybe, politics.

My ninth book, Ploughshares into Swords, is about WWII—how civilians and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) helped win the war. A friend of mine was also a [...]

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2009 05 09 admin History Comments (0)

NASA’s Man at the Baikonur Cosmodrome

Almost no one knows today that  the space race with the USSR during Cold War conditions was not much of a race. NASA had a man stationed in the Soviet Baikonur Cosmodrome from about 1963 through 1971.

NASA’s man was a space medicine scientist whom Premier Khrushchev allowed to enter the USSR to consult with [...]

2007 11 10 admin Politics Comments (0)

Secret Scientist

What’s amazing to me is that even today no one knows.   NASA actually had a scientist in and out of Russia from 1962 to 1971 during the space race and the Cold War.  Yes, Mr. Krushchev actually allowed a space medical scientist from the US to help keep alive the Russian cosmonauts.

My research on the [...]

2007 07 20 admin History Comments (0)

Great Time to Be Alive

A friend called me today and asked if I wanted to go for a cup of coffee.  I did, because I have been researching the Soviet space program all day for the Cold War period.  It is background for a book I am writing.

Always unpredictable, I had an iced tea instead of coffee.  While we [...]

2007 07 09 admin Culture Comments (0)

Writing Fast

The humorist Calvin Trillin was quoted as saying, “In modern America, anyone who attempts to write satirically about the events of the day finds it difficult to concoct a situation so bizarre that it may not come to pass while his article is still on the presses.”
Calvin was not especially interested in science.  But if [...]

2007 03 06 admin Personal History Comments (0)

Needed: Global Cooling Off Period

It is amusing to watch and read the Media reporting on Global Warming.  The latest position is that we should all believe in “Warming Caused by Humans” because of scientific consensus.  That is, a number of scientists have agreed that the earth is warming, that the warming is caused by human activity and that the [...]

2007 02 07 admin Politics Comments (0)