HPSC1004 Introduction to Science Policy

1
HPSC1004 Introduction to Science Policy

• Week 5 Slot 2
• Big Science essays

2
FIRST ESSAY

• Question
• Define the term Big Science. Choosing two
  post-1945 large-scale scientific projects,
  discuss whether the category of Big Science is
  a useful one.
• Essays should be no shorter than 1,500 words
  (maximum 2000 words), 12 point type, double line
  spacing, with footnote references and with a
  bibliography at the end.
• Due Monday 18th February 2008 (note change!)

3
What makes a good essay?

• Structure
• Scope and Structure of argument
• Introduction Middle Conclusion - Bibliography
• Importance of planning essay

4
What makes a good essay?

• Style
• Clear prose
• Positive argument
• Scholarly apparatus present and correct

5
What makes a good essay?

• Content
• Good range of secondary sources, thoughtfully and
  critically used
• Do not plagiarise!

6
Post-war Big Science examples?

• Large high-energy physics facilities
• Fermilab, SLAC, Brookhaven, KEK (Japan), DESY
  (Germany), CERN (Europe), SSC
• Nuclear weapons laboratories
• Los Alamos (US), Lawrence Livermore (US), Sandia
  (US), Sarov (USSR), Aldermaston (UK)

7
Post-war Big Science examples?

• Planetary science missions
• Pioneer, Voyager, Viking, Galileo (US)
• Luna, Venera (USSR)
• Giotto (Europe)
• Space stations and laboratories
• Salyut, Mir (USSR)
• Skylab (US)
• International Space Station (international)

8
Post-war Big Science examples?

• Large Telescopes
• Radio telescopes
• Large optical observatories
• Space Telescope
• Other orbiting telescopes (X-ray, etc)

9
Post-war Big Science examples?

• Large Co-ordinated Biomedical Campaigns
• Nixons War on Cancer
• Sequencing human genome
• Celera
• Human Genome Project
• Disease eradication programs?
• Polio, Smallpox

10
Post-war Big Science examples?

• Others?
• Biodiversity mapping?
• Oceanographic research vessels?
• Satellite and/or simulation-based geosciences?
• ?

11
Big Science projects now?

• For UK
• Research Councils UK, Large Facilities Roadmap,
  2007
• http//www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/resinfra/lfroadmap
  .htm

12
European Extremely Large Telescope
(E-ELT) 750m Operational 2017 European
Southern Observatory (intergovernmenal
organisation, based in Germany, runs telescopes
in Chile) UK is a 20 partner
13
Facility for Antiproton and Ion
Research (FAIR) 850m Operational
2012 Intense high energy, high brilliance beams
of particles ranging from anti-protons to all
chemical elements Germany funds 75
14
International Linear Collider 5
billion Operational after 2015 0.5 1 TeV
15
Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research
Infrastructure (BBMRI) 100m Operational
2009 This project aims at building a
coordinated, large scale European infrastructure
of biomedically relevant, quality-assessed mostly
already collected samples (with the possibility
to link to related clinical and epidemiological
information), to enhance therapy and prevention
of common and rare diseases, including cancer. In
this area of unique European strength, valuable
and irreplaceable national collections typically
suffer from underutilisation due to
fragmentation. Major synergism, gain of
statistical power and economy of scale will be
achieved by interlinking, standardising and
harmonising sometimes even just
cross-referencing - a large variety of
well-qualified, up-to date, existing and de novo
national resources.
16
Infrafrontier 320m Operational 2017 To
organize and establish now an efficient
distributed infrastructure for the phenotyping,
archiving and dissemination of mouse models on a
well-concerted, large-scale and pan-European
level.
17
Aurora Borealis 360m Operational 2012 196m
long polar research vessel, for polar and marine
research
18
Life Watch 370m Operational 2014 an
infrastructure that brings together all relevant
data and analytical facilities in order to
address the basic gaps in existing knowledge. It
also must provide an answer to the lack of
long-term data required to monitor the effects of
climate change and other anthropogenic drivers on
different scales. These data have to come from
direct observation, existing monitoring
programmes and large-scale biological and
geological collections.
19
Handing essays in

• www.submit.ac.uk
• You should be registered, if not
• Course ID no. 60450
• Password sciencepol