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transcript of the PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE program
#101, "THE GREAT PLANET DEBATE"
Part 4: Getting involved
Now as the traffic on our super highway continues to build we'll probably
break this thing up into separate discussion groups, one for each of the
planets that we are talking about. And it's... well just like a regular
road, the SuperHighway, you can drive anywhere you want to. As a matter
of fact, you can even visit the Space Telescope Science Institute here in
Baltimore via the Internet. You can explore its thousands of fantastic pictures
already taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, pictures of the target planets
we have been talking about, as well as stars, galaxies, black holes, anything
you want. The whole universe will be at your command.
The Space Telescope Science Institute address on the World Wide Web
is http://www.stsci.edu
You can gopher by using www.stsci.edu, or transfer files
from ftp using ftp.stsci.edu
RETA BEEBE on electronic communication:
I think the Internet is a fantastic device. Not only do I get communications
regularly from people who have just fundamental questions they need
to ask, I also get communications that are almost impossible to get
any other way. I can talk to a planetary astronomer in Alma Atta over
by the Tibetan border two to three times a day on the Internet, and
if I tried... if I attempted to send him anything in any other form
it takes months for him to get it. So that not only would the Internet
provide a way of students... for students to talk to working scientists
in this country, it gives them access to the world. |
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CAROLYN PORCO on the role of e-mail in the project:I like
kids! I teach a class here, it's undergraduates, so they are, you
know, older than the students I'd probably be interacting with on
the Internet, but I frankly think it's a blast! They are still fresh,
they are still curious about the... about the workings of the world,
and it's just a joy to be able to be the person in the position to
be telling them something for the first time, and see their lights
just go aglow.
I won't be seeing lights go aglow over the Internet, but nonetheless
I'm an e-mail Internet fanatic, so I find this a natural, a pretty
natural way to communicate and I think it would be great to... you
know, have... I don't know... hundreds of pen pals -- that's what
it would be, hundreds of Internet pals!
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MARC BUIE :
I think it's great, working with high school students, working with
undergraduates, graduate students. I was fortunate enough as an undergraduate
to be working in a laboratory rather than simply taking classes and
that was very important for me in terms of my getting into science
and where I am in my career today and I'm just trying to give a little
bit of that back in any way I can. |
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ANNE KINNEY:
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Science is ongoing. The greatest criticism about the way I learned
science is that it was always taught to us as if somebody else did
it. They were usually wearing a white coat, and of course they were
usually male, and they knew all the answers and, boy, they sure were
a lot smarter than any of us were, so what was the point?
In fact it's really not that way, if the answers... if you're going
to get to the answers you're going to be the one that's going to have
to do that. And that's every bit as true today as it was twenty years
ago or a hundred years ago, so science is ongoing, and if you want
to know the answer to something, you'd better be asking the questions. |
HEIDI HAMMEL:
I think a project like this is a great way for students to see how
scientists make decisions. It's not as easy as just saying "I want
to take a picture" there's a lot of decisions that have to get made,
a lot of choices, a lot of compromises. Sometimes you can't do things
exactly the way you want to do them, and I think it would be interesting
for students to see how that happens, to see how scientists really
work on a day to day basis. |
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ALEX STORRS:
All you have to do is have an inquiring mind and be open , and be alert,
and be aware and don't accept as given everything that you've been told.
Don't accept as given that the universe is understood, but accept that
the universe is a big, beautiful mystery that we are all trying to unravel.
Narrator WILLIAM A. GUTSCH, to camera:
Remember, your suggestions will help determine where we go, what planet
we look at, and what we are looking for. Your curiosity will be your "Passport
to Knowledge". We hope you'll come along for this exciting experiment,
and become a co-discoverer of... well, what just might be the next great
discovery about our solar system.
Thanks for being with us. Stay cool, stay connected. I'm Dr. Bill Gutsch
for Live from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Closing Underwriter announcement:
Live from the Hubble Space Telescope is made possible in part
by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science
Foundation, PBS K-12 Learning Services and Public Television.
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