Aug 23 1974
From The Space Library
Ames Research Center controllers of Pioneer 11-launched 5 April 1973 and now 85 000 000 km from Jupiter-increased the space-craft's spin rate to improve measurements of Jupiter's radiation belts during the flyby, scheduled for December. (ARC Release 74 41)
Photographs and visual observations made by astronauts aboard the Skylab Orbital Workshop had revealed eddies embedded in warm-water currents flowing poleward from equatorial oceans, Robert E. Stevenson of the Office of Naval Research reported in a Nature article. Observations from Skylab 4 (16 Nov. 1973-8 Feb. 1974) over four ocean areas had confirmed initial evidence from Caribbean photographs taken on Skylab 2 and 3 (25 May-22 June, 28 July-25 Sept. 1973) that eddies with vortices of 5500- to 37 000-m dia were present wherever other conditions were suitable, regardless of water temperature. Findings were also con-firmed by the Navy's Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Four with bathythermographs.
Formerly, turbulence had been difficult to document because of limited oceanographic techniques, insufficient information about such features, and the lack of photos from orbital platforms which enhanced the ocean and atmosphere manifestations of the eddies. (Nature, 23 Aug 74, 638-40)
A Science editorial commented on the Nixon Administration and science: During his terms in office President Nixon, who had resigned 9 Aug, had been preoccupied by foreign policy and Watergate reaction. Science was "at most an afterthought." Because he thought that science should advance the cause of national security and prestige, "grand technology seemed to have had a special fascination for Nixon," most evident in his enthusiasm for the Apollo program and the supersonic transport. He had made a dramatic declaration of war on cancer and set the Nation toward Project Independence, under which the U.S. was to "achieve energy self-sufficiency by 1980." There was "little evidence that Nixon was hostile to science but rather that, except for the technological extravaganzas, he was simply not interested." He lacked rapport with scientists, allying himself instead with proponents and practitioners of the quasi-science of modern management.
The Presidential tapes (tape recordings made secretly of conversations in the Oval Office) showed a President "badly informed, even indifferent," helping to explain why the White House science advisory machinery was deemed expendable. "But in the present situation it takes no special wisdom to see how R&D decisions will affect how the government deals with serious energy and food problems and how important these actions will be in future economic developments. The Nixon tapes illustrate why good presidential advisers and good mechanisms to transmit their advice are necessary in every sphere of policy; this should not be overlooked among the lessons of Watergate for the new Administration." (Science, 23 Aug 74, 675-8)
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