After 25 years, Science Forum says goodbye

With the possible exception of time and the universe, and you can get arguments on these as well, everything that has a beginning also must have an end. So it is with this column.

The first Science Forum article appeared in the Bangor Daily News on May 29, 1976. Jimmy Carter was soon to be elected president, the nation was celebrating its bicentennial while still recovering from the Vietnam War, and a deadly respiratory infection known as Legionnaires’ disease struck at a Philadelphia American Legion convention. It was a time and a world that are now barely remembered.

Today, Oct. 4, 2001, marks the end of Science Forum after having appeared on these pages more than 1,300 times. The world has changed immeasurably in the quarter-century since that first column appeared and no more so than in the area of science. I have been privileged to comment on events that now seem commonplace but that were undreamed of when my first column appeared on the health hazards of methylene chloride. Look back with me now on some of the great science stories of the last 25 years.

Anyone who has been more than a sporadic reader of this column knows that I had a special affinity for space and astronomy topics. This may be partly due to the fact that they were always an abundant source of material. Vikings 1 and 2 touched down on the surface of Mars in the summer of 1976, sending back exciting data on the possibility of Martian life. A year later, Voyager 2 was launched, and few from that era will ever forget the thrilling close-ups of Jupiter that filled the TV screens on March 5, 1979. My personal favorite has to be Pioneer 10 that was launched in early 1972 and was still newsworthy only last year as it traveled the far reaches of the solar system. Equally fruitful were the many successful and failed missions to Mars, including the Martian meteorite furor of 1996. Over the years, my files on these and many other space topics have become several inches thick.

Biology, particularly as it pertains to human health and genetics, has also been a rich field of articles. The biggest has to be the successful completion of the human genome project in 2001. I must confess that I was one of those who, when the project got under way in 1992, said it would never be done in our lifetime. Other top stories were genetic engineering, gene therapy, stem cell research and mad cow disease. I have done my share of proselytizing over the years, repeatedly raising the specters of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the resurgence of tuberculosis and the dangers of biological warfare.

Miscellaneous topics have been too numerous and diverse to list, but I would like to mention what generated the greatest reader response. In recent years, these were the possibility of a genetic Adam and Eve and the peopling of the Americas. But the greatest response this column ever attracted was in the late 1970s or early 1980s on, of all weird things, pyramid power. I must have received nearly 100 letters and calls from people passionate on the subject of this piece that I had written tongue in cheek. Eventually, I gave up trying to second-guess what would be of greatest interest and used the standard that, if it interested me, it likely would appeal to the majority of readers. I hope that this has proved to be the case.

Finally, I would like to do two things: One is to thank the Bangor Daily News editors for allowing me the space to tell their readership a little about the wonders of science for the past 25 years. The other is to exhort you, the readers, never to give up your interest in science. I believe it was Einstein who said something to the effect that a scientist had to have the curiosity of a child. You may never be a scientist, but you can keep a deep curiosity and sense of wonder about the universe around you.

What the next quarter-century will bring I cannot imagine, but it is certain to be even more exciting than the one I was privileged to report. Why, I just saw a report on how the ancient Egyptians used stars to align the pyramids. I wonder how that worked. Let’s go find out. Best wishes and goodbye!

Clair Wood’s Maine Skies column will continue to appear in the Style section the first Friday of each month.