--- "R. William Gosper" <rwg@spnet.com> wrote:
"The weak force is the key to the power of the Sun."
I guess they don't want kids to know that solar power is really nuclear.
That statement about the weak force has a bit of truth to it, since without the weak force, protons could not be converted into the neutrons needed to make helium. But then I'm approaching the book from the point of view of someone who understands nuclear physics, not that of the poor student. When you quoted that sentence from the book, my first guess was that the author was a simple ignoramus, and I still think that's the case. He could have said that nuclear fusion powers the sun. Fusion is still politically correct, and will be up to the moment the generators are built. Then it will be demonized; tritium playing the current role of plutonium. The MIT Open Course Ware ( http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html ) looks like it will develop into a wonderful resource when, as they promise, all the courses will be online. There are also wonderful resources hidden away in books; the problem is identifying the few good ones among all the trash. Something we could do to help the bright students stuck in lousy schools is to prepare reading lists of good books and post them on the internet. The lists should include politically incorrect material, not only because much that is scientifically correct is politically incorrect, but also because then the schools might then try to have the lists banned, and that would generate publicity that no amount of money could buy. Gene __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com