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Science Friday > Archives > 2003 > August
> August 8, 2003:
Hour One: Future
of Hubble / Small World Networks
The Hubble Space Telescope has been key to discoveries in space
for over a decade. However, plans are in the works to de-orbit the
telescope and make way for its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope,
scheduled to be launched in 2011. With a scheduled maintenance mission
to Hubble currently on hold following the space shuttle disaster,
is it time to think more deeply about the future of the Hubble? We'll
talk about it.
Plus, how connected are we in this connected world? A famous experiment
by psychologist Stanley Milgram created the idea of 'six degrees of
separation' -- the thought that a message could be passed between
two people who didn't know each other by handing it along a chain
of an average of just six connected people. But does that result still
hold true in the hyper-connected Internet world? A recent experiment
says it does -- replacing the movement of a paper message with the
forwarding of an email, researchers found that it still took 5 to
7 steps to complete a message chain. We'll talk about it, and about
ways in which the theory of networks can be applied to practical problems.
Want to try it yourself? Visit the
Small World Project. Call in with your questions and comments
at 1-800-989-8255 (2-3 Eastern), and share your opinions online in
our Listeners' Lounge (registration required).
Guests:
John Bahcall
Chair, NASA
Hubble Space Telescope-James Webb Space Telescope Transition Panel
Review
Richard Black Professor of Natural Sciences
The Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, New Jersey
John Huchra
Chair, Board of Directors
Association of Universities
for Research in Astronomy
Senior Astronomer, Harvard Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics
Doyle Professor of Cosmology
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Duncan Watts
Author, "Six
Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age" (WW Norton, 2003)
Associate Professor, Sociology
Columbia University
New York, New York
Jon Kleinberg
Associate Professor, Computer
Science
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Astronomy
Resources at STScI
HubbleSite
James
Webb Space Telescope Home Page
Special
Panel Studies Termination of Hubble Orbiting Telescope
James
Webb Space Telescope : Diving Deep into the Universe
JWST
- The James Webb Space Telescope
Small World Project
- Kevin
Bacon, the Small - World , and Why It All Matters
Small
- world Networks
Is
it a small world? Theory put to e-mail test
American
Scientist Online - Not a Small World After All
gladwell
dot com / Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg
Wired
News: Kevin Bacon: You've Got Mail
Works
in Progress: Six Degrees of Speculation
UVA
Computer Science: The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia
This segment produced by Karin
Vergoth
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