Are STEM Students Free To Launch Rockets?

The movie, October Sky, released in 1999 and based on Homer Hickam's memoir, Rocket Boys, is a riveting celebration of American know-how and determination.

It's set in a small West Virginia coal-mining town in 1957 when the Soviet satellite Sputnik is launched spearheading the Soviet/American space race.

Hickam, who later became a space engineer, at the time was a high school student, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, with dreams of designing rocket ships. His father, who works in the mines, vehemently disapproves and wants him instead to follow in his footsteps. But Hickam continues to pursue his dreams.

Young Hickam, along with his school buddies, and with the full  support of his science teacher, enters a student science competition and begins test firing rockets, many of which either fail to launch or blow up without ever leaving the ground. In the end, they achieve a successful launch.

After I watched this movie (which was a few years ago on either a VHS cassette or a DVD), I concluded that the kids today who are in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs in high schools would not be able to enjoy the same freedom to experiment with rockets as Hickam was. And  their efforts, because of national security concerns, would be stymied by government interference and/or accusations of terrorist activity.

Science Versus Fiction, Per Margaret Atwood

 "...[S]cience,...is about knowledge. Fiction, on the other hand, is about feeling. Science as such is not a person, and does not have a system of morality built into it, any more than a toaster does. It is only a tool--a tool for actualizing what we desire and defending against what we fear--and like any other tool, it can be used for good or ill. You can build a house with a hammer, and you can use the same hammer to murder your neighbour."

"Literature is an uttering, or outering, of the human imagination. It lets the shadowy forms of thought and feeling--Heaven, Hell, monsters, angels, and all--out into the light, where we can take a good look at them and perhaps come to a better understanding of who we are and what we want, and what the limits to those wants may be. Understanding the imagination is no longer a pastime or even a duty, but a necessity; because increasingly, if we can imagine it, we'll be able to do it.

"Or we'll be able to try it, at least."

--Margaret Atwood, from the essay, "Scientific Romancing," in her collection, Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021 (Doubleday/Penguin Random House, 2022.)

World AIDS Day, 2018

Today is World AIDS Day, a time to remember friends and family members who succumbed to this disease as well as to reflect on the progress made thus far by medical science in fighting and possibly eradicating it.

Looking back, the AIDS epidemic made the 1980s and 1990s a scary time. Especially because so many people were dropping like flies and a cure seemed a million years away.

But it was also a great time for AIDS activism and artistic expression, particularly among black gay men. So whenever I look through one of my scrapbooks or manuscript folders containing articles that I've written, I'm reminded that, as a journalist, I was privileged to have had the opportunity to witness and document what went on within the gay community during a frightening time.

How Hot Is It In Hell?

During past heat waves, I remember hearing religious zealots say when people complained about the heat, "Hell is hotter than this." I don't know how they knew that unless they'd been to Hell and back, an unlikely occurrence.

Plus, I've heard that there are microorganisms on Earth that can survive in extreme temperatures. If such a place as Hell exists, would these microorganisms survive and thrive in such a hostile, uncomfortable environment?