Dear list members
For an article for a popular science magazine I am looking for technologies
that work but nobody knows (or knew) why. A classic example would be the
lightning rod that protected house and home for a very long time before it’s
mechanism was actually properly understood.
The most recent example is possibly the discovery of the Giant Magneto
Resistance that made it possible to build much more powerful hard drives.
Two physicists were awarded the Nobel prize for physics this year for their
discovery. Yet if I understood well what I read the Giant Magneto Resistance
is still not fully understood.
The point of the article should be – besides entertaining – to show that
there is often a gap between the use of a technology and its “scientific”
understanding and that the relationship between science and technology is
far more complex than simply a discovery leading to an application. The
article will appear in an issue entirely devoted to “ignorance” in science
or agnotology to use Robert Proctor’s term.
So any suggestions for “cryptic” technologies (in a very broad sense) in
past and present would be most welcome.
Thanking you
Dr. Oliver Hochadel
Redaktion heureka!
Das Wissenschaftsmagazin im Falter
Marc-Aurel-Straße 9
1011 Wien
Austria
T: +43 - 1 - 218 90 98
F: +43 - 1 - 536 60 912
M: +43 - 650 - 218 90 99
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www.heurekablog.at
www.sciblog.at
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