[log in to unmask] writes
>>Hi All,
>>
>>Sorry this has nothing to do with medicine but my daughter - aged 14 - was
>>asked by her teacher today to find out what the seven wonders of the modern
>>world are.
Snip
>
>According to Alexei Soares, Graduate in Molecular Biophysics, they are
>
>Channel Tunnel
>Itaipu Dam
>Canadian National Tower
>Golden Gate Bridge
>Netherlands N.Sea Protection
>Empire State Building
>The Panama Canal
>
Not the answer to anyone's homework, but if you had unlimited resources
where would you take your children to see the wonders of the 20th century?
Maybe I'm a heathen but Alex Soares list doesn't feel inspiring enough.
The ancient wonders were strutural and significant. They certainly weren't
all built in one century. If you allow non-structural wonders surely
computers and the internet, aspirin or penicillin, Hubble, Concorde, the
Jumbo Jet and Man on the Moon are strong contenders.
Structurally what about:-
1. Walt Disney World, Florida - surely more magnificent and more
accessible than the Hanging Gardens, a cathedral of fun, film, and even
optimism.
2. Mount Palomar observatory - for helping to turn our eyes outward.
3. The Vehicle Assembly Building, Cape Canaveral - awe inspiring not only
for its size but for what has left from it.
4. The excavations at Pompeii - for linking us so vividly to our past.
5. Sydney Opera House - for a century of music (sadly the building bores
me) or, though I've never been, the Palace of the Sultan of Brunei (for
showing what really sickeningly opulent means)
6. The Hoover dam - for showing that a nation can rebuild, for harnessing
the power of nature, for electricity.
7. CNN tower Toronto - a cathedral to the power and value of information
(and misinformation?), for television.
Guess there don't have to be seven - any other 20th century structure, both
awe inspiring to see and significant?
JB
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