What do NATO, the environment and the ESA have in common? All three recently came together at the NATO-sponsored workshop entitled "The Modern Problems of Electrostatics with Applications in Environment Protection." The workshop was held November 9 through 12, 1998 in Bucharest, Romania and was organized by Romania's National Institute for Research in Electrostatics and Electrotechnology (INCSEE). The purpose of the workshop was to bring together experts in various electrostatics areas who are knowledgeable in methods to clean the air, the water and the soil. Top scientists throughout the world were invited to this workshop, and among the invited participants were several who have presented at ESA meetings, i.e., Kazie Asano, Peter Castle, Joe Crowley, Ion Inculut, Norbert Szedenik and Gerard Touchard.
As President of the ESA I was invited to give a paper titled "The Activity of the Electrostatics Society of America in the Field of Environmental Protection." It was a good opportunity for me to look back at the ESA over the past several years. My goal was to pull out of the ESA's diverse menu of interest areas those areas that are applicable to the cleanup and protection of the environment. Interestingly, over half of the areas on our "List of Interest Areas," which ESA members are periodically asked to update during membership renewal, fall within the scope of knowledge needed by those who apply electrostatics to our environment.
To present the ESA activities I restricted my talk to the last six ESA meetings for which we have written Proceedings. Furthermore, I extracted only those papers that would interest an attendee working in the field of environmental protection. On average I found around 20 to 30 percent of the presentations at an ESA meeting fall within this interest field. Many of these papers are in the forefront of environmental technology. As I presented the contributions of our members, I felt extremely proud to be a member of ESA. In preparing and presenting this talk, it became clear to me that the ESA plays a valuable part in dissemination of electrostatics information related to the guardianship of our environment. To all the ESA members who over the years have contributed their electrostatics expertise to protecting our environment I extend my heartfelt thanks. ..Happy Holidays to all. ..For the Friendly Society,
I have been a member of the ESA for about 3 years now. I really enjoyed the presidents message in the Sept/Oct 98 ESA newsletter.
I have long struggled as a researcher/engineer/amateur physicist over the questions and concepts brought forth in the article.
I remember a quote from a recent superb volume entitled "Newton vs Einstein" by Peter and Neal Graneau father and son PhDs (Northeastern Univ and Kings college respectively). It deals with the transition sometime in the last century from a raw empirically based electrodynamics to the relativistic electrodynamics. It covers the historical background on where the authors feel science made a wrong turn is the blind rush to explain everything immediately with this or that theory.
It is basically felt by the authors that a lot of 19th century physics was not really satisfactorily completed in the 19th century. Another PhD physicist Thomas E. Phipps ("Heretical Verties") also believe this same thing.
The argument is that theory is now king and a lot of modern theory is very poorly constructed and more experiments of late have shown some flaws in often long held beliefs which now approach dogma.
The crux is that theory has sort of raced far ahead of experiments ability to keep up and foundation theories used to build these newer theories are themselves shaky, etc.
The Graneaus noted in their quote that "electrical developments and electrical engineering technology was actually putting practical devices out for sale to the public long before science and physics had a clear picture of what was going on at the core of the process." In short engineers were gleefully engineering devices for which little theoretical basis existed as they worked.
This is the classic "development leading theory". For the business and consuming world, this is certainly the best way to endear science to the hearts of the public. Actually it would be engineering, but science or research or at least experiment had to precede any development. Theory was unimportant except to a few unsettled physicists. As theory came on line to explain these wonders of invention, the tables turned and pure research based on past engineering successes spurred the current period of theoretical machinations for which there is only moderate development.
Being an engineer, I like to know where the science comes from, the reasons, the underlying principles. It is not only self-assuring, but can lead to new ideas. However, sometimes just an unrelated light bulb going off in the head is enough to revolutionize things.
The bottom line is that the big money needs to be spent on major national goals. (as you suggest) A few "Manhattan projects" need to be underway. One of the most crucial is national energy sources for the future. Not just patches over the current wounds, but major breakthroughs. Another is the eradication of key killer diseases, (Cancer, etc). These can be done if the programs are rigidly controlled and teams assembled and sequestered for the duration, and not farmed out by thousands of small contracts as the DOE is so famous for doing.
We need to go for the gold and not stop until it is in hand. Theory will catch up to the processes developed and perhaps be more attached to the empirical results than we see in so many modern far out theories. ..Richard Hull, Systems Engineer, Whitlock Group
Professor Stuart Hoenig from the University of Arizona has told us of a system he has devised to condense moisture from humid air by passing it through a high voltage gradient. He estimates the running cost to be about one-fifth that of an air conditioner. He would welcome inquiries from companies who might be interested in manufacturing and selling the units.
Experimental results are shown in the graph at the right. ..Dr.Hoenig can be reached at: ..80 W. Yvon Dr., Tucson, AZ 85704 ..Phone: 520-887-3815 ..Fax: 520-887-9727 e-mail: hoenig@ece.arizona.edu ..
In our last Newsletter, we included a photograph of Glenn Schmieg talking about the 48 Iron atom in his after-dinner talk at our June 1998 conference in Palo Alto. We reported that Peter Castle said the Glenn could now truly be called the "Ironman". Unfortunately the photograph that appeared in the Newsletter was not nearly as clear as the original and the large symbol "Fe" in the upper left hand corner is almost invisible. Sorry to spoil your clever comment, Peter.
I have a brand new copy of Lightning Electromagnetics by Robert L. Gordon, Hemisphere Publishing, 1990, that you can have free! I'll send it postpaid. The catch? I ask only that you write a short review for our Newsletter.
The book is over 500 pages and written at a fairly technical level. Topics include modeling of leader and return strokes, measurement of radiation and fields, and waveforms induced in cables and aircraft. ..Glenn Schmieg
Contact Dr. Schmieg at: 3224 A N. Oakland, Milwaukee, WI 53211, Phone: 414-332-1327
This three day international meeting will be held on March 1 to 3, 1999 at the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort in Clearwater, FL. The first day is tutorial and includes properties and processing for coatings, films and powders. Applications include ESD, EMI shielding, corrosion control, adhesives and others. The other two days include lectures by scientists from private industry and academic institutions. Fee: $1050.
For further information, contact: Dr. Matt Aldissi, Tel: 813-854-4332, Fax: 813-854-5596, E-mail: fractals@infobridge.com, Website: http://www.fastwww.com/conductive_polymers/