[alokin]

Hi, are there scientists?
What do you think will be your future? Will you still work in science or
will you rather repair shoes?
Will there be money to pay mathematicians, physicists etc.?

[jlw61]

Depends what time frame you are discussing. There will be scientists and mathamaticians as long as we don't take the time to bomb outselves into the stone age.

There were scientists long before oil and there will be many long after. The natural sciences will continue to have quite a lot of interest, but the sciences that rely on vast sums of energy to carry out their experiments are in for a rough time.

For instance, the ability to genetically modify crops will bandied about for some time, but the Fermi lab with its large particle accelerator may not survivive as few as another dozen years (pessimistic outlook, that). And the geniuses in NASA, who have the bad form to be under 40, may need to purchase a few gardening books before retirement.



Hmmm... looking at posts from this morning, I conclue it quite inadvisable to watch 3 British movies in one night.

[efarmer]

In the southwest corner of my great American state of
Missouri, is the place where Dr. George Washington
Carver grew up. His over arching love of life and
his pursuit of agricultural and scientific solutions to
human and social problems stands on it's own like
a rock a century later. They might not be funded,
they might not be socially acceptable to the current
movers and shakers for whatever reason, they
might not be financially rewarded, but there will
be scientists. They simply have no other outlet for
their talent and expression.

It is the scientists who love what they do so much they
will gladly do it for nothing who overcome the largest
obstacles. We are going to see less scientists perhaps,
but we are going to see some awe inspiring minds rise
to the challenges ahead.

[lper100km]

The high priests will shut it down and scientists will be hunted by the inquisitors and made to see the error of their ways. Science will be a dark art, practiced furtively and in great secrecy at risk to life and freedom. The sun will return to it’s orbit around the earth and the earth will become flat. Osiris rules!

[perdition79]

It's a giant step backwards when the corporate infrastructure collapses. Scientific research will again need to be sponsored by a wealthy patron, or supported by the church. Don't think we'll be headed for deep space any time soon.

[dorlomin]

Hi, are there scientists?
What do you think will be your future? Will you still work in science or
will you rather repair shoes?
Will there be money to pay mathematicians, physicists etc.?

Its kinda challanging charging machine guns with spears no matter how hungry you are. Scientists and engineers will always have a niche in winning nations. There will be periods of financial turmoil where science funding gets cut, but in the long run those who keep educating and researching will last the longest. Hell Ill go further with micro satalites and airborne launch technologies now under development there will remain a human presence in space pretty much permenantly if not a manned one for a while.

[mos6507]

The sun will return to it’s orbit around the earth and the earth will become flat. Osiris rules!

Wouldn't that be the Anunaki?

[cube]

PO == the end of "Big" science projects

like this

[MrBill]

Speaking of scientists. Cannot spent nuclear fuel be recycled? I thought we were currently running our reactors on spent Soviet nuclear war heads? Does this not apply to garden variety enriched uranium? Sorry for my own ignorance. Thanks.

Oil prices are sky high. Greenhouse gases are driving up temperatures around the world. And many are now looking to nuclear power as the possible solution. Dozens of new reactors are under construction, but in Germany the subject remains taboo -- for now.

Source: The Inexorable Comeback of Nuclear Energy

Plus, one of the enduring challenges of nuclear power remains to be solved: what to do with the highly radioactive waste produced by atomic reactors? In the last 50 years of nuclear power generation, some 300,000 tons of the stuff has been produced, with an additional 10,000 tons coming each year. A part of that waste is plutonium, and it is incredibly volatile. Just a single gram contains as much energy as a ton of oil -- and it can give hundreds of people cancer should it be inhaled as radioactive dust. Should one stand next to a gram of plutonium for just a single minute, death is the result.

"Global warming," he says, "is an immediate issue that nuclear energy can help solve. We should solve this issue now and solve the nuclear waste issue over the next 200 years."