posted 08-28-2003 04:08 PM               

As much I'd love to agree with the author (seeing as though I am a first-born) I noticed an error in his reasoning. Grose says:

"Seventy per cent of US presidents are first-born; every US astronaut has been a male first-born."

Well, setting aside for the moment that there are female astronauts, I wonder what the Kelly twins must think of his study? One of them had to be second-born.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7099894%255E421,00.html

posted 08-28-2003 11:53 PM               

I was curious, not meaning to get too far off the subject, but which astros are left-handed? I have been to a couple of autograph shows but I know many of you have been to a lot more than me and have also had dealings with them.

Here is a list I'll start. Please correct it or add to it as needed:

LEFTY ASTROS:

posted 08-29-2003 12:00 AM               

quote:

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The last round trip flight of the Columbia in March of 2002 was to the Hubble again to service it, to install new gyros, to install an infrared camera, to upgrade a number of different factors to it that improved its capacity by a factor of 10, according to all the astronomers who observed this, and they are just elated over the quality of what has come back from this. And yet it turned out that the primary human characteristic that was so important on that mission was embodied by a gent who will be joining us here in about a month, or a matter of fact, weeks--I'm losing track of days here--Dr. John Grunsfeld, who will be our Chief Scientist, and relieving Dr. Shannon Lucid, as she goes back to Johnson Space Center, as our Chief Scientist.

He was on that mission. He's an astrophysicist, got all kinds of incredible scientific background. But his primary human characteristic trait that was most valuable proved to be that all the instruments for adjustment on the Hubble telescope are on the left-hand side. So rather than having, like many of us--righties are stuck with the problem or reaching around the front of your face with a catcher's mitt equivalent capacity to adjust things, and a big bubble over year head, trying to see what's going on--his primary human characteristic that was most valuable is he's a lefty. He's now referred to as "the southpaw savant."

But it was a human characteristic that made those adjustments, that made that capacity work in a way that we never imagined possible, and that 10 years ago we were prepared to write off as garbage. And instead today, it's revolutionizing not only the field of astronomy, but also informing all of us as human beings of the origins of this universe, its progression over time. It has changed the way we look at everything. In the last 18 months it has been a remarkable set of discoveries that have emerged from that capability that would never have been possible were it not for human intervention.

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