Newsletter
A M ERIC A N ASSOCIATION OF PHY SICIST S IN ME D I CI NE VOLUME 33 NO. 2
MARCH/APRIL 2008
AAPM President’s Column
Gerald A. White Colorado Springs, CO
I
can recall as a child the mystery with which Science was endowed. One of my friends and business colleagues (we both had newspaper routes) delivered the daily paper to an address where the resident was reported to be “A Scientist”. I can recall my surprise that the house in which such a person lived looked just like other houses in the neighborhood. I am not sure what I expected, other than that it should somehow be different, reflecting what I was sure to have been the exclusive and rare characteristics of the man who lived within. My elementary school career spanned the pre- and post-Sputnik eras. My time was spent in a Catholic school at the height of the Baby Boom years (we had 1600 children attending grades 1-8 in its apogee). Science did not receive much notice in the classroom, certainly not compared to learning Penmanship and Phonics. After the launch of the Russian satellite, there was a halfhearted move towards introducing a Science curriculum—I
remember in the 6th grade feeling that Science had been given some priority, as the teacher had been issued a Science textbook. There were still a few rough edges. The lecture on atoms concluded with the observation that the largest of atoms (the Uranium atom) was about the size of a golf ball, thus enabling Scientists to understand the inner structure of other, smaller less easily visible atoms. Having previously exhausted the school library’s collection of science books, I decided that Sister Mary Lois had a better command of the details of the Council of Trent and the Palmer Method than she did of atomic theory. With years of training in the culture of the parochial school, I was also unwilling to make even a polite inquiry or comment. As the man flows from the child, my Penmanship skills are still lamentable, I am still loathe to offer a contrary opinion when speaking to a nun (I work in a Catholic hospital) and I am still enraptured by the domain of Science. I am writing this article in the home of my son in Edmonton. It is what they describe here as “getting a bit cold”. The high temperature in the next 5 days is predicted to be -22 ° F. I confess to being excited tonight by looking at the situation through the eyes of a Science person—I went outside to let my body experience the firm dry air at the temperature where Herr Celsius and Herr Fahrenheit agree. How differently we look at common events and
situations, and how important it is that our fellow Americans gain and holds a sense of Scientific literacy, even if the excitement escapes them. There is a long way to go in that regard. A recent paper published in Science examined the acceptance of evolution in 34 Western countries and Japan. With Icelanders leading the sample in affirming the evolutionary process, the United States fell next to last (just ahead of Turkey). We have had the opportunity to witness a significant politization of Science over the last decade; our National vulnerability to that situation has been enhanced by the declining scientific literacy in the U.S. (those “unsure” of evolution (see White - p. 4) TABLE OF CONTENTS Chair of the Board Column President Elect’s Column Executive Director’s Column Education & Research Fund Editor’s Column Education Council Report Professional Council Report Science Council News CAMPEP News Leg. & Reg. Affairs 50th Anniversary update Health Policy/Economics ACR Accreditation FAQS MOC update AAPM-ISEP Course Report Website Editor’s Report Chapter News Ethic’s Committee Update Person in the News Memorial
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