Party like it’s 1905
WATERLOO-A scientist defies politicians, entertainers, and athletes to have the most recognizable face of the twentieth century. He was the focus of EinsteinFest, three weeks of talks, exhibits, film, and music performances running until Sunday at the Perimeter Institute, an independent theoretical physics think tank based in Waterloo.
EinsteinFest talks explored Albert Einstein’s science as it fit into the political, economic, and social environment of the period. Believing, as he said, “only someone truly independent can remain free enough to behave morally,” Einstein was nevertheless an outspoken pacifist, humanitarian, Jewish rights activist, and socialist, warning intellectuals not to compromise by, for instance, testifying during the McCarthy investigations.
Exhibits focused on a period centered on 1905, presenting Einstein’s personal and professional milestones. These are placed in context with progress in other areas of science and in culture, technology, and society, illustrating how science drove forward these other areas. Technologies such as photography and X-rays are an example; the former made conventional painting redundant, and the latter opened up new perspectives, leading to Cubism and expressionism.
Interactive displays included hands-on experiments demonstrating the photoelectric effect and the chaotic motion of milk particles in water, known as Brownian motion-two of Einstein’s famous 1905 findings. Physicists were on hand to answer questions and to attempt to explain relativity to a lay audience.
-Justin Trottier
The circle of trash
Thailand’s rapid industrialization during the 90s has spawned an informal waste economy of people who make a living off other people’s trash, said Dr. David Brown, a Brock University ecologist who spoke at the Centre for Environment seminar series yesterday. He spent a year studying the phenomenon in Chonburi province, on Thailand’s eastern seaboard.
Waste is collected daily in Thailand; industrial and waste streams are not separated. The first people to scavenge the trash are the municipal workers themselves. Of what they scrounge, 41 per cent is paper, 28 per cent plastics, and 5 per cent glass.
Landfill dwellers get in on the action next, as the garbage there is stored in large open-air dumps. Three-quarters of what they get is glass. After meticulously sorting it (eg. brown glass, green glass, etc.), they offload to itinerant waste brokers, often family businesses that criss-cross the region in their trucks. The brokers then sell the stuff in bulk to recycling plants.
“All of this was a spontaneous activity,” said Brown, who estimated that about five per cent of all garbage is diverted by the various levels of scavenging. He said it is possible for landfill dwellers to earn more money than working in more labour-intensive industries, such as construction.
-Mike Ghenu
