HR: 0800h
AN: GP21A-0021    [Abstracts]
TI: Halley's Legacy: The Selfless Genius Who Founded Geophysics, Led the Science Community to Solve the Problem of Finding Longitude at Sea, and Whose Work in Areas from Geomagnetism to Planetology Still Has Meaning For Today's Scientists
AU: * Wakefield, J
EM: jwakefield@earthlink.net
AF: Joseph Henry Press, 500 Fifth Street NW, Washington, DC 20001 United States
AB: 2005 marks the 300th anniversary of Edmond Halley's publication of his infamous synopsis predicting the accurate return of the comet that would come to bear his name. On this occasion, it is time to remember him not only as the founder of geophysics but for his contributions to the world of science beyond his comet work. Halley's comet-transformed by the first triumph of the Newtonian revolution from a dire supernatural omen to a predictable element of the universe's clockwork-remains a recurring symbol of the scientific age of the Enlightenment. His comet is hurtling through space at some 20,000 miles per hour and won't be back until 2061. But it can remind us of past epochs and everlastingly of Halley's contributions to geophysics and the world of science writ large. For a start, Halley completed a series of little known sea voyages in his effort to solve one of his life-long quests: the problem of determining longitude at sea. On the basis of his earlier theories on magnetism, his approach entailed mapping the magnetic deviation across the test-bed of the Atlantic Ocean. In this paper, his findings from the voyages, which technically comprised the first science mission funded by a government and stand as the forerunner of all big science projects, will be reconsidered and put into the context of today's notions about terrestrial magnetism, including the geodynamo. To this day, scientists remain perplexed about exactly how core's dynamo regenerates its energy. When Halley was sailing his vessel, the Paramore, across the North Atlantic and making the first charts of geomagnetism, little did he ever imagine magnetism would underpin today's stunning advances in information technology and electromagnetic engineering. Magnetism also offers ways to study phase transitions, random disorder, and physics in low dimensions, which looks at particle interactions at ever higher energies in order to essentially study matter at smaller and smaller size scales. The presentation will also give an overview of his legacy to geophysics, which includes his contributions to meteorology, hydrology, ocean sciences, among other disciplines.
DE: 1704 Atmospheric sciences
DE: 1706 Computational geophysics
DE: 1714 Geomagnetism and paleomagnetism
DE: 1724 Ocean sciences
DE: 1799 General or miscellaneous
SC: Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism [GP]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005