Department of Physics Assistant Professor Michael Dunham will present "Large Telescopes and the Cost of Science" at the last Sigma Xi Brown Bag of the fall semester on Friday, Dec. 9, at noon in the Major Alice Sam Conference Room on the Science Center’s third floor.
In recent years, astronomers have built telescopes of steadily increasing size at enormous expense. Dr. Dunham will present some statistics on the cost of science in terms of total expenditures by various countries compared to the cost of large projects across different disciplines, and discuss where these astronomy projects fit.
Dunham will also explain why astronomers are choosing to spend available resources on a declining number of ever-larger telescopes, showing the scientific gains while acknowledging some of the trade-offs.
The session, hosted by the scientific research society, is free and open to the public.
