7.1 Signatures of Public Impact

Among all the sciences, astronomy has the unique power to reveal the true scope of the outside world. This immense and enduring appeal of astronomy to the public allows it to act as a powerful "science magnet":

.Almost one million people annually visit Canadian observatories and planetaria. As just one example, more than 25,000 people visited the Observatoire du Mont Megantic "Astrolab" in its first year, despite its remote location in the Eastern Townships. This thriving center now includes a small telescope specifically for visitors, and has contributed strongly to the public awareness of astronomy (and science) in Quebec. Well attended visitor centre programs are maintained at several other observatory sites around the country. For most people, simply looking through a telescope at Saturn or the Pleiades may be the most memorable direct experience of science that they will have in their lifetimes.

.At the elementary school level, teachers know that the two scientific topics guaranteed to excite their students are dinosaurs and outer space. At the university level, approximately 10,000 Canadian students elect to take non-specialist courses in astronomy each year; for most of them, it will be the only formal university contact they will have with science. The lecturers in these courses know from long experience that a palpable hush falls over the class whenever topics such as black holes, the search for other planets, Earth-crossing asteroids, or the origin and fate of the universe are brought up.

... in learning science you learn to handle by trial and error, to develop a spirit of invention and free inquiry which is of tremendous value far beyond science.

One learns to ask oneself 'Is there a better way to do it?'

Richard P. Feynman,
American Nobel Laureate in Physics