This is of course from the 1939 World's Fair. It represents the era of perhaps the most optimistic vision of science held by the public, from back when Progress was spelled with a P. The war put things on hold for a few years, and then we had a decade or so of glorious Streamline Moderne before the public image of science fell apart and science became just another occupation; thought about fairly rarely and with a volatile combination of appreciation and suspicion. But it was nice while it lasted.
I assume it was. The era was over two decades before I existed. I've always had a taste for the Art Deco future the people of the 30s thought we'd live in. The Futurist variant of the 50s would have suited me just fine as well. Then even Disney was enthusiastically preaching the wonder of the Nuclear Age. Somehow I managed to end up with an old copy of their book Our Friend the Atom when I was young. It went along with the film of the same name:
It's one of the things that made me so interested in physics. Well, actually I suppose the cover looks more Russian Constructivist, but I'm no art critic. The interior contains a solidly Art Deco inspired Futurist aesthetic. That's what today was supposed to look like back then. The science in the book is quite solid as well. In fact, I'd like to scan some of the pages and write a series of posts on it. It really did manage to inspire a sense of wonderment, which is pretty amazing for a book about the history and applications of atomic physics. Will we ever see that kind of optimistic vision of science again?
Maybe one day.
Around the Web: I don't know if you've been reading Shores of the Dirac Sea, but it's a pretty new physics blog, and it rocks absolutely. I solidly recommend it. And here's a huge list of posts about space, in the Carnival of Space.
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It's a pity you didn't post a few high res scans of the interior pages of Our Friend The Atom .
Sadly, the book's in my parents' house in another state. I was able to find the cover image online. But next time I'm up there visiting, I'll definitely pick up the book and make some good scans.
The trylon and perisphere forecast a future of post-Great Depression hemiorchidectomies. Here we are!
Brain Res. Bull. 53(2) 227 (2000)
a rendition of Extraordinary Rendition
My dad visited the 1939 Worlds Fair. That was the first time he saw a television broadcast, not to mention many other things that were realized eventually. The only thing missing was nuclear energy. Fission was discovered that year.
Think about how bold it was to look that far into the future after 10 years of the Great Depression, as the economy was only marginally recovering .. partly because the world was preparing for six years of war. It would take that war and another decade after it ended before the stock market returned to its pre-crash level.
The atom *is* our friend. Can't do chemistry without it, and nuclear energy offers a safe path to a post-fossil future if it is treated with respect. We need that same level of scientific boldness and technical creativity today as much as they did in 1939. End the whining that solar or wind power or hybrid or all-electric cars are too expensive or pretending that fossil fuels will never run out if we drill enough holes ... or fighting as if this is a zero sum game or pretending that the US government played no role in subsidizing the railroad and highway and network infrastructure that made past technical and economic advances possible.
I'm not sure I can infer when you think it was that the public view of science fell apart. Even Creationists still support research into a cure for cancer and new energy technologies, not to mention cell phones that are as common as the Dick Tracy wrist radio that Chester Gould introduced in 1946.
You call it the "Streamline Future" but don't show any of the marvelous streamlined cars and trains from that era. I have several of the books showing them.
What is crazy is that cars are now almost all about form rather than function. A Technical school in France can build a car that gets over 10,000 mpg but the US manufacturers have barely improved on the Ford Model T.
What is really annoying is that having bought a car, prior to the recent rise in gas prices, that gets 38 mpg driving at 80 on the freeway I cannot now get anything that gets much better mileage because everybody wanted SUV's.
If you have an SUV that gets 12mpg it's easy to get a 38 mpg Honda Fit to replace it and cut your fuel bill to one third. I haven't found a $15,000 car that gets 100 mpg.