Private investigations

With government funding and R&D budgets cut as part of austerity drives, the next generation of scientific breakthroughs may be made by amateurs

With deficit cutting a priority in US and Europe, funding in the sciences is suffering. Without the money to continue, projects are being scrapped across all areas, such as the termination of the space shuttle programme by NASA.

It may take a decade for government funding to be able to support pre-recession science funding budgets. For enthusiasts the drive for progress won’t wait that long.

As a result, a number of private and amateur projects have got underway – with big scientific goals on their mind – particularly in the field of rocketry.

Private space travel ventures have been in the works for some time. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, currently at the testing stage, promises to take privileged customers to the edge of space within the next few years. Space Exploration Technologies however, aims to do better. Founded by PayPal creator Elon Musk on the principles of “simplicity, low-cost, and reliability”, SpaceX was set up as a private space venture, with the aim of sending both manned and unmanned vehicles into space.

The company launched its first orbital rocket – Falcon 1 – in 2008. It has since built on this achievement with subsequent flights of its Falcon 9 rocket. The company is targeting the private market for the deployment of orbital equipment at approximately $300m – around 40 percent of the price charged by government programmes. So effective is the company at achieving its goals, NASA has provided funding for SpaceX to build rockets to carry cargo and eventually passengers to the International Space Station, with a launch planned for this coming November.

On an even less grand budget, a Danish team of amateur rocketeers are aiming for manned orbit on a budget of around $40,000. Funded by donations, Copenhagen Suborbitals is already at the testing stage with its rocket, HEAT 4. Unmanned rockets have so far achieved heights of around three kilometres, though tests have experienced notable problems including parachute failure. However, within three to five years it is expected these amateurs will accomplish the equivalent of Yuri Gagarin’s flight in 1961 at a fraction of the costs spent by the Soviet Union.

It’s not only in the field of rocketry where amateurs are having an impact. Sciences ranging from butterfly tracking and conservation to finding cures for Parkinson’s disease and cancer are all being undertaken to greater or lesser success, with the internet proving an indispensible tool in sharing findings and generating support.

Clearly though, there are limits to what can be achieved through amateur science. In August, a Swedish man was arrested by police after a tip off by the Swedish Nuclear Authority. A search of Richard Handl’s flat in Angelholm found radium, americium and uranium. Far from a sinister plot however, the man explained he had been trying to split the atom – in his kitchen.

Handl is said to be a keen amateur physicist and had kept a blog of his progress. He had tried to combine the radioactive elements – bought online as part of old smoke detectors – by immersing them together in 96 percent pure sulphuric acid and heating them on his kitchen stove. He was the one who had contacted the nuclear authority after he began to question the legality of what he was doing.

Up to his arrest, Handl had, luckily, been unsuccessful in his attempts, only managing to create a ‘meltdown’ on his cooker. Police have since released him, finding him to pose no threat to society. This case illustrates that while private endeavour looks set to capitalise on subdued publicly-funded science institutions, amateurs need to set a limit to their ambitions.