Click on any phrase to play the video at that point.Close What
do I know that would cause me, a reticent, Midwestern scientist,
to get myself arrested in front of the White House protesting?
And what would you do if you knew what I know? Let's start with
how I got to this point. I was lucky to grow up at a time when
it was not difficult for the child of a tenant farmer to make
his way to the state university. And I was really lucky to go to
the University of Iowa where I could study under Professor James
Van Allen who built instruments for the first U.S. satellites.
Professor Van Allen told me about observations of Venus, that
there was intense microwave radiation. Did it mean that Venus
had an ionosphere? Or was Venus extremely hot? The right answer,
confirmed by the Soviet Venera spacecraft, was that Venus was
very hot -- 900 degrees Fahrenheit. And it was kept hot by a
thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. I was fortunate to join NASA
and successfully propose an experiment to fly to Venus. Our
instrument took t