If you’ve ever glanced over the table of elements in the past thirty years or so, you might be familiar with the name “seaborgium.” Turns out, the namesake of that element, Glenn T. Seaborg, was actually a speaker here at our very own Diamond Jubilee in 1963! A Diamond Jubilee is the 75th anniversary of a thing – if you might recall, we had our 125th anniversary back in 2013. Seaborg’s speech had some pretty interesting predictions for the future (as scientists love to make crazy predictions), some of which were right, some of which were wrong.
For example, he predicted that nuclear power was going to be the forerunner for the production of electricity by 2038, and now that it’s 2015, nuclear power still only accounts for 11% of the world’s electricity. It comes in fourth after coal (40%), gas (23%), and hydroelectric (17%), and it’s unlikely that nuclear will overtake any of these three any time soon, but with 20 years of research and advancing technologies, I suppose it’s still possible. Seaborg’s other predictions included nuclear-powered rockets, manned bases in space, and communication satellites. Humorously enough, he calculated that the entire world would only need three communications satellites to handle coverage of the entire world – according to ucsusa.org we have 1,235 communications satellites in orbit. I mean, it’s only a small difference compared to three.
Seaborg also apparently said, “to keep peace with the scientific age our educational system must produce men and women who are knowledgeable in science.” This certainly hasn’t changed as a fact in the past 52 years, and likely won’t any time soon. But I suppose we’ll see how his predictions hold up by the time our sesquicentennial (that’s a 150th anniversary) rolls around!
You can always see pictures of the Diamond Jubilee, read Seaborg’s entire prediction, or learn more about other speakers and celebrations we’ve had at the University of Puget Sound if you stop into the Archives & Special Collections on Tuesday, Wednesday, and/or Thursday between 1:00-3:00 p.m.!
By Morgan Ford