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Ouch.

1. David Atkinson, a scientist from the University of Idaho, spent 18 years designing an experiment. It involved a space probe, an special instrument, and the winds on Saturn’s biggest moon. Now imagine waiting seven years for the probe to arrive and the experiment to begin, only to realise that someone had forgotten to turn on the measuring instrument.

“The story is actually fairly gruesome,” the University of Idaho scientist said in an e-mail from Germany, the headquarters of the European Space Agency. “It was human error — the command to turn the instrument on was forgotten.” Professor’s Saturn Experiment Forgotten, AP (from Yahoo), Thu Jan 20

2. Ouch.

3. But the best quote was to come:

“In total, the core of our team has invested something like 80 man years on this experiment, 18 of which are mine,” Atkinson wrote. “I think right now the key lesson is this — if you’re looking for a job with instant and guaranteed success, this isn’t it.”

• Posted in RightBrain on the 21.01.2005 @ 10:54:11 PM, Permanent Link
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