Impact of Astronomy on Daily Life

I mentioned on last week's show (which I have to put online, I know), that the European Space Agency has recently used technology it developed for the Integral X-ray satellite to develop better bomb detectors at airport. This is just one of a long list of items originally developed for Astronomical use but has entered "everyday" life as well. Heck, NASA has an entire magazine devoted to spinoffs of its technology. Astronomy has also been a very important source for a lot of the basic physics which form the basis for our current understanding of the universe. Read this article for examples of how Astronomy has been vital for advancing physics.

(Thank you very much to Dr. Tom Bridgman for pointing me to this article. It is a good one.)