History of North America

The role of being a scientific adviser to a President

Normally, the Presidents of the Governments have the healthy habit (irony) of surrounding themselves with hundreds of advisors in different subjects (economy, science, culture...), although many times, due to the decisions of the different Governments, one doubts their effectiveness. Other times, most of them will have enough to hold back their laughter at the "nonsense" they have to hear or respond to.

In this case, we have the physicist Fran Press, scientific adviser to the American President Jimmy Carter .

One morning the president was reading the newspaper and before the headline that appeared on every page he sent for his scientific adviser:

Fewer neutrinos than expected arrive from the Sun.

When Fran arrived, he was deeply alarmed and asked:

Can we do something, Press?

We do not know the answer of the scientist but he could have answered:

He calls Bruce Willis and his group of oil rig drillers to drill into the Sun's surface, blow up a nuclear bomb and thus produce more thermonuclear reactions so that more neutrinos are generated.

Remember that neutrinos are a product of weak thermonuclear reactions that take place inside stars.