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Famous Steven Magee Quotes

“I had taken an obsolete astronomical spectral gas tube home from the observatory for use as an ornament. Many years later I broke the specialized gas tube in the home. In the days afterwards I started experiencing sickness that I had been reporting to my doctor during working at the high altitude observatory. My notes state: During the last few days my bones are starting to ache again and nerves are twitching in my body and face like they were when I worked at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO)...headaches...insomnia...zoning out...tired...forgetful...confusion. 5 days earlier I had been atop Kitt Peak mountain and 4 days later the sheriff disconnected my electricity.”

“When I was hired to work at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), it was not disclosed to me that the site was being hit by powerful sonic booms from military supersonic aircraft that would shake the buildings. I had noticed that there seemed to be a significant number of staff that were having heart issues and some appeared to have had heart attacks and died prematurely. I later discovered during researching my own heart issues that it was a suspected effect of exposure to sonic booms. Regular exposure to sonic booms from military supersonic jet aircraft is suspected of increasing the incidence of vibroacoustic disease, a thickening of heart tissue which may lead to heart arrhythmia or premature death.”

“I never thought about a job in astronomy until I saw a job advert advertising one. It was in the Canary Islands, working for the UK Government’s Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). Wow! That sounded so cool! I applied, got flown out for an interview on the island and took the job. I felt like I had won the lottery, as I was being paid to do something I was interested in and living on the beautiful island of La Palma. I started my career fixing broken vacuum cleaners at the city hospital, it was quite a change!”