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What's New | 3 Jan 2005 18:52

WHAT'S NEW Monday, January 03, 2005

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 31 Dec 04  Washington, DC

1. DARWINIAN EVOLUTION: "MONKEY TRIAL" RECONVENES IN DOVER, PA.
It's been 145 years since Darwin published Origin of Species, 
perhaps the world's greatest scientific discovery.  No other
idea has connected so many pieces of knowledge.  It's now 80
years since the Scopes trial.  If any doubts about evolution
remain, you might suppose that DNA analysis would sweep them
away.  We can now measure how closely we are related to every
creature on Earth.  We share half our DNA with yeast.  So
genetically similar are bonobos to humans that, but for the
inability of bonobos to talk, they might demand a seat in the
UN.  Yet, in Dover, PA, a town much like Dayton, TN, the school
board voted to require that intelligent design be taught
alongside evolution.  The school board will lose in court, but
we must ask ourselves why science has been so spectacularly
unsuccessful in explaining such obvious truths to people.

2. THE EXPLORERS: SCIENCE MAGAZINE "BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR." 
A hundred-million miles or so from Dover, PA, two geologists
are picking their way over the Martian surface.  They've found
what they were looking for: unmistakable evidence that in the
distant past there were bodies of salty water on Mars that may
have been nurseries of life.  Science picked the exploration of
Mars as the Breakthrough of the Year.  It is now a year since
Spirit bounced onto Mars, soon to be followed by Opportunity. 
Eating only sunlight, they survived the Martian winter, the
intense radiation, and they're still going.  The search for
life to which we are not related is the most exciting quest in
science.  Spirit and Opportunity are wonderful instruments, but
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What's New | 7 Jan 2005 21:27

WHAT'S NEW Friday, January 07, 2005

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 07 Jan 04   Washington, DC

1. MISSILE DEFENSE: SCALED BACK TO PAY FOR THE GROUND WAR IN IRAQ?
The FY06 budget plan leaked by the Pentagon trims $5B from missile
defense over six years as part of the president's pledge to cut
the $500B budget deficit in half.  Meanwhile, the White House is
said to be preparing a $100B emergency spending bill to pay for
the war in Iraq.  $5B won't make a dent in this deficit, so why
take it out of the president's vaunted missile defense?  Maybe the
idea is to save it by eliminating testing.  Tests are embarrassing
anyway  http://www.aps.org/WN/WN04/wn121704.cfm .  And who needs
them? The only hope of missile defense is to sow doubt in the mind
of a would-be attacker.  Testing would remove the uncertainty.

2. MEDIUM DONE: IF ONLY THE HURRICANE HADN'T WASHED THE BODY AWAY.
At WN we're still trying to figure out why superstitious nonsense
persists in an age of science.  Last night we sought clues in the
NBC prime-time program Medium, based on the exploits of "Research
Medium and Criminal Profiler" Allison Dubois.  She solves murders
by chatting with dead victims.  In this episode, she takes a Texas
Ranger to a spot in the middle of a field where a boy is buried. 
Before they can get back with a search warrant to dig him up, a
hurricane hits Texas and he washed away.  Sigh.  Some silly
programs are fun; Spiderman's super powers come from being bitten
by a radioactive spider.  But there's a huge difference -- Medium
takes itself seriously.  There really is an Allison Dubois who
thinks she's a medium, and she's an NBC consultant; NBC should be
ashamed.  The James Randi million-dollar prize for proof of the
supernatural was pointed out to Dubois. "He'll never give the
money to anyone," she sensed.  Amazing!  So we are offering the WN
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What's New | 14 Jan 2005 19:18

WHAT'S NEW Friday, January 14, 2005

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 14 Dec 05   Washington, DC

1. EARTHQUACKS: THE DEEPER MEANING OF THE TSUNAMI IS EXAMINED.  
Religions are busy explaining how we should view a disaster that
claimed more than 150,000 innocent lives.  "Innocent"?  Buddhists
explained that seemingly innocent victims could be paying for some
really bad stuff they did in previous lives.  A leading Moslem
cleric in Southern California says it was, "a test from God to see
how human beings respond."  Columnist and pretentious theologian
William Safire also saw the tsunami as a test, and compared it to
God's test of Job.  Sure Job is faithful, Satan had scoffed, God
made him rich and powerful.  Wagering that Job would remain
faithful, God lets Satan take it all away: Job's sheep are stolen,
his servants slain and a great wind kills his children.  Whereupon
Job falls to the ground and worships God, "the Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away."  So Job passes the test.  Never mind his
sons and daughters who died, or his servants who were murdered,
it's all about Job.  Well, thank God for physics.  The tsunami was 
caused by the release of elastic energy in a tectonic earthquake.

2. MISSILE DEFENSE: A "MINOR SOFTWARE GLITCH" CAUSED THE FAILURE. 
Testing is the theme of WN this week.  The last interceptor never
got out the silo  http://www.aps.org/WN/WN04/wn121704.cfm, but the
head of the Missile Defense Agency said the system "would work" if
nothing went wrong.  That sounds right to me.  They'll try again
in February, but there seems to be no urgency.  Defense Secretary
Rumsfeld delayed a decision to start the system, citing absence of
any long-range missile threat. The threat seemed far more imminent
when the administration was seeking congressional approval for the
missile defense system http://www.aps.org/WN/WN03/wn032103.cfm.
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What's New | 21 Jan 2005 21:22

WHAT’S NEW Friday, January 21, 2005

WHATÂ’S NEW   Robert L. Park  Friday, 21 Jan 05  Washington, DC

1. EXPLORATION: EXPEDITION FROM EARTH LANDS ON DISTANT TITAN.  
Last Friday, the reach of man extended 900 million miles to the surface 
of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.  It stands as one of the most 
notable voyages of exploration in history. Carried piggyback on Cassini 
since 1997, the European Space AgencyÂ’s Huygens probe parachuted 
789 miles to reach TitanÂ’s smoggy surface.  Huygens had the good fortune 
to land on solid ground, within sight of the shoreline of a hydrocarbon sea.  
Over the next several hours, until its batteries finally died, Huygens 
transmitted everything it had learned back to Cassini, which relayed it 
to Darmstadt.  The data will keep researchers busy for years.  Cassini 
will continue studying Saturn for another four years.  Meanwhile, only 
90 miles from the surface of Earth, the NASA On-Orbit Status Report notes 
that the ISS crew checked gear for a 26 Jan space walk, performed periodic 
microbial air sampling, did routine maintenance on the toilet facilities, 
performed a 2.5 hour exercise program, had an interview with USA Today and 
recorded a video message in observance of the 250th anniversary of Moscow 
State University. TodayÂ’s quiz: Which cost the most, Cassini/Huygens or the ISS? 

2. VISION: LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (LRO) SET FOR 2008.  
The first spacecraft built as part of President BushÂ’s Vision for Space 
Exploration, LRO is the first of a series of robot probes to pave the way 
for human missions to the Moon.  That, if anyone remembers, was the mission 
of Apollo 10 in 1969.  It makes good sense.  We wouldnÂ’t want to send humans 
to some strange place.  Once weÂ’ve learned everything there is to know about 
the Moon, we can send astronauts to mug for the cameras. 

3. EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS: SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS IS OUTED.  
The top story today seemed to be the gown Laura Bush wore to the inaugural balls.
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What's New | 28 Jan 2005 20:38

WHAT'S NEW Friday, January 28, 2005

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 28 Jan 05   Washington, DC

1. VISION: WHERE DOES THE ADMINISTRATION GET ITS SCIENCE ADVICE? 
On Feb 7, when the President's FY06 Budget Request is released,
Sean O'Keefe will announce that no money is allotted for repair
of the Hubble Space Telescope.  However, money will be provided
to drop the greatest telescope ever built into the ocean.  Fixing
Hubble with astronauts is too dangerous, O'Keefe said.  Repairing
Hubble with robots is too uncertain, an NRC panel said.  It's too
expensive anyway, the White House said.  On the same day, the
White House estimated the budget deficit at $427B.  Besides, it
wasn't too dangerous for the ISS crew to spend five hours outside
yesterday repairing a Russian robot arm.  So what's the arm for?
It's so astronauts can make repairs without going outside.  Hmmm.
But why would anyone bother to repair the ISS?  It doesn't do
anything.  Drop the ISS in the ocean, and save Hubble. 

2. JIMO: U.S. PLANETARY SCIENTISTS DO IT THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY.
It sounded exciting in 2003 when NASA announced that the Jupiter
Icy Moons Orbiter mission would be the first nuclear-propelled
mission under Project Prometheus.  But now it looks like a plan
to put them off while NASA focuses on Moon/Mars.  Kinky is nice,
but if conventional will get to Europa, they'll take it.  Europa
may be the last hope of finding other life in the solar system.

3. OPINIONS: THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY--OPINIONS ARE ANOTHER MATTER. 
The Education Department paid commentator Armstrong Williams
$240,000 to plug the No Child Left Behind Act.  Health and Human
Services paid columnist Maggie Gallagher $21,500 to promote the
marriage initiative.  This is hardly big bucks compared to a guy
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