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What's New | 6 Apr 2007 23:29

What's New Friday April 6, 2007

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 6 Apr 07   Washington, DC

1. LHC TEST: IT WASN'T THE "BIG BANG" THEY WERE LOOKING FOR. 
Intoxicated by the enthusiasm of its builders, WN predicted last
week that protons would circulate in the Large Hadron Collider on
schedule. Alas, a Fermilab-built quadrupole magnet failed a high-
pressure test with a dramatic bang.  That's what tests are for. 
To the chagrin of Fermilab, it was a simple design flaw.  The
magnet will have to be brought to the surface, but there is
optimism that the 23 other magnets like it can be retrofitted in
place.  The LHC may be able to get back on schedule, but the
traditional 3-month winter shutdown may have to be sacrificed.  

2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: THE COURT SOARS INTO THE ATMOSPHERE. 
Still one vote short of a rubber stamp, the Supreme Court on
Monday rebuked the Bush Administration for refusing to regulate
greenhouse gases.  It ruled 5-4 that the EPA must either begin
regulating CO2 as an atmospheric pollutant, or declare that CO2
does not threaten humans, which EPA's own scientists dispute. 
The ruling effectively forces EPA to begin regulating tailpipe
emissions, whether it likes it or not.  Over the years, federal
courts have sided with the consensus view of science on issues
ranging from perpetual motion to creationism and pseudoscience,
but any more appointments by Bush could change that. 

3. CLIMATE CHANGE: BLEAK IPCC REPORT RELEASED TODAY IN BRUSSELS. 
Two months ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put
the odds that global warming is anthropogenic as "90% certain"
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN07/wn020207.html .  The report
released today is titled Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.
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What's New | 13 Apr 2007 21:53

What's New Friday April 13, 2007

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 13 Apr 07   Washington, DC

1. STEM CELLS: PRESIDENT BUSH VOWS TO PROTECT ONE-CELLED PEOPLE. 
The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act passed the Senate 63-34,
but President Bush promises a veto.  He said the use of embryonic
stem cells in research "crosses a moral line."  In case you're
wondering where this "moral line" is drawn, WN has looked into
it.  George W. Bush and other conservative theologians believe a
"soul" is assigned to the fertilized egg at the instant of
conception.  That makes it a person, even though it's not counted
in the census.  In-vitro fertilization makes a lot more of these
one-celled people than it needs; leftovers are stacked in the
freezer until it starts filling up.  President Bush cares deeply
about these helpless one-celled people and wants to ensure they
are properly flushed down the disposal rather than exploited by
godless scientists interested only the reduction of suffering.  

2. DIABETES: STEM CELL THERAPY IS USED TO TREAT TYPE 1 DIABETES. 
In yesterday's Wash Post, Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT), a long-time
proponent of stem cell research, is quoted as saying, "Our
country is in grave danger of falling behind in one of the most
promising fields of biomedical research."  We already have.  In a
very preliminary study, researchers at the University of Sao
Paolo in Brazil found that a remarkable 14 out of 15 type 1
diabetes sufferers were freed of dependence on insulin injections
after treatment with stem cells drawn from their own blood.  

3. SHUTTLE: SETTING A NEW AMERICAN RECORD FOR FLAG-POLE SITTING.
By delaying the launch of the hail-dinged shuttle Atlantis until
June, NASA has given Astronaut Sunita Williams a shot at the
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What's New | 20 Apr 2007 23:16

What's New Friday April 20, 2007

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 20 Apr 07   Washington, DC

1. BIGELOW SPACE STATIONS: BUDGET SUITES IN LOW-EARTH ORBIT. 
"Space is just another place to do business," they used to say in
the Reagan White House.  What business, you might ask?  The
latest venture in space is Bigelow Aerospace, which revealed its
plans last week at the National Space Symposium in Colorado
Springs.  Robert Bigelow, the founder and president of Bigelow
Aerospace, intends to have three manned outposts, assembled from
inflatable modules, in low-Earth orbit by 2015.  Bigelow is also
the owner of Budget Suites of America, a hotel chain, but he'll
leave space tourism to the ISS.  Bigelow is courting two markets:
foreign space agencies that don't have access to a space station,
and multinational corporations that want to get into micro-
gravity research.  That was the fatal miscalculation of previous
space station programs: industry couldn't find anything worth
doing in micro-gravity.  So, is this crazy?  Decide for yourself:
Robert Bigelow also founded the National Institute of Discovery
Science in Las Vegas, a secretive research group with links to
the Pentagon that focuses on alien abductions and the paranormal. 

2. SEX EDUCATION: ABSTINENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER. 
Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just
as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study
ordered by Congress.  Nor did they have fewer sex partners, or
wait longer to become sexually active.  The report, released late
last Friday, comes just after the abrupt resignation of Dr. Eric
Keroack, an anti-birth control zealot, appointed by Bush just
four months ago to head the Office of Population Affairs of the
Department of Health and Human Services.  A non-board-certified
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What's New | 27 Apr 2007 23:27

What's New Friday April 27, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 27 Apr 07   Washington, DC 

1. THE HABITABLE ZONE: THE GOOD NEWS IS THEY’RE NOT COMING HERE.  Humans, 
fragile self-replicating chemical factories, are trapped on a tiny planet 
for a few dozen orbits about an undistinguished star among countless other 
stars in one of billions of galaxies.  And yet, these insignificant specks 
have the audacity to imagine they can figure it all out - and maybe they 
can.  The most compelling scientific quest is to find life to which 
Earthlings are not related.  The first great discovery of this Century was 
to confirm that other stars have planets - lots of them.  This week 
European astronomers found a planet in the habitable zone of Gliese 581, a 
red dwarf in the constellation Libra.  The public was thrilled.  We can 
learn a lot from here, and it’s going to be exciting. Each year I ask my 
class of freshman physics majors if they think humans will visit another 
star someday.  Most say yes, so we take a few minutes of each class to 
plan the mission.  What’s the closest star?  How long are you prepared to 
travel?  How big will the spaceship have to be?  How will you pass the 
time?  Anyway, we’ll be able to travel much faster some day, so maybe 50 
years.  There’s always one that insists there’s gotta be a basketball 
court.  Near the end of the semester they calculate the kinetic energy of 
the spacecraft to make the trip in 50 years.  Hmmm, the velocity is 
squared.  Maybe, they conclude, we could just find a way to exchange e-
mails.

2. WARHEADS: THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT NUCLEAR STOCKPILES ARE AGING.  It was 
just five years ago that the Nuclear Posture Review, was leaked 
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN02/wn031502.html .  It was a Pentagon 
report calling for development of a new class of small nuclear weapons to 
blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional weapons.  Public 
exposure killed the plan.  But Dr. Strangelove never gives up.  The Bush
(Continue reading)

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