WHAT'S NEW Friday, December 10, 2004

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 10 Dec 04   Washington, DC

1. HUBBLE: NRC CALLS FOR SENDING A SHUTTLE MISSION TO REPAIR IT.
The problem was never with the space telescope.  The problem from
the start has been the Shuttle.  Mankind's greatest scientific
instrument was built under a NASA decree that anything that goes
into space must go there by way of the shuttle.  That meant
Hubble had to be put in low-Earth orbit, which is far from ideal
for observations.  Moreover, Hubble was designed for routine
shuttle maintenance visits.  NASA said shuttle launches would be
weekly, but five or six times a year was the best they could do. 
After Columbia, O'Keefe decided it's too dangerous for astronauts
to service Hubble, we'll have to use robots.  But if astronauts
can't go to Hubble, how they gonna go to Mars?  This week, the
National Research Council said it's not likely that NASA could
complete development of a robotic mission before Hubble breaks
down, and called for a mission of the rebuilt shuttle to repair
Hubble.  Could we be seeing the influence of the astronaut lobby? 
Like who needs astronauts if a robot can fix Hubble? 

2. SNAFLU: YOU READ THE WALL STREET JOURNAL FOR MEDICAL ADVICE?
The Bush Administration announced Wednesday it intends to buy 1.2
million doses of flu vaccine from Germany.  If you can't wait,
the WSJ gave its list of options last week.  FluMist was their
top pick, but you gotta be under 50 to get it.  I don't remember
ever being under 50.  After hand washing, WSJ lists
Oscillococcinum.  WSJ checked with a "research methodologist" at
Sloan-Kettering.  He said it probably doesn't prevent flu but may
cut its duration by 6 hours.  Six hours!  They can tell that?  WN
bought a 6-dose carton, a three-day supply.  Of what?  Boiron,
the maker, says it's from duck livers, but the homeopathic
dilution is listed as 200C.  That's gotta be a record.  It's also
impossible.  Maybe they could help Balco with a homeopathic
performance enhancer.

3. COLDER-THAN-EVER FUSION: THIS BOOK WON'T END THE CONTROVERSY.
Several cold-fusion proponents took the trouble this week to send
WN the announcement of a new book, The Rebirth of Cold Fusion:
Real Science, Real Hope, Real Energy by Steven Krivit and Nadine
Winocur.  It was clearly timed to coincide with release of the
DOE report.  The book drew praise from Arthur C. Clarke, Brian
Josephson, and Martin Fleischmann, among others.  It's not in the
bookstores here yet, but Amazon lists it.  The authors are
editors of New Energy Times, which calls itself "Your best source
for cold fusion news and information."  Krivit has a bachelor's
degree in business management, Winocur maintains a private
psychotherapy practice.  They've got the right qualifications.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.  
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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