WHAT'S NEW, Friday, 14 Nov 02

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 14 Nov 02   Washington, DC

1. BOGDANOV BROTHERS: IT'S NOT A "SOKAL HOAX," BUT IT SHOULD BE. 
If you are older than six, you must remember the Sokal hoax (WN
24 May 96).  NYU physicist Alan Sokal had published an article in
Social Text, a prestigious postmodern journal. "Transgressing the
Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum
Gravity" was pure spoof, but the editors couldn't tell it from
the usual pompous nonsense they publish.  While physicists had a
good laugh, social scientists were presumably plotting revenge. 
So when the rumor spread that the Bogdanov cosmology theory is
really an elaborate hoax, it seemed to explain everything.  Their
theory, after all, looks at the universe before the big bang.  As
logical-positivist physics, that is literally non sense, but as a
Sokal-hoax-in-reverse commentary on the excesses of theoretical
physics completely divorced from experiment, such as parallel
universes, it would be truly brilliant.  Sokal revealed his prank
immediately.  Alas, the Bogdanovs, as Dennis Overbye described
them in last Saturday's NY Times, take themselves seriously.

2. NSF: THE DOUBLING BILL IS ON ITS WAY TO THE PRESIDENT.  Last
night, both the House and the Senate passed a bill authorizing a
doubling of funding for the National Science Foundation over a
five year period.  However, funding for the final two years was
made contingent on whether the Foundation has made progress
toward meeting certain management goals.  These contingencies
were apparently added to satisfy the White House Office of
Management and Budget.  It is now up to the President.  

3. RADIATION-PROOF FABRIC: WILL IT PROTECT YOU FROM CELL-PHONES?  
A company in Florida claims to have developed a new lightweight
fabric called Demron that will protect you from nuclear radiation
as well as a lead vest.  The secret is said to be a polymer that
mimics heavy metals.  We can hardly wait to see how that works.
Originally developed to protect medical staff from X rays, the
company says Demron also blocks gamma rays but didn't say if it
will protect you from cell-phone radiation (WN 13 Sep 02). Maybe
Demron will inspire a new line of designer clothing by Christie
Brinkley, who lives in the Hamptons and worries about radiation
from Brookhaven all the time (WN 19 Nov 99).  

4. GALILEO: AGING SPACECRAFT IS NOW IN ITS DEATH SPIRAL.  Having
long since completed its primary mission, and then a second
mission of discovery to Europa, where it found a frozen ocean,
Galileo last week visited the small moon Amalthea.  Now in its
35th and final orbit of Jupiter, suffering arthritis in its
movable arm, and failing senses from years of intense radiation,
Galileo is running low on propellant.  While it can still be
controlled, it has been ordered to plunge into Jupiter next
September to be sure it doesn't contaminate Europa.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY.  
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University or 
the American Physical Society, but they should be.
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