What's New for Aug 09, 2002

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 9 Aug 02   Washington, DC

1. PEER REVIEW: IS NSF STARTING TO RESEMBLE A PORK BARREL?  Up 
until now, the NSF has largely avoided the congressional earmarks
that burden the budgets of other agencies.  Even though Congress
relishes pork, the NSF tradition of awarding funds strictly on
the basis of peer review has generally been honored. However, the
National Science Board has approved more major research projects
than the NSF budget can accommodate.  Nothing wrong with that,
there are a lot of good ideas out there.  So by what peer review
process does the NSF then decide which projects to include in its
budget request?  According to NSF's budget request for FY 03,
"The Director selects from the group of NSB-approved projects." 
That's it?  The Director selects?  NSF Director Rita Colwell
thinks this is a fine selection process, but according to this
week's Nature, others see it as a threat to NSF integrity. 
Former APS President Jerome Friedman testified in May that NSF
should submit a full list of approved projects in prioritized
order, along with an explanation of the criteria.  Otherwise it's
an invitation to groups on the list to seek congressional help.

2. THE LAWS OF PHYSICS: IS LIGHT REALLY SLOWING DOWN?  The media
loves this kind of story.  An Australian group led by Paul Davies
says the speed of light has been slowing down.  Hey, I mean what
isn't?  Actually, what they claim in this week's Nature is that
there is cosmological evidence that the fine structure constant
is slowly increasing.  Since the effect on the laws of physics of
increasing the electronic charge are too awful to contemplate, 
they figure light is going slower.  That kills relativity, but my
mail indicates nobody but physicists believe that stuff anyway.

3. ANTI-GRAVITY: WAS THIS THE LIGHTWEIGHT STORY OF THE YEAR?  The
Eastside Journal in Bellevue, WA, quotes a Boeing spokesman as
saying the company is not funding any anti-gravity research (WN 2
Aug 02), nor is it attempting to duplicate Podkletnov's results. 
HA!  Nick Cook warned us they would say that.  He would say it's
just disinformation, part of the massive government cover-up.

4. POLYGRAPH: THE CONVERSION OF SENATOR SHELBY.  Outraged by lax
security in the Wen Ho Lee case(WN 12 Mar 99), Shelby (R-AL)
demanded polygraph testing of all weapons scientists, about
15,000.  This time, Congress leaked a sensitive NSA phone
intercept.  Charged with finding the miscreant, the FBI wants a
few key members of Congress to take a polygraph exam.  Shelby is
outraged again.  "I don't know who among us would take a lie-
detector test," Shelby roared. "First of all, they're not even
admissible in court."  

5. INTEGRITY IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: ACADEMY REPORT SAYS ZZZZZZZ.
Creating an environment that promotes responsizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

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