WHAT'S NEW Friday, 29 Nov 02

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 29 Nov 02   Washington, DC

1. MISSILE DEFENSE: THE SEARCH FOR STAR WARS II GOES ON.  In a
2001 May Day speech at the National Defense University, President
Bush called for Star Wars II.  The 1972 ABM treaty was swept
aside to make room for the new "layered defense" that was to be
in place by 2004 (WN 4 May 01).  Although tests of a ground-based
missile defense have not gone well (WN 14 Jun 02), we only knew
for certain that the plan was in trouble earlier this year when
the Pentagon urged anyone with a "new and innovative concept" to
write in.  According to a story in the Washington Post, the
Advanced Concepts Office at the Missile Defense Agency is now
going through 194 proposals.  If the ideas violate no more than
two laws of physics, the director of the ACO jokingly told the
Post, they make the first cut.  His example of a suggestion that
violated too many laws of physics was to put X-ray lasers in
orbit.  That, of course, was the idea that inspired Ronald
Reagan's Star Wars I.  So far, the United States has spent more
than $120B in the search for a ballistic missile defense.

2. ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE: INSIGHTS FROM THE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL. 
The cover story in the Dec 2 issue of Newsweek is The Science of
Alternative Medicine.  That's an oxymoron.  If these alternatives
had a basis in science, they would just be medicine.  Newsweek
calls it "The New Science."  Only the new science turns out to be
the old medicine      thousands of years old in some cases, long
before it was known that blood circulates or germs cause disease. 
The alternatives can be put on a scale that ranges from plausible
to preposterous.  The treatments discussed in Newsweek tend to be
at the plausible end of the spectrum.  They include such things
as music therapy, as though anything that makes us feel better is
now medicine.  There is no mention of such absurd and fraudulent
treatments as magnet therapy, homeopathy and touch therapy, which
are among the most widely used alternatives.   The report also
talks about herbs and vitamins.  Vitamins are alternative?  The
discovery of these essential molecules was a major advance in
scientific medicine.  Vitamins become alternative only when taken
in wild excess.  The report has boxes on alternative treatments
for cancer, osteoarthritis, cardiac disease, back pain, etc.  To
give it credibility, each box is prominently labeled "Insights
from Harvard Medical School."  Is that where this stuff comes
from?  This insight comes from the Maryland Physics Department.

3. PRIVACY: JUST WHAT WE NEED, DOMESTIC DIRTY TRICKS.  Why can't
the FBI be more like the CIA?  The FBI may be OK at catching
criminals, we're told, but we need a homeland intelligence agency
that can figure out who's going to commit a crime before they do
it.  So the CIA is expanding its domestic presence.  Meanwhile, a
federal appeals panel said the expanded wiretap guidelines,
sought by Attorney General Ashcroft under the Patriot Act, do not
violate the Constitution.

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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