WHAT'S NEW Friday, 27 Dec 02

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 27 Dec 02   Washington, DC

1. NUCLEAR WEAPONS: NORTH KOREA JABS THE U.S. WITH A SHARP STICK. 
So here we are, threatening to go to war with Iraq over weapons
of mass destruction, whether UN inspectors find evidence or not,
when North Korea decides to rub our nose in it by restarting an
old plutonium production facility, and expelling UN inspectors. 
North Korea was one of the 185 signatories to the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty.  However, they claim the agreement was
voided by the oil-for-nuclear-abstinence deal struck with the
U.S. in 1994.  Having threatened the "axis of evil" with
peremptory strikes, the U.S. is under pressure to follow through.

2. HUMAN CLONING: RAELIANS ANNOUNCE THE BIRTH OF BABY "EVE."  Do
you recall the controversy stirred up by physicist Richard Seed,
PhD Harvard '53, when he announced his intention to clone the
first human (WN 9 Jan 98)?  We haven't heard anything from Seed
lately, but today the scientific director of Clonaid says her
company has created the first human clone.  Clonaid was founded
by Raelians, a religious group that believes extraterrestrials
created humans.  There are no details on how the supposed cloning
of Eve was achieved, but physicist Michael Guillen, PhD Cornell,
has been selected by Clonaid to verify the claim.  Guillen has
just the credentials Clonaid needs.  In 1997 as the science
correspondent for ABC Good Morning America, Guillen did a three-
part series, "Fringe or Frontier."  Of precognition he concluded
"these guys are not flakes"; on astrology, "I think we're just
going to have to suspend judgement"; on psychokinesis, "you have
to take it seriously" (WN 3 Oct 97).  Indeed, Guillen covered
everything from James Patterson's cold fusion cell to Kirlian
photographs of the human aura with the same credulity.  A PhD in
physics, after all, is not an inoculation against foolishness. 
We called ABC, but were told emphatically that their relationship
with Guillen ended nearly a year ago.

3. HERBAL REALITY CHECK: TV's TOP MEDICAL UNDISCOVERIES OF 2002. 
This is the week network news programs like to reflect on the top
stories of the past year.  The health message from ABC News was
that good science can trump widespread beliefs: the food pyramid
has been revised to elevate the importance of good fats, hormone
replacement therapy has been found to increase risk for cancer,
heart disease and stroke, and recently, the world's most widely
used herbal supplements were found to be ineffective. "Echinacea,
which is used to treat the common cold; St. Johns Wort, used for
depression; and Ginko biloba, thought to sharpen memory, were all
shown to be ineffective in studies published this year."  You may
recall that CBS Evening News reported that herbal supplements are
untested, impure and often harmful (WN 1 Nov 02).  The newly
skeptical treatment of herbal supplements on network TV is
attributable to the rigorous testing sponsored by the NIH Center
of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (WN 23 Aug 02). 

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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