What's New Friday December 7, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 7 Dec 07   Washington, DC

1. ENERGY: LEGISLATING TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS.
Yesterday, ignoring a Bush veto threat, the House passed an energy bill.  
Republicans in the Senate will try to gut it. The bill calls for the first 
increase in automobile fuel-efficiency standards in 32 years and increased 
use of renewable energy sources to generate electricity.  Fuel eficiency 
would go from 24 to 35 miles per gallon   It’s sad that American industry 
has to be forced to make progress.  The bill also provides tax incentives 
to increase ethanol production sevenfold in 15 years.  Two-thirds of that 
must be cellulosic, even though a practical cellulosic ethanol process 
does not yet exist.  The assumption seems to be that the ethanol industry 
is at least as smart as a termite swarm.  It can be seen as a tacit 
recognition that corn ethanol does not help the energy problem. 

2. STEM CELLS: A CURE FOR SICKLE-CELL ALREADY?
Well, there is if you’re a mouse, but there is no reason to believe 
that “induced pluripotent stem cells,” (iPS), won’t work for people.  
Naturally, those who believe that embryonic stem cells are one-celled 
people who would rather be autoclaved than used in research are crowing 
that “we told you to find another way.”  But Rudolf Jaenisch of the 
Whitehead Institute pointed out that the work was possible only because 
researchers had embryonic stem cells to work with first.

3. LEFT BEHIND: MITT ROMNEY IS NO JACK KENNEDY.
The culture war entered a new phase yesterday when Romney, a Mormon, 
sought to reassure the Christian faithful that his religious sect has much 
in common with theirs.  I cannot say whether he succeeded, but he did 
little to reassure the rational minority.  It may have been a calculated 
move to stimulate liberal calls for separation of church and state, thus 
proving his conservative Christian credentials.  The Rapture can’t come 
too soon.

4. INTELLIGENT DESIGN: DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS.
The director of science of the Texas Education Agency for 9 years, 
Christine Comer has been forced to resign after forwarding an e-mail 
message announcing a presentation in Austin by Barbara Forrest, a 
professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University, co-author 
of "Creationism’s Trojan Horse," and an expert witness at the Dover, PA 
school board case.  It was certainly relevant; the Texas science 
curriculum calls for the teaching of evolution.   The standards, moreover, 
are up for review.

5. SPACE STATION: COLUMBUS WILL JUST HAVE TO WAIT.
Yesterday’s scheduled launch of the space shuttle Atlantis was halted 
because of problems with the fuel sensors.  The mission was to install a 
European science laboratory called Columbus on the station.  It will 
provide astronauts additional facilities with which to do nothing.  The 
primary purpose of the module involves the effects of weightlessness on 
human physiology.  In effect, humans are being sent into space to study 
how humans respond to being sent into space, which seems rather circular.

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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