What's New Friday February 8, 2008

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 8 Feb 08,   Washington, DC

1. FURLOUGH CANCELLED: WN RESUMES OPERATION.
Fermilab furloughs should be so brief.  The hundreds of expressions of 
support from WN readers are deeply appreciated.  

2. THE BUSH BUDGET: THINK OF IT AS A PRAYER.
Don’t make any plans to spend it.  It’s always possible that the 2009 
appropriation will be based on the annual budget request the President 
sent to Congress this week, but causality has not been established.  
Already there’s talk of a continuing resolution until after the fall 
elections.  For what it’s worth, Bush’s 2009 request would allow Fermilab 
to resume work on the NOvA neutrino-research program and on the proposed 
International Linear Collider.  There is even something for whatever is 
left of ITER, while NSF and NIST would get nice increases.  NIH, by 
contrast, is looking at flat funding in a period of fantastic 
opportunities. Anyone who sees evidence of a plan in the funding of 
science may be suffering from apophenia.

3. STIMULUS: A BETTER WAY TO FUND RESEARCH.  
The $168 billion stimulus package, was approved by Congress yesterday, 
exactly two weeks after the President told Congress he wanted it.  A 
better plan would be to send every physicist a check.  If all 42,000 
members of the APS received $1 million for research it would not only 
directly stimulate the economy, it would provide incalculable future 
stimulus, while saving $126 billion.  Record speed was possible because no 
thought was involved.  By contrast, it took Congress all last year to 
wreck physics http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN07/wn122807.html .  

4. BIOFUELS: HUMANS ARE AGAIN TURNING TO ETHANOL.  
Ethanol use has always increased in stressful times.  Two reports in 
today’s Science find that ethanol contributes more to global warming than 
conventional fossil fuels if the full emissions cost of production is 
taken into account.  The reports are certain to exacerbate the controversy 
over government efforts to boost biofuel production as an alternative to 
gasoline.  The resulting stress may result in increased use of ethanol for 
more traditional purposes.

5. SPACE STATION: SCIENCE LABORATORY IS LAUNCHED.
The rickety shuttle Atlantis finally took off yesterday after two months 
of delays, carrying the European science laboratory "Columbus" to the 
ISS.  It was supposed to be launched in 1992 to mark the 500th anniversary 
of the discovery of the New World, but clocks slow down on the ISS, and 
the Columbia shuttle disaster set it back even further.  Press reports 
described the equipment on Columbus, but I found no mention of the 
experiments if any.  It’s a fine laboratory, lacking only a purpose.

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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