What's New for Aug 16, 2002

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 16 Aug 02   Washington, DC

1. COOK BOOK: "FRESH AIR" OFFERS A RECIPE FOR STALE BALONEY.  Two
weeks ago, WN dumped as much cold water as one page can hold on
the anti-gravity nonsense stirred up by Nick Cook's goofy book,
"The Hunt for Zero Point."  We braced for sensational stories in
the National Enquirer and on Art Bell, but where does Cook turn
up?  Gasp, on NPR's Fresh Air.  "I am not a scientist," Nick Cook
admits in a brilliant understatement,"but I enlisted some help."
So who did he enlist?  "There are scientists working right on the
cutting edge...Dr.Hal Puthoff is pioneering this whole zero point
energy field..."  Well, there's a name we know.  One of the first
scientists to vouch for spoon-bender Uri Geller, Puthoff headed
the CIA's remote viewing program, and is said to have sent his
own mind to explore the surface of the planet Mercury (WN 11 Mar
94).  Guest host Barbara Bogaev, who also is not a scientist,
asks how anti-gravity machines work?  They all spin, Nick Cook
explains.  "Some theories say if you spin this zero point energy
field that exists all around us, some weird and magical things
start popping out, one of which is an anti-gravitational effect." 
There you have it -- an authoritative explanation on NPR. 

2. NASA WAGER: PASCAL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN HUNTSVILLE. 
Research managers at Marshall Space Flight Center still dream of
the payoff if the Podkletnov gravity shield worked.  Marshall
scientists who are willing to talk, give it no chance at all.

3. HERBAL HIGHS: "NATURAL" IS NOT A SYNONYM FOR SAFE.  The 1994
Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act, passed in response
to a massive lobbying campaign by the supplement industry, turned
the clock back a hundred years to the days of the traveling
snake-oil salesmen.  It exempted "natural" dietary supplements
from proof of safety, efficacy, or purity.  The only requirement
is that they not be promoted as preventing or treating disease
(WN 7 Jan 00).  Not to worry, backers such as Senator Tom Harkin
(D-IA) insisted.  If any problems show up, the FDA can take a
supplement off the market.  How does the FDA do this?  They must
go to court to demonstrate that the substance is harmful. "When
the bodies start piling up," as one FDA official put it.  Well,
in the case of ephedra, the pile of bodies is higher than anyone
knew.  The leading supplier of ephedra, Metabolife International,
was required to report all consumer complaints of bad reactions
to the FDA. But it now turns out that the company had more than
1300 undisclosed complaints involving ephedra, about 80 of which
involved death or serious injury.  Ephedra is a herbal stimulant,
sold on the internet as herbal "Ecstacy," the street drug it
chemically resembles.  The FDA has fought unsuccessfully to ban
ephedra for years.  The Department of Justice has now undertaken
a criminal investigation of Metabolife, but the real solution is
to repeal the 1994 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
Opinions are the author's an are not necessarily shared by the
University or the American Physical Society, bu they should be.