What's New Friday May 30, 2008

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday   30 May 08   Washington, DC

1.  WHICH NASA?  A WEEK OF THE SUBLIME AND THE UGLY.
There is a bold, adventurous NASA that explores the universe.  That NASA 
had a magnificent week.  Having traveled 423 million miles since leaving 
Earth the Phoenix Mars Lander soft landed in the Martian arctic.  Its 
eight foot backhoe will dig into the permafrost subsoil to see if liquid 
water exists.  There is another NASA that goes in circles on the edge of 
space.  That NASA is having a problem with the toilet on the ISS.  I need 
not go into detail to explain what happens when a toilet backs up in zero 
gravity - it defines ugly.  NASA rushed to get a special pump to fix the 
toilet loaded on Discovery before its Saturday launch.  Discovery is set 
to deliver Japan’s Kibo module to the ISS next week.  Kibo, which means 
hope, is described as a major expansion of the research capacity of the 
ISS.  We can hope, but no field of science has been noticeably affected by 
previous research on the shuttle or the station.

2.  ANTISCIENCE:  NASA AGAIN REJECTS ANTIMATTER TEST.
According to today’s Science, a battle is shaping up over NASA’s refusal 
to send the Alfa Magnetic Spectrometer to the ISS on board the space 
shuttle.  The experiment was agreed to by former NASA chief Dan Goldin 
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN98/wn061298.html more than a decade ago.  
However, Michael Griffin, NASA chief, claims every square centimeter of 
shuttle space is all needed just to finish the ISS on schedule.  Otherwise 
the ISS would have to be dropped in the Pacific unfinished.  The NASA 
authorization bill approved last week, however, proposes $150M for the 
launch.  The bill will be considered by the full house this summer.

3.  CLIMATE:  COURT ORDERS WHITE HOUSE TO RELEASE REPORT.
A 1990 law requires presidents to report to Congress every four years on 
the impact of global climate change on the United States.  Three years 
behind schedule, the report projects increased illness and death as a 
result of heat and spread in the range of Lyme disease and West Nile 
virus.   

4. CLEAN COAL:  ANOTHER TECHNOLOGY THAT DOESN’T EXIST.
In 2003 President Bush himself announced FutureGen, a utility consortium 
with government subsidies that would build a new clean power plant to 
demonstrate advanced techniques for converting coal to a gas, and for 
sequestering pollutants deep under ground.  As with the Freedom 
Car, "government subsidies" was the secret password that sucked industry 
in.   GM still rolls its hydrogen car out for photo ops, and farmers still 
grow corn to collect ethanol subsidies, but neither technology helps with 
the energy problem

5.  TRANSITIONS: FRANCIS COLLINS LEAVES GENOME INSTITUTE.
He served the nation well leading the National Human Genome Research 
Institute after James Watson stepped down.  His idea of relaxation is to 
roar about the countryside on a Harley.  He also plays the guitar, 
eloquently defends Darwinian evolution, and yet became a devout Christian 
at age 29.  He cited two factors for his conversion: the anthropic 
principle and the moral law.  Almost all religious scientists cite the 
anthropic principle; the moral law is the principle that humans 
instinctively know right from wrong.

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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