What's New Friday Sep 5, 2008

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 5 Sep 08   Washington, DC

1.  BANG!  LHC PROTONS WILL COLLIDE ON WEDNESDAY.
Big Bang Day starts at 8:30 am on September 10 with live coverage from the 
LHC control room on BBC radio.   TV coverage will be on Eurovision, better 
known for the Eurovision Song Contest.   It’s rather nice to have public 
interest in a basic scientific experiment, whatever the reason.    And 
after Wednesday’s test?  It will be time to start shutting the LHC down 
for the winter.  Maybe in the spring they can start a serious search for 
the Higgs.  Meanwhile the LHC rap is playing well on You Tube.

2.  DEBATE:  DID "SCIENCE" GET A MENTION IN ST. PAUL? 
Last week we did a word search for "science" in Barack Obama’s acceptance 
speech in Denver.  We thought it unfortunate that Obama made only a single 
reference to science.  As you have surely noticed, WN is firmly non-
partisan, so we ran the same search on a transcript of McCain’s acceptance 
speech last night in St. Paul. "Text not found" popped up.  Could this 
be?  Our nation is roiled by controversies over evolution, nuclear power, 
climate change, energy shortage, stem cells, Plan B, all of which must 
turn to science for their resolution.  Indeed, is there an issue the 
nation faces that doesn’t turn on science?  "Perhaps the search technology 
failed," I thought, "try another word."  I typed in "fight."  There were 
25 hits.  Hmmm.

3.  GM:  CHINA SEEKS A TRANSGENIC GREEN REVOLUTION.
Anthonomus grandis, the cotton boll weevil, goes through a dozen 
generations in a single cotton season, quickly developing resistance to 
man-made pesticides.  In China, genetically modified (GM) insect-resistant 
cotton averted the use of 650,000 tons of pesticides annually.  In today’s 
Science Richard Stone reports that although China has moved cautiously in 
developing GM crops, the huge success with cotton convinced the country’s 
leaders to turn to GM crops to feed the nation.   In spite of harsh birth-
control policies, China’s population of 1.3 billion is still growing due 
to the "pipeline" of women of child bearing age.  Together with water 
shortages and diversion of crop land to other uses this has led to food 
shortages.  The biggest prize would be GM rice, even though famed UK 
agronomist Prince Charles warns that "GM grains demand huge amounts of 
water, which could lead to disaster."  It is true that we can’t expect a 
green revolution every few years to make up for unbridled fecundity.

4.  POPULATION ERROR: SPEAKING OF FECUNDITY.
Last week, the lead line on "Population" said the U.S. birth rate had 
doubled in a century.  Of course it had not.  The population doubled, 
largely through immigration, not the birth rate.  The birth rate in the 
U.S., as in other advanced nations, continues to drop in spite of the 
right-to-life movement.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
---
Archives of What's New can be found at http://www.bobpark.org
What's New is moving to a different listserver and our
subscription process has changed. To change your subscription
status please visit this link:
http://listserv.umd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=bobparks-whatsnew&A=1