What's New Friday March 6, 2009

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 6 Mar 09   Washington, DC 

1.  KEPLER: THE SEARCH IS ON FOR EARTH-2.  
How alone are we?  The first images from the 1976 Viking Lander on Mars 
were a disappointment to space romantics.  No one expected to see cities or 
canals; that was ruled out by the Mariner 6 and 7 flybys just two months 
after the Apollo-11 Moon landing.  But the harsh, rock-strewn landscape 
gave no hint of life on any scale.  Years of exploration by Rovers have 
found nothing to soften that image. Perhaps a sample return mission will 
offer evidence of microscopic life or fossil life on Mars, and there are 
still moons of the gas giants to explore.  But Kepler now takes the search 
beyond the solar system.  The 21st century opened with the discovery that 
there are planets around other stars, indeed many planets around many 
stars.  Are there planets like Earth that are neither too hot nor too cold 
nor too massive with abundant water and low ionizing radiation? They are 
being called the Goldilocks planets, if they exist.  Kepler was launched 
today to search for them.

2.  THE ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE: IS THE UNIVERSE DESIGNED FOR LIFE?
In 2000 Sir John Templeton had an epiphany; instead of "spiritual 
progress," the Templeton Prize would henceforth be given for "spiritual 
discoveries." The next six winners were all physicists who justified their 
spirituality by the anthropic principle and the moral law.  The moral law 
states that people know right from wrong.  Darwinians would not disagree; 
knowledge of right and wrong has an obvious survival value for social 
animals.  It's an instinct wired into our brains by natural selection. 
Catholic theologians would say the knowledge of right and wrong is planted 
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.   The anthropic principle, is another 
matter, it contends that the universe is designed for life.  If so, it's a 
shockingly inefficient design; vast regions of the universe are clearly 
unsuited to life as we know it.  Stated another way, the anthropic 
principle merely says that "if things were different, things would not be 
the way things are."  Everything we have learned tells us that there is no 
plan.   We have some control over our life, but no clear instructions on 
what to do with it.  Consider the stem cell issue.

3.  STEM CELLS: RESTRICTIONS ON FEDERAL FUNDING ARE LIFTED. 
The decision by President Obama to lift restrictions on federal funding of 
human embryonic stem cell research will be announced on Monday.  Extracting 
a stem cell kills the day-old embryo from which it’s taken, but these are 
embryos that are already slated to die.  They’re left over from in vitro 
fertilization, raising the question of when we become a person.  After 
eight years of frustration, Obama’s executive order could put America back 
in the lead in the treatment of many cruel diseases, particularly when 
combined with stimulus funding.  

4.  RESEARCH STIMULUS: AN INCREASE IN SHOVAL-READY SCIENCE.
The immediate challenge for research agencies is to spend their unexpected 
wealth from stimulus, according to Jeffrey Mervis in today’s Science.  
Basic research budgets at both NSF and NIH have drifted downward since 
2004, but will increase sharply in 2009, and Energy will do even better.

5.  "CONSCIENCE" RULE: OBAMA VOIDS ANTIABORTION POLICY.
It must go through a 30-day period of public comment, but the Obama 
administration quietly rescinded job protection for health workers who 
refuse to provide care they find objectionable.  The rule was an IED 
planted by Bush after Obama won the election.  Aimed at abortion, the rule 
allowed health workers to refuse to  participate in care that violates 
their personal beliefs.

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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