What's New July 31, 2009

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 31 Jul 09   Washington, DC
	
1.  CERN: IT ALL DEPENDS ON HAVING THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS.
The LHC took a public relations lead by providing background footage for 
Angels and Demons http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN09/wn022009.html , but 
it still can’t smash particles.  Now researchers have found flaws in 
different electrical connections that could limit the LHC energy.  
Depending on how serious the problem turns out to be, it could delay 
restart of the accelerator, now slated for November.  Meanwhile, the 
Tevatron at Fermilab is still the highest energy accelerator in the world --
 and it knows it.

2.  FERMILAB: PARADE MAGAZINE COVERS THE RACE FOR THE HIGGS.
Public support is vital to both labs.  Fermilab, the underdog in the race, 
countered Angels and Demons with the lead story in Sunday's Parade 
magazine.  Granted a brief reprieve by the problems at the LHC, plus a 
heavy dose of stimulus money, Fermilab’s Tevatron is smashing particles day 
and night, according to the author Stephen Fried.  Parade, more noted for 
fawning over celebrities and royalty than looking at science, claims an 
astounding 71 million readership.  Writers would kill for such numbers.  
CERN is funded by an international consortium of 60 countries; Fermilab, 
only by the US.  Science will win either way; if the Higgs is there, both 
labs will find it, providing solid confirmation.

3.  NIH: FRANCIS COLLINS REJECTS DARWINIAN EVOLUTION!
Much has been made of Collins’ oft-stated belief in evolution.  An op-ed in 
Monday's New York Times gives a very different picture.  Sam Harris, best-
selling author of "The End of Faith," quotes from a series of slides 
Collins used in a lecture on science and belief at UC Berkeley.  Consider 
Slide 2: "God's plan included the mechanism of evolution to create the 
marvelous diversity of living things on our planet.  Most especially, that 
creative plan included human beings."  If you listen closely you may be 
able to hear me screaming, "There is no plan!"  That, for God's sake, is 
the wonderful beauty of Darwinian evolution!  

4.  NASA:  DEEP SPACE AND SHALLOW GRAVITY WELLS.
Forget the landing-on-other-worlds stuff.  According to the New York Times 
this morning, a panel of the Augustine committee favors a plan for human 
space flight that would go beyond low-Earth orbit, but avoid the deep-
gravity wells of the Moon and Mars.   What's left?  The article suggests 
Lagrange points, asteroids and the small moons of Mars.  We’re gonna send 
people to Lagrange points?  For all the potential importance of Lagrange 
points, their intrinsic interest is zero. Is this just an indirect way of 
saying there is no role for humans in space?

5.  FISH: WHEN OVERFISHING IS STOPPED, THE FISH COME BACK.
A colleague in the UK pointed out that several articles this week hailed as 
good news studies showing that depleted world fisheries recover when 
fishing is stopped.  This less than remarkable result should be read as a 
showing that there are too many people eating fish.  It’s another signal 
that world population has grown beyond its sustainable limits.

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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