What's New Friday April 9, 2010

WHAT=92S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 9 Apr 10   Washington, DC

1.  RESTART: WHY NOT, WE STILL HAVE THOUSANDS MORE.
The New START Treaty, signed yesterday in Prague by Obama and Medvedev,=20
extends bilateral arms reduction agreements between the U.S. and Russia=20
begun in 1991.  It will limit operationally deployed nuclear warheads to=20
1,500, which is down nearly two-thirds from the first START treaty in=20
1991, and 30 percent lower than the 2002 Moscow Treaty.  It also reduces=20
the number of delivery systems.  Many thousands more nuclear weapons are=20
not deployed.  It=91s difficult to explain to today=92s students how two=20
seemingly enlightened peoples could have gotten into a standoff based on=20
Mutually Assured Destruction.  I can=92t even explain to myself how I cam=
e=20
to spend ten years of my life in the nuclear weapons program.  Meanwhile,=
=20
Iran proudly unveils its new uranium centrifuges today.

2. BEYOND GREEN: BORLAUG=92S "TWO CONTENDING POWERS."
As told by Kieron Humphrey on BBC News, Zambian farmer Elleman Mumbia=20
broke with local custom to practice scientific "conservation farming." Hi=
s=20
tiny farm flourished.  Some neighbors muttered about juju (voodoo), but h=
e=20
has become something of a hero on national media.  The BBC story stops=20
there, but a sadder chapter is being written.  In his 1970 Nobel Peace=20
Prize acceptance speech, Norman Borlaug  said, "We are dealing with two=20
opposing forces, the scientific power of food production and the biologic=
=20
power of human reproduction." K.H. von Hoffmann, who called my attention=20
to the BBC story, points out that Mr. Mumbia has six children (about=20
average in Zambia). The farm is too small to be subdivided.  Most of his=20
children will look for jobs in the city and end up in the slums, as young=
=20
people are doing all over Africa.   =20

3.  APOCRYPHA: SCIENCE BOARD HIDES AMERICAN IGNORANCE.
The National Science Board, established by Congress as a national science=
=20
policy body, oversees NSF and provides independent science policy advice=20
to the President and Congress.  It issues a huge biennial report, Science=
=20
and Engineering Indicators, which is a compendium of quantitative data on=
=20
the science enterprise around the world.  The results are disturbing.  In=
=20
their understanding of science, polls found, most Americans are falling=20
behind, even though much of the progress was made by American scientists=20
and engineers.  Congress needs to hear these facts.  Instead, poll=20
questions dealing with the origin of the universe and evolution were=20
simply excised from the report   The board member who took the lead in=20
removing the text was John T. Bruer, a philosopher with close ties to the=
=20
Vatican.  I hope that Science will publish the apocryphal text so we may=20
judge its relevance for ourselves.

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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