What's New Robert L. Park 13 March 2012

WHAT=92S NEW   Robert L Park   Wednesday, 13 March 2012   Washington, DC

1. SMART METERS: AND IGNORANT JOURNALISTS.
Several years ago, I signed up for "Google Alerts" about the purported li=
nk=20
between "cell-phone radiation and cancer."  It's a great service.  I get=20
hundreds of Alerts about cell phones, almost all of which are dead wrong.=
 =20
That's fine; what I'm trying to figure out is why reporters so consistent=
ly=20
get it wrong.  I tried doing an additional search for "Einstein."  It was=
,=20
after all, Einstein's Nobel Prize winning 1905 paper on the Photoelectric=
=20
Effect that introduced the concept of wave/particle duality. Einstein=20
described electromagnetic radiation as discrete packets of energy (now=20
called "photons") equal to the wave frequency times Planck's constant. =20
Photoemission is thus possible only for photons of energy greater than th=
e=20
ionization threshold (about 5 eV for metals). That's in the ultraviolet=20
region of the radiation spectrum, starting at the blue limit of the visib=
le=20
spectrum. Ultraviolet radiation can create mutant strands of DNA that are=
=20
the seeds of skin cancer. That's why you should avoid tanning salons. You=
=20
should also avoid sticking your head in microwave ovens with the interloc=
k=20
disabled. Microwave photons from cell phones, microwave ovens, smart=20
meters, and Wi-Fi all have energies about a million times too low to crea=
te=20
mutant strands of DNA.  Better you should worry about the impending solar=
=20
maximum. Microwaves can cook your goose, but you will die cancer free.

2. BAD CONNECTION: THE ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH TRUST.=20
The most recent book warning about cell-phone hazards is "Disconnect," =20
Devra Davis(2010, Dutton). Does Disconnect mention Einstein?  Well," it=20
quotes him at the start of chapter 11, "The right to search for truth=20
implies also a duty." That's it. It makes no mention of his work, but las=
t=20
week something called "The Environmental Health Trust" issued a press=20
release urging the United States to require health warning labels on cell=
=20
phones. The President of the Environmental Health Trust is Devra Davis. T=
he=20
press release called for donations to support its work

3. FERTILITY: GOOD NEWS WHERE YOU LEAST EXPECT IT.
David Brooks, a sort-of conservative New York Times columnist, commented=20
this morning that fertility rates in the Arab world have been declining f=
or=20
three decades. Well, not in Afghanistan, which tops the 133 sovereign=20
states of the world with a fertility rate of about seven.  But war and=20
poverty always make the fertility rate go up. Afghanistan is at the top =20
with a rate of around seven.

4. IMPORTANT MATTER: IS THE LHC ON THE VERGE OF FINDING THE HIGGS?
Nobody knows.  Science is the process of eliminating supernatural=20
explanations. The Higgs boson is the only elementary particle predicted b=
y=20
the Standard Model of particle physics that has not yet been observed=20
experimentally. It=92s not for lack of trying. As Drew Baden points out, =
the=20
$5 billion Large Hadron Collider has been rummaging through all the drawe=
rs=20
in the house trying to find the Higgs. There's still one drawer they=20
haven't opened. They're getting ready to pry open the last drawer.

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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