What's New Robert L. Park 1 March 2013

WHAT=92S NEW    Robert L. Park   Friday, 1 Mar 2013   Washington, DC

1. BRAIN ACTIVITY: COMING UP IN THE FY 2014 BUDGET REQUEST.
Although sequestration goes into effect today I can=92t seem to remember=20=

why.  In his 2013 State of the Union address last month President Obama=20=

cited brain research on Alzheimer's disease as an example of government=20=

investment in the best ideas.  This month, Congress gets the presidents=20=

budget request "Every dollar we invested in mapping the human genome,"=20=

President Obama pointed out, "returned $140 to our economy."  A week late=
r=20
on the front page of the New York Times, John Markoff described the Brain=
=20
Activity Map Project as a greater challenge than the Human Genome Project=
.=20=20
Still, it would be a remarkably bold proposal in the midst of an epic=20
partisan dispute over the sequestration fiasco.
=20
2. VITAL STATISTICS: THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH METRICS.
A recent Nature editorial (Nature 494, 281, 2013) characterized the failu=
re=20
of much of the world to continuously gather data on births and causes of=20=

death as a "scandal."  According to the Nature editorial, the World Healt=
h=20
Organization (WHO) dissolved the Health Metrics Network (HMN), created wi=
th=20
$50 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to correct the=20
problems.  It should have been the International Agency for Research on=20=

Cancer (IARC) that the WHO dissolved. The IARC incorrectly labeled cell=20=

phone radiation as "possibly carcinogenic," which it clearly cannot be, a=
s=20
pointed out in J Natl Cancer Inst (2001) 93 (3): 166-167.=20=20=20

3. INSPIRATION MARS: WHATEVER TURNS YOU ON.
=09
Dennis Tito, who became the first private space tourist when he paid the=20=

Russians $20m for a ticket to the International Space Station (ISS) in=20=

2001, created Inspiration Mars to send a "couple" on a flyby of Mars if h=
e=20
can find other obscenely-wealthy space junkies to share the cost. Diversi=
ty=20
standards raise questions about what Tito means by a "couple." The trip=20=

would take advantage of the alignment of heavenly bodies in January 2018 =
to=20
do a flyby of Mars and return to Earth in the relatively short time of 50=
1=20
days. The struggles a private cargo capsule had trying to reach the space=
=20
station Friday reinforce the notion that spaceflight remains a challengin=
g=20
proposition=20

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=3Dbobparks-whatsnew&A=3D1