WHAT'S NEW Friday, February 20, 2004

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 20 Feb 04   Washington, DC

1. POLITICAL SCIENCE: SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY IN THE ADMINISTRATION.
A statement issued Wednesday by a group of prominent scientists
charged the administration with manipulating the science advisory
process to support its political objectives: advisory panels are
stacked; those that can't be stacked are disbanded; reports that
don't reach the right conclusion are suppressed; and questionable
policies are shielded from scientific review.  Specific examples
are in a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, released
at the same time, "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking: An
Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science."
The statement was signed by more than 60 prominent scientists,
including 20 Nobel laureates.  The administration response was to
trivialize the issue.  "I think there are incidents where people
have got their feathers ruffled," sniffed John Marburger, science
advisor to the President, quoted by the New York Times. 

2. RUFFLED FEATHERS: YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SCIENCE ADVISOR.
At least there is a director of OSTP. Could "ruffled feathers" be
a coded message?  I decided to ask my colleague Prof. Basilisk,
the famous ornithologist.  Anything involving birds or feathers
Basilisk would know about.  I found him feeding pigeons in the
park.  "If a bird's feathers are ruffled, professor, what does it
mean?"  He thought for a moment: "It means the bird is sitting
with its tail to the wind."  That's it!  The wind is at our back.

3. FEAR FACTOR: DO ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES DAMAGE BRAIN-CELL DNA? 
Well, they did back in 1989 when Paul Brodeur wrote his first New
Yorker article claiming 60 Hertz magnetic fields induce cancer.
They stopped doing it in 1997 when the National Cancer Institute
released the results of a massive epidemiological study that
found no hint of a link between EMF and childhood leukemia. 
http://www.aps.org/WN/WN97/WN070497.cfm  But if you wait long
enough, all issues recycle.  Now, researchers at the U. of
Washington claim to have found breakage of DNA strands in the
brains of rats exposed to 60-Hz magnetic fields like those
produced by hair dryers and other appliances.  It's a wonder any
of us have made it this far.  But don't toss out the toaster yet.
These claims keep coming up, but rarely survive.  Let's at least
wait until someone repeats the work.

4. SUMMER INTERN: THE APS WASHINGTON OFFICE HAS AN OPENING.  
Physics graduate with great writing skills and a genius IQ to
spend eight to ten weeks in Washington battling the forces of
darkness.  The starting date is negotiable, but we're inflexible
on the genius thing.  Write [email protected] for details.  We'll
need a resume, writing sample and references by March 31.


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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