Friday, 10 November 2000
1. COLD FUSION: CONFERENCES HELD, PATENT REJECTED.
The American
Nuclear Society is holding an embarrassing session on cold-fusion
at its meeting next week in Washington. Capitalizing on the
presence of so many fanciful minds, the new-age Integrity
Research Institute
(WN 5 Mar 99)
holds its free-energy conference
two days later. A likely topic of discussion is last Wednesday's
ruling by a Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the appeal of
Michael Swartz for a cold-fusion patent on the grounds of "lack
of operability." The Court ruled that the patent didn't convince
sensible people that the idea could work. But, not everybody
falls into that category. Testifying for Swartz were two invited
speakers at the IRI conference - Eugene Mallove and Scott Chubb.
2. DEEP IMPACT? EARTH DODGES ANOTHER SPACE THING.
I have a new
appreciation for the danger inherent in seemingly improbable
collisions. Nevertheless, the NASA Near-Earth Object Program may
want to reexamine its definition of "near." A couple of weeks
ago, it was reported that a small asteroid might strike Earth in
30 years. The subsequent retraction was not the first: in 1993
it was comet Swift-Tuttle, followed in 1998 by XF11
(WN 13 Mar 98).
The estimate of nearest passage has a way of growing an
order of magnitude every 24 hours. Current rules call for a 72
hour delay. This time, it seems likely the object is not an
asteroid, but an Apollo-era booster rocket.
3. HIGGS HUNT HINDERED.
On Nov 2, CERN shut down the LEP for the
last time, with demolition scheduled to begin in December, after
the CERN Council meets to confirm the decision. Crushed
researchers say they were on the verge of confirming discovery of
the Higgs boson. They had requested a year-long extension, as
well as modifications to boost the accelerator's energy. But the
lab found the current results were "not sufficiently conclusive"
to warrant the $60M price tag, and chose to push ahead with
construction of the Large Hadron Collider. CERN researchers can
now only hope to receive joint credit with any discovery at
Fermilab, where Higgs experiments begin in the spring.
4.ELECTION: HOW DID THE PHYSICISTS DO?
"This shows every vote
counts," remarked plasma physicist Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ). And
he wasn't talking about Florida. With 1500 provisional ballots
still outstanding, Holt claims he leads Dick Zimmer by 292 votes.
Zimmer says he leads Holt by 393. Oh, for math standards! No
such problem for nuclear physicist Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI), who
was reelected with 65% of the popular vote. And the White House?
Natural Law Party candidate physicist John Hagelin fared poorly,
because, as he explained, "our solutions have been co-opted."
Co-opted? Has Hagelin's corps of yogic flyers
(WN 9 Apr 99)
sold out to the mainstream? Inquiring minds demand an answer.
|
