Friday,
9 February 2001
1. SUMMER INTERN: THE APS WASHINGTON OFFICE HAS AN OPENING.
We are looking for a physics major with great writing skills and a
genius IQ to spend eight to ten weeks in Washington, battling the
forces of evil. The starting date is negotiable and we're
flexible on the genius thing. Write
opa@aps.org
for details. We need a resume, writing sample and two references by April 15.
2. CELL PHONES: NO DAMAGE TO DANES' BRAINS.
A study of more than
420,000 Danes, from 1982 through 1995, that was reported in the
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found no link between
cell phone use and brain cancer. That should settle the issue,
but it won't. As one famous Dane said four hundred years ago:
"Methinks it is like a weasel." Dire EMF warnings continue to be
issued. A local TV station just alerted people to beware of the
metro - some subway cars have fields as high as a Gauss! That's
no where near as deadly as the bubble gum stuck to the seat.
3. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: WHO WANTS TO BE AN ASTRONAUT?
NASA Administrator Dan Goldin grumbles that space is not for
"spectators." The Russians have a more practical point of view.
Dennis Tito, a dot-com multi-millionaire, signed a $20 million
deal with the impoverished Russian space agency for a taxi ride
to the International Space Station. If they can find just 4,500
more entrepreneurs like Tito, they can pay for the whole project.
4. SENATOR LIEBERMAN CALLS FOR NMD.
With an evenly split Senate,
the voice of Democratic centrist Joe Lieberman has extraordinary
volume. As his national star continues to ascend, Lieberman's
endorsement last week of Stars Wars, The Sequel must make his
former rival, President Bush, The Sequel, beam with pride.
"Reducing the nuclear threat and cooperating on non-proliferation
is the top priority...," Lieberman said, but deploying NMD "as
soon as it is technologically feasible...is American law."
5. EHLERS APPOINTED CHAIR OF HOUSE SCIENCE SUBCOMMITTEE.
In a
reorganized structure, physicist Vern Ehlers (R-MI) takes over
the new Environment, Technology and Standards Subcommittee. Nick
Smith remains chair of Research, formerly Basic Research, and
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) holds on to Space and Aeronautics.
Psychologist Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), who now heads Energy, may
find his professional degree useful, given DOE's headaches.
6. HOLE POKED IN PHYSICS THEORY BY BROOKHAVEN EXPERIMENT.
Almost
20 years ago, Yale physicist Vernon Hughes had a dream: to
measure the response of rare particles called muons in a giant
precision magnet. Now an international team, led by Hughes and
Lee Roberts of Boston University, has reported its first results,
which contradict the "Standard Model" of subatomic theory.
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