Friday, November 4, 2005

1. EVOLUTION: BUSH ASKS FOR $7B TO FIGHT EVOLVING BIRD-FLU VIRUS.

This is the final week of the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board trial in a Harrisburg, PA federal court. Back in August, before the trial was underway, President Bush came down on the side of intelligent design, much to the delight of the religious- right (WN 5 Aug 05) . On Tuesday, however, he announced that he would ask Congress for $7.1 billion to prepare the nation for a worldwide outbreak of flu. It's a hedge against evolution. Although a virulent strain of bird flu has killed at least 62 people in Asia, there have been no confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission. The fear is that the H5N1 virus will mutate (evolve) making that possible. Does this mean that Mr. Bush has changed his mind on evolution?

2. SUPREME QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE NOMINEE'S VIEWS ON SCIENCE?

According to the news, Samuel Alito, the President's new choice for the Court, told Senators in both parties that the Court may have gone too far in separating church and state. How can they be too separate? That's particularly scary now when it seems possible that the decision in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board will be appealed to the Supreme Court, no matter how it turns out. We'll go back to questions submitted by readers next week, but in light of Alito's nomination, WN will exercise its editorial prerogative, posing its own question this week: "Does the intelligent designer who designs people, also design viruses? If so, is this conflict-of-interest?"

3. FUNDAMENTALISM: THE POSITION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH EVOLVES.

In the summer heat, a powerful Cardinal, writing in the NY Times, flatly rejected Darwinian evolution, outraging most scientists. However, WN wrote that, "the Church's position is evolving," (WN 8 Jul 05) , and so it has. In an Associated Press story today, Cardinal Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said, "we know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism. The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer." Amen.

4. NASA: THE ERA OF HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT ENDED 33 YEARS AGO.

That's when Apollo 17 returned from the moon. Someone had better tell NASA. Thursday, Michael Griffin told the House Science Committee that the agency needs another $5B to continue operating the shuttle until 2010. It will take that long to complete the International Space Station so we can begin to dismantle it. The shuttle was the biggest technological blunder in history, but the station is closing the gap. The shuttle was supposed to make it cheaper to send things into space. It didn't. The space station was supposed to do something. I can't remember what. But we do still need the shuttle for one final repair mission to Hubble.

Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.