Friday, December 2, 2005

1. COFFEE FIX: REVEALED BY FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING.

fMRI devices, which image the regions of activity in the brain, are making many important discoveries. None are more important to WN than an Austrian study reported this week at a meeting of the Radiological Society in Chicago. A significant increase in activity in the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain, which is responsible for short-term memory, peaked 20 minutes after consuming caffeine corresponding to two cups of coffee. The effect dissipates after 45 minutes. By my calculation, sipping coffee at the rate of 3 cups an hour should sustain the effect indefinitely. I just have to remember to keep sipping.

2. SPACE PARALYSIS: NASA HAS NO PLAN FOR SOLVING THE FOAM CRACKS.

Last week, WN said it had been one year since the announcement by President Bush of his "Vision for Space Exploration." Sigh. It was actually two years. Perhaps I wasn't drinking enough coffee. It is, however, difficult to judge the passage of time in an isolation chamber. Can anybody think of anything that's happened in human space flight? It's been almost three years since the Columbia disaster, and the shuttle has flown only once since. According to the Washington Post today, there has been no decision about how to deal with the foam-cracking problem.

3. SPACE SCIENCE: INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATION WITH ROBOTS THRIVES.

This week in the journal Science, there was a report that the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter had found a layer of ice near the north pole of Mars to be exceptionally pure and about a mile deep. The advanced radar system on Mars Express has so far found no convincing evidence of subsurface liquid water. Meanwhile on Mar's surface, Spirit and Opportunity haven't seen any either. Nature published reports based on information from ESA's Huygens probe during its descent to Saturn's moon Titan last January (WN 21 Jan 05) . Japan's spacecraft Hayabusa successfully touched down on a small asteroid, Itokawa, and collected samples. Unfortunately, it has thruster problems and may never be able to return them to Earth.

4. COLUMBINE REDEMPTION: "BAD SCIENCE PRODUCES BAD CONSEQUENCES."

Who could disagree? This was the title of a statement issued by the father of Rachel Scott, one of the victims of the Columbine tragedy. The "bad science" Mr. Scott had in mind is evolution. Columbine Redemption, the organization he founded, is devoted to taking evolution out of our schools, and putting prayer back in. We note only the obvious point that the most violent conflicts in the world today, including that between Sunni and Shiite in Iraq, involve cultures on both sides that demand frequent prayers in school and teach the Genesis account of human origins.

5. MYTHOLOGY: THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS CANCELS DEBUNKING CLASS.

It included, Creationism, ID and "other religious mythologies."

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.