Friday, August 25, 2006

1. PLAN B: IT'S NOT AN EMERGENCY IF YOU'RE UNDER THE AGE OF 18?

Better late than never, the FDA announced yesterday that the emergency contraceptive will be available over the counter, but only if you're over 18. One might suppose the consequences of unplanned pregnancy would be greater for women under 18. That it was approved at all after a 3-year struggle must be credited to three women. Susan Wood, resigned as head of women's health at the FDA a year ago to protest failure to approve over-the-counter sale (WN 2 Sep 05). Senators Clinton and Murray made it clear that without it Bush family friend Andrew von Eschenbach would not be confirmed to head FDA.

2. EVOLUTION: GUESS WHAT WAS MISSING FROM THE SMART-GRANT LIST?

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on Tuesday that the list of majors that qualify for Smart grants, prepared by the Department of Education, had a blank line. It turned out to be the line where Evolutionary Biology should have appeared. The Department says the exclusion was inadvertent. That's possible, but it reminds us that evolution denial in America is not only widespread, it's growing. According to a study by Jon Miller of Michigan State University in Lansing, acceptance of evolution by Americans declined from 45% in 1985 to 40% in 2005. Only Turkey and the Vatican trail the US. For example, intelligent design critic Rev. George Coyne was replaced as director of the Vatican Observatory (WN 18 Nov 05) .

3. NASA: GRIFFIN ACCUSES SCIENTISTS OF WANTING TO DO SCIENCE.

Michael Griffin in an Aug 21 message to Science Committee members wrote: "The most appropriate recourse for NASA Advisory Council members who believe the NASA program should be something other than what it is, is to resign." They did. WN looked up the NASA Mission Statement. It begins: "To advance and communicate scientific knowledge and understanding of the earth, the solar system, and the universe." Is that what they're doing on the ISS? NASA has agreed to an advertisement for a Canadian golf club manufacturer, in which a Russian cosmonaut on Nov 3 will hit a golf ball into space from the ISS. What is the appropriate recourse for an Administrator who wants NASA to be something other than the agency created by an act of Congress?

4. PERPETUUM MOBILE: "ALL GREAT TRUTHS BEGIN AS BLASPHEMIES."

This is the slogan of Steorn, a Dublin company that is assembling a jury of scientists to evaluate a device using moving permanent magnets to produce free energy. WN has exposed so many of these devices in the past that it gets depressing. So this time we examined the slogan instead. It's from George Bernard Shaw's Anajanska [1919], but the full quote must have been been lost. We've found the full quote: "All great truths begin as blasphemies, but all blasphemies do not become great truths."

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.