Friday, December 8, 2006

1. NASA'S MOONDOGGLE: PLAN FOR LUNAR GOLF IS PAR FOR THE COURSE.

Perhaps hoping to recapture that moment of uh, "glory," 35 years ago when Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard hit two golf balls with a six iron, NASA announced plans on Monday for a permanent base on the moon. WN believes the fairway will stretch along the rim of Shackelton crater at the south pole, which is in sunlight 70% of the time. The announcement did not actually mention golf, but what else could astronauts find to do on the moon? A source at JPL assured WN that by 2024, which is the date set for the base, robots will be available that can play golf. The announcement did mentioned other objectives like harvesting helium-3 as fuel. Are they serious? Maybe that should wait until someone actually extracts energy from He-3. A robotic radio observatory on the dark side would make perfect sense, but that wasn't mentioned. Right now NASA is having trouble getting people to the ISS.

2. CELL PHONES: FIVE YEARS LATER THEY STILL DON'T CAUSE CANCER.

A study in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found no increased cancer risk from cell phone use over a 20 year period. This is an update of a Danish study in JNCI five years ago. The Danes keep good records. By just going to the computer they could compare cell phone use with the National Cancer Registry. I was invited to write an editorial in the same issue, JNCI, Vol 93, p.166 (Feb 7, 2001). I noted that cancer agents act by breaking chemical bonds, creating mutant strands of DNA. Microwave photons, however, aren't energetic enough to break a bond. Predictably, fear mongers said there must be an induction period. Still waiting. In 1993, a man whose wife died of brain cancer was a guest on Larry King Live. Her cancer, he said, was caused by a cell phone. The evidence? "She held it against her head and talked on it all the time."

3. HOBBLING THE EPA: TEMPERATURE APPROACHES "FAHRENHEIT 451."

It's not book burning yet, but the president of the American Library Association strongly protested a Bush Administration decision to dismantle the system of regional EPA libraries under the guise of fiscal responsibility. Meanwhile, at the suggestion of the American Petroleum Institute, EPA changed the way it sets air pollution standards, leaving it to political appointees and postponing the required review by independent outside experts.

4. CSI: CSICOP CHANGES TO, "COMMITTEE FOR SKEPTICAL INQUIRY."

Its purpose remains the same. CSICOP was confusing and narrow. Besides, I couldn't spell out what CSICOP stood for on one line. CSI publishes the Skeptical Inquirer.

5. CONFUSION: LAST WEEK'S WN CONFUSED TWO PAUL EHRLICHS.

Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich is the one I meant, not the one who won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Medicine. I appreciate the many readers who pointed out several errors in last week's WN.

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.