Friday, September 5, 2008
Big Bang Day starts at 8:30 am on September 10 with live coverage from the
LHC control room on BBC radio. TV coverage will be on Eurovision, better
known for the Eurovision Song Contest. It's rather nice to have public
interest in a basic scientific experiment, whatever the reason. And
after Wednesday's test? It will be time to start shutting the LHC down
for the winter. Maybe in the spring they can start a serious search for
the Higgs. Meanwhile the LHC rap is playing well on You Tube.
Last week we did a word search for "science" in Barack Obama's acceptance
speech in Denver. We thought it unfortunate that Obama made only a single
reference to science. As you have surely noticed, WN is firmly non-
partisan, so we ran the same search on a transcript of McCain's acceptance
speech last night in St. Paul. "Text not found" popped up. Could this
be? Our nation is roiled by controversies over evolution, nuclear power,
climate change, energy shortage, stem cells, Plan B, all of which must
turn to science for their resolution. Indeed, is there an issue the
nation faces that doesn't turn on science? "Perhaps the search technology
failed," I thought, "try another word." I typed in "fight." There were
25 hits. Hmmm.
Anthonomus grandis, the cotton boll weevil, goes through a dozen
generations in a single cotton season, quickly developing resistance to
man-made pesticides. In China, genetically modified (GM) insect-resistant
cotton averted the use of 650,000 tons of pesticides annually. In today's
Science Richard Stone reports that although China has moved cautiously in
developing GM crops, the huge success with cotton convinced the country's
leaders to turn to GM crops to feed the nation. In spite of harsh birth-
control policies, China's population of 1.3 billion is still growing due
to the "pipeline" of women of child bearing age. Together with water
shortages and diversion of crop land to other uses this has led to food
shortages. The biggest prize would be GM rice, even though famed UK
agronomist Prince Charles warns that "GM grains demand huge amounts of
water, which could lead to disaster." It is true that we can't expect a
green revolution every few years to make up for unbridled fecundity.
Last week, the lead line on "Population" said the U.S. birth rate had
doubled in a century. Of course it had not. The population doubled,
largely through immigration, not the birth rate. The birth rate in the
U.S., as in other advanced nations, continues to drop in spite of the
right-to-life movement.
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