Friday, October 31, 2008
One of the least attractive traditions in American politics is the
planting of scurrilous news stories when there is too little time before
the election to adequately refute them. Scientists would prefer to
examine the evidence. Science, after all, is conditional, always subject
to change. An attempt to hold a presidential debate on science issues was
doomed; there is not much science in either candidate's background. It
wouldn't have helped much anyway, even though it might have been more
interesting than some of the debates we heard. The President, however,
can call on the best scientific minds in the country to advise him. But
will he? And when will he do it? That's what we need to know.
Several readers complained about WN joining the New York Times in its
endorsement of Obama. This week it was the journal Nature, published in
the UK. As you might expect, Nature was more diffident: "This journal
does not have a vote, and does not claim any particular standing from
which to instruct those who do. But if it did, it would cast its vote for
Barack Obama."
Side B, the spare data relay channel, is now working perfectly after being
off for 18 years. So much for the good news, the bad news is that the
mission to repair Hubble's formatter problems will not take place earlier
than May. It would not take place then had NASA not been pressured by
Congress, which was responding to a public outcry in support of Hubble.
No, no, not confirmation of hydrinos, of a new 50 kilowatt reactor. What,
you might ask, does it react? Good question. It all began on April 25,
1991 when Randy Mills M.D. held a press conference in Lancaster, PA to
announce that "cold fusion" isn't fusion at all. "It's hydrogen atoms
decaying into a state below the ground state." He called the new
state "the hydrino", (WN 26 Apr 91) ,
and formed a company, HydroCatalysis Inc., to exploit its wonderful
properties. Somehow, the name lacked zing, so he changed it to BlackLight
Power. Perfect! Soon, investors with deep pockets were begging him to
take their money, which he did; reportedly to the tune of about $60
million. Sales, however, have been slow; reportedly about $0. The
solution to that, Mills says, is BlackLight's new 50 kilowatt energy
generator. An engineering team from Rowan University in New Jersey,
headed by Peter Jansson, reports that, following BlackLight's procedures
using material supplied by Blacklight, it has confirmed the energy
production. But they are silent on the hydrino explanation.
According to yesterday's Nature a team led by science historian Yves
Gingras at the University of Quebec in Montreal found that publication
data for 13,680 scientists shows productivity remaining high through their
60s. Regrettably, the study did not follow them through their 70s.
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