Friday, May 6, 2011
It took 52 years and $750 Million, but the Stanford-based analysis group
and NASA announced on Wednesday that the data from GP-B does indeed confirm
two key predictions of Albert Einstein's 1916 general theory of
relativity: the geodetic effect of space-time warping around a massive
object, which we perceive as gravity, and the frame-dragging effect caused
by mass-energy currents, called gravitomagnetism in beautiful analogy with
Maxwellian electromagnetism. The findings were published online in
Physical Review Letters. Of what value is it? Above all it confirms that
science is open. The success and credibility of science are anchored in
the willingness of scientists to expose ideas and results to independent
testing and replication. Had they gotten a different result, textbooks
covering the subject would be rewritten. More than 100 PhD candidates
worked on some aspect of the gravity probe B experiment. They are of the
measure of its value to society.
I was still recovering from a serious overdose of royals when I learned
that the Prince of Wales was in Washington, DC this week to promote
sustainable farming. Back in the UK, the Daily Mail charged Prince Charles
with secretly lobbying ministers for homeopathic medicines on the NHS. The
NHS spends millions of pounds each year on alternative medicine at a time
when its restricting proven lifesaving drugs for those with cancer. The
most popular cold medication in the world is Oscillococcinum; the active
ingredient is Anas Barbariae Hepatis et Cordis Extractum (extract of liver
and heart of the Barbary duck) 200CK HPUS. The 200CK means the solution
has been diluted 1 part in 100, shaken, and repeated sequentially 200
times. HPUS means the medication is listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia
of the United States, and prepared according to 1938 federal guidelines.
That the ignorant and antiquated law sanctioning homeopathy is still on the
books is a national disgrace. The dilution is totally meaningless;
somewhere around number 30 of the 200 sequential dilutions, the dilution
limit will be reached. That is, not a single molecule of the so-
called "active ingredient" remains. Millions of people all over the world
reach for this non-medicine every time they sneeze. The French company,
Boiron, that makes Oscillococcinum should be locked and its officers put on
trial. In terms of "sustainability," all this makes perfect sense. The
world will not run out of Oscillococcinum.
Several people this week sent me a paper by William J Bruno at Los Alamos
National Laboratory, "What does the photon energy tell us about cell phone
safety?" Bruno describes himself as, "a PhD physics researcher who applies
physics to biology." I do not know if the article has been submitted to a
journal for publication. His argument is that cell phones operate in the
classical wave limit of high photon densities. I'll try to look into these
things this week.
|
