Friday, 2 August 96 Washington, DC
1. DOE BUDGET: SENATE PASSES ENERGY AND WATER APPROPRIATION BILL.
Following the lead of the House (WN 26 Jul 96), the Senate beat back an amendment
offered by John McCain (R-AZ) to terminate the Advanced Light Water Reactor and,
led by William Roth (R-DE), restored $23M for solar and renewable energy. Differences with the House bill must still be resolved in conference, but it's not
clear when; the conferees have not been chosen and Congress is leaving today for
the August break. They return after Labor Day.
2. DOE LABORATORIES: "PHASE I" IS A PLAN FOR DEVELOPING A PLAN.
Eighteen months ago, the Galvin panel called for streamlining the operation of
the national labs (WN 3 Feb 95). So DOE created the Laboratory Operations Board.
Yesterday, the LOB released Phase I, a two-volume explanation of what it is the
labs do. At a press conference, Deputy Secretary of Energy Charles Curtis made it
clear that: 1) DOE will NOT support creating a Laboratory Closure Commission; 2)
NO multipurpose (read "big") laboratory should be closed; 3) seven labs with
budgets under $50M will be evaluated.
3. DOE "PARTNERSHIPS": TAKING THEM FROM THE CRADA TO THE GRAVE.
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), House Energy & Environment Subcommittee chair, argues
that if government/industry partnerships are really an "investment," taxpayers
should get the same return as private investors, or at least recover some of the
federal investment in successfully commercialized technologies. However,
according to DOE officials, that could discourage industry participation.
4. BOOK REVIEW: "HEALING WITH HOMEOPATHY" BY JONAS AND JACOBS.
Take an unproven medication, dilute it until it's gone, and you have a homeopathic
remedy! If it's not a mere placebo response, Wayne Jonas says, information from
the medicine that isn't there anymore must be stored in the water-alcohol
mixture--maybe in its molecular structure. Or maybe in "bioelectromagnetic
energy"; if a solution of frog thyroxine, so dilute that not one molecule remains,
is sealed in a test tube and placed in a frog tank, he tells us, the frogs still
respond. Hence, the response must be mediated by an elusive "biophoton"; only one
biophoton is needed. After all, Jonas points out, chaos theory shows that storms
can be triggered by the flapping of a butterfly's wings. (Maybe we can prevent
hurricanes by killing all the butterflies!) Pretty straightforward so far, huh?
But what if research shows these mechanisms don't work? In that case, Jonas
cautions, "highly speculative and imaginary explanations may be required." Well,
you guessed it: "consciousness" is invoked. Quantum potentials might be
"collapsed" by the thoughts of the healer or the healee, he explains, creating
molecules that do the healing! Uh, Wayne, no offense, but maybe we should just
stick to the placebo thing. Wayne Jonas? He's the director of the NIH Office of
Alternative Medicine -- the Office responsible for evaluating homeopathy.
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