Friday, 25 October 96 Washington, DC

1. DIGITAL AGENDA: INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY OR PRIVATE TOLL ROAD?
Few people in the academic community noticed when the "Database Investment and Intellectual Property Antipiracy Act of 1996" was introduced last spring. Not many are aware of it yet; H.R.3531 has been the subject of no votes, no debates, no hearings. Yet, it would create a new form of intellectual property protection for compilations of information, ending the policy of full and open exchange of scientific data. Database publishers would have an absolute monopoly on their compilations, and the information highway would have a toll booth every few miles. It gets worse: even if H.R.3531 never passes, we may still get the toll booths under an international agreement. At the insistence of the U.S. delegation, a "Draft Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect to Databases," incorporating the same provisions as H.R.3531, is scheduled to be taken up at a Diplomatic Conference in Geneva in December -- without the views of the US academic community ever having been solicited. The "digital agenda" is being opposed by the Association of American Universities, the National Academy of Sciences and the Association of Research Libraries among others.

2. ENVIRONMENT: GEORGE BROWN BLASTS "FRINGE SCIENCE" IN THE 104TH CONGRESS.
On Wednesday, the ranking minority member of the House Science Committee issued a scathing report on hearings held one year ago by the Environment and Energy Subcommittee. The hearings implied that environmental scientists are engaged in a conspiracy to exaggerate threats from pollution, climate change and ozone depletion (WN 13 Oct 95). In "Environmental Science Under Siege: Fringe Science in the 104th Congress," Brown observes that the Subcommittee, chaired by Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), not only failed to substantiate charges of scientific misconduct, but achieved just what it purported to condemn: the politicization of science.

3. EVOLUTION: THE POPE COMES AROUND--BUT THE LAKOTAS STAND FIRM.
Following the course set in his 1992 exoneration of Galileo, John Paul acknowledged yesterday that evolution is "more than just a theory." He cited "new knowledge" as the basis for elevating evolution from the "serious hypothesis" status Pius XII gave it in 1950. Alas, he didn't say what new knowledge he had in mind. The statement is regarded as an important symbol in the effort to ease tensions between science and religion. However, the Lakota Indians are having none of it. They are blocking archaeologists from tracing the origin of ancient American human remains by DNA analysis. The Lakotas emerged from a spirit world inside the earth (maybe through the mouth of a giant frog) and that's that.

4. MISSILE DEFENSE: IT HASN'T SURFACED AS A CAMPAIGN ISSUE - YET.
It's been rumored all week that North Korea is preparing to test the ND-1 (max range of 600 miles). It's now rumored that, if they do, Dole supporters are prepared to test the Star Wars issue.



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.