Friday, 29 August 97 Washington, DC
1. JOURNAL PRICING: FEDERAL COURT CLOBBERS GORDON & BREACH.
In 1988, Henry Barschall, a retired University of Wisconsin
physics professor, compared the Acost-effectiveness@ of physics
journals. The differences were huge. The cost per character
varied by a factor of 80 among journals. When cost was divided
by citation frequency, the variation was a staggering 850 --
with journals published by Gordon & Breach at the bottom.
APS, whose journals ranked at the top, printed Barschall's study
in the Bulletin, AIP put it in Physics Today, whereupon G&B sued
Barshall, APS and AIP in Germany, Switzerland, France and
finally the US. Tuesday, a federal Judge in New York rejected
all claims by G&B, ruling that Barschall's methodology reliably
found that APS and AIP journals "are substantially more cost
effective than those published by [G&B]." Despite the time and
cost of defending against G&B's global campaign, Barschall, APS
and AIP refused to back down on a clear issue of free speech.
Henry Barschall, unfortunately, did not survive to see the final
vindication (WN 7 Feb 97).
2. INFINITE ENERGY: JAPAN THROWS COLD WATER ON COLD FUSION.
Timing, they say, is everything. Japan continued to buy
cold-fusion lottery tickets long after the rest of the world
had sworn off. However, the Ministry of International Trade
and Industry (MITI) announced Monday that the odds no longer justify even a small program. The announcement came just as
Eugene Mallove, the editor of Infinite Energy Magazine, was
writing to reporters to berate them for failing to cover the good news about cold fusion. What good news, you ask? Why, the
discovery that cold fusion also neutralizes radioactivity
(WN 13 Jun 97). I proudly note
that WN cannot be faulted for ignoring this story
(WN 1 Aug 97).
3. DEEP SPACE: NASA BRACES FOR OPPOSITION TO CASSINI LAUNCH.
If the launch of the Cassini mission to Saturn is approved by the
White House, opponents of RTGs (radioisotope thermoelectric
generators) are expected to take last-minute legal steps to
block the Oct 6 launch. There is concern that demonstrators
might even attempt to physically interfere with the launch. A
1989 lawsuit to block the Galileo mission failed. There is more
at stake than Cassini, which has dodged budgetary bullets for
years. It could set a precedent that would effectively end
exploration of the outer reaches of the solar system -- there
simply is no practical substitute for RTGs at this point. Two
RTG powered missions are currently planned: Europa Orbiter and
Pluto Express. From Pluto, the sun would appear as just a bright star, ruling out solar arrays. A nuclear reactor, launched
cold, is a possibility, but it would mean much less reliability,
a long delay and increased cost. Pioneer 10 was powered by an
RTG for 25 years until it was abandoned more than six billion
miles from Earth (WN 4 Apr 97).
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