Friday, 16 April 1999 Washington, DC

1. ASIAN ARMS RACE: WOBBLY GOVERNMENTS BRANDISH RICKETY MISSILES.
At about this time last year (WN 15 May 98), Indians were dancing in the streets to celebrate a series of dubious nuclear tests. The celebration was short-lived; Pakistan evened the score with its own dubious tests just two weeks later (WN 29 May 98), while economic sanctions worsened the economic crises in both India and Pakistan. The two countries promised to sin no more. On Sunday, however, the arms race got a new dose of Viagra when India tested the Agni II ballistic missile. It was answered three days later by a test of Pakistan's Ghauri-II missile. The cheering in both countries will quiet down in a few days when prices go up.

2. PLANETS: ASTRONOMERS EXULT OVER DISCOVERY OF PLANETARY FAMILY.
After 11 years of observations of the star Upsilon Andromeda, 44 light-years distant, a system of three planets was discovered independently by groups at San Francisco State University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. All three are huge, "Jupiter class" planets unlikely candidates for life, but their discovery implies that planetary systems are more abundant than supposed. It also appears to end speculation that reported single-planet systems were in fact brown dwarfs.

3. COSMIC QUESTIONS: CONFERENCE RAISES OTHER KINDS OF QUESTIONS.
The AAAS sponsored a three-day conference this week dealing with such questions as "Is the universe designed?" Physics Nobelist Steven Weinberg gave the physics answer with the title of his talk: "No." "Intelligent design" is the fallback position of the creationists. The conference was funded by the John Templeton Foundation, which pretty much owns the field of Science and Religion, having paid for it with hard cash. The annual Templeton Prize for Science and Religion, for example, is bigger than the Nobel Prize in dollars that is. Templeton also gives grants to colleges that "encourage character development," including "moral aspects of sexuality." The AAAS Program of Dialogue Between Science and Religion was itself created with a $1.5M grant from the Templeton Foundation. Weinberg noted that his invitation described the conference as "a constructive dialogue between science and religion...I favor a dialogue," Weinberg commented, "but not a constructive one."

4. COLD FUSION: PONS AND FLEISCHMANN CITED IN TIME MAGAZINE.
The magazine devoted a special issue to The Century's Greatest Minds. However, the two "fusion pioneers," as they are referred to in Infinite Energy magazine, did not actually make the list of scientists and thinkers. Instead they were listed along with Wilhelm Reich, the discoverer of "orgone energy," as "cranks" of the Century. This did not sit at all well with Eugene Mallove, the editor of Infinite Energy, who fired off a letter to the editors of the issue, calling the designation a "vile outrage."



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.