What's New: HIGGS LIGHT: MAYBE THE TEVATRON STILL HAS SHOT AT IT
- From: Sam Wormley <swormley1@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 02:00:41 GMT
What's New - Bob Park
Friday, January 12, 2007
Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@xxxxxxxxxxx
1. CULTURE WAR I: BUSH PROMISES TO VETO STEM CELL RESEARCH BILL. The
first science legislation of the new Congress passed the House easily
and will pass the Senate overwhelmingly. However, the House vote was 37
short of the margin needed to override a veto. Last year Bush vetoed
the bill and promises to do so again. The bill lifts the President's
ban on using leftover stem cells from fertility clinics in research.
The White House points to a study at Wake Forest that found stem cells
in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women, but Anthony Atala, author of
the study, warned that amniotic stem cells are no substitute for
embryonic stem cells. A Presidential veto will spare leftover embryonic
stem cells from the indignity of saving human lives and allow them to
be thrown in the garbage with their dignity intact.
2. CULTURE WAR II: MORE TROOPS NEEDED TO QUEL SECTARIAN VIOLENCE. The
"new strategy" for Iraq, which the President outlined on Wednesday, is
the oldest strategy ever devised: double your bet. It doesn't always
work. The problem, the President explained, is sectarian violence. Why,
you may be asking, can't Shiites and Sunnis just get along? Briefly:
the violence began in 656, 24 years after Muhammad died. Sunnis insist
that the heirs of the four caliphs that succeeded Mohammed are the
legitimate leaders of Muslims. Shiites are equally certain that only
the heirs of the fourth caliph are legitimate successors of Mohammed.
And then there's the business of the Madhi: Sunnis say he hasn't shown
up yet, Shiites say he's in hiding, but he's coming back. Sound
familiar? President Bush is absolutely right, there aren't enough
troops in Iraq to settle this dispute. And never will be.
3. CULTURE WAR III: HOW BOB SCREWED UP THE AGE OF THE CANYON. Last week
WN compared the Noah's-flood version of the age of the Grand Canyon
(6,000 years)to the "scientific" version (6,000,000 years). WN said you
have to "add up the ages of the geologic strata exposed on the walls."
That was pretty dumb; it would have given you about 2 billion years.
What we should have said was, "add up the time it took to erode through
all the strata."
4. CULTURE WAR IV: NANCY PELOSI BANS SMOKING IN THE HOUSE LOBBY.
Cultures can be changed after all. I would not have believed it
possible that smoking would become an anachronism in my lifetime.
5. HIGGS LIGHT: MAYBE THE TEVATRON STILL HAS SHOT AT IT. Justification
for building a Supercollider was based on the hope of finding the Higgs
boson, if it exists. After the SSC died, hope turned to the Large
Hadron Collider at CERN, and just maybe to the less powerful Tevatron
at Fermilab. The LHC is expected to start up by the end of 2007, but
meanwhile a new estimate of the Higgs mass comes out a little smaller,
raising hope that the Tevatron might yet find it.
.
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