| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Sam Wormley" |
| Date: |
01 Oct 2004 06:04:10 PM |
| Object: |
What's New -- Friday, October 1, 2004 |
Friday, October 1, 2004
1. KYOTO PROTOCOL: RUSSIA PUTS THE CLIMATE TREATY OVER THE TOP.
Russia's cabinet endorsed the treaty and sent it to Parliament, where
approval is expected. With 120 countries already on board, this meets
the requirement that the treaty be ratified by nations responsible for
at least 55 percent of 1990-level emissions. Roald Sagdeev, former
science advisor to Gorbachev, was ecstatic on his return from Moscow
yesterday. Now a physics professor at the University of Maryland, he
told WN last night that the effect the treaty will have on emissions is
far less important than the recognition by signatories that climate
change is an important world problem, and they are committed to dealing
with it. Having flatly rejected the treaty, the United States is now
isolated.
2. NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION: CANDIDATES DIFFER SHARPLY IN DEBATE. The
moderator, Jim Lehrer, asked Kerry what he thought is the most serious
threat to national security. "Nuclear proliferation, nuclear
proliferation," Kerry responded emphatically. "To make it clear to the
world that we're serious about containing nuclear proliferation," he
vowed to shut down the current program to develop a nuclear
bunker-buster. Bush responded that "we've increased funding for
dealing with nuclear proliferation about 35 percent since I've been
President." Apparently, if the United States develops a new nuclear
weapon it's not proliferation.
3. ACUPUNCTURE: YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW WHERE THE RABBIT CAME FROM. On
TV's "Sex and the City" Charlotte, who was unable to conceive, turned
to acupuncture. I read that in the Wall Street Journal, but it
didn't say whether it helped. So I turned to the experts on the WN
staff. Charlotte, they assured me, ended up adopting. I’m not
surprised. Of course, even if she had become pregnant it wouldn’t
mean that acupuncture helped. You need a randomized,
placebo-controlled, double-blind study with good statistics to find
out what works and what doesn't. And double-blind is hard to do with
needles. But it wouldn't matter, I still wouldn't believe it. The
trouble is it's silly. Acupuncture, complete with "meridians" that
connect acupuncture points, and moxibustion (WN 13 Nov 98), which
applies heat to the acupuncture points, predate vivisection by
thousands of years. Well by 2004 they've looked: no features of our
anatomy correspond to any of this stuff. They discovered acupuncture
before it was known that blood circulates, or that germs cause
disease. But is there anything acupuncture doesn't treat? The
Wednesday New York Times reported that "acupuncture is moving toward
the mainstream." Mainstream what? When a stage magician pulls a rabbit
out of a hat, I may not know where the rabbit came from, but I know
it’s not magic. It's not science either.
Bob Park can be reached via email at
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the
University, but they should be.
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