What's New for 11/15/02

[Susan L Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

RadSafer's, take note of #3 below.  SOMEONE will make a fortune on this,

probably with R&D funding from the Office of Homeland Security.  Look

for rad-proof fashions soon in mass-e-mailed messages.



See some of you soon!



--Susan Gawarecki



WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 14 Nov 02   Washington, DC



1. BOGDANOV BROTHERS: IT'S NOT A "SOKAL HOAX," BUT IT SHOULD BE. 

If you are older than six, you must remember the Sokal hoax (WN

24 May 96).  NYU physicist Alan Sokal had published an article in

Social Text, a prestigious postmodern journal. "Transgressing the

Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum

Gravity" was pure spoof, but the editors couldn't tell it from

the usual pompous nonsense they publish.  While physicists had a

good laugh, social scientists were presumably plotting revenge. 

So when the rumor spread that the Bogdanov cosmology theory is

really an elaborate hoax, it seemed to explain everything.  Their

theory, after all, looks at the universe before the big bang.  As

logical-positivist physics, that is literally non sense, but as a

Sokal-hoax-in-reverse commentary on the excesses of theoretical

physics completely divorced from experiment, such as parallel

universes, it would be truly brilliant.  Sokal revealed his prank

immediately.  Alas, the Bogdanovs, as Dennis Overbye described

them in last Saturday's NY Times, take themselves seriously.



2. NSF: THE DOUBLING BILL IS ON ITS WAY TO THE PRESIDENT.  Last

night, both the House and the Senate passed a bill authorizing a

doubling of funding for the National Science Foundation over a

five year period.  However, funding for the final two years was

made contingent on whether the Foundation has made progress

toward meeting certain management goals.  These contingencies

were apparently added to satisfy the White House Office of

Management and Budget.  It is now up to the President.  



3. RADIATION-PROOF FABRIC: WILL IT PROTECT YOU FROM CELL-PHONES?  

A company in Florida claims to have developed a new lightweight

fabric called Demron that will protect you from nuclear radiation

as well as a lead vest.  The secret is said to be a polymer that

mimics heavy metals.  We can hardly wait to see how that works.

Originally developed to protect medical staff from X rays, the

company says Demron also blocks gamma rays but didn't say if it

will protect you from cell-phone radiation (WN 13 Sep 02). Maybe

Demron will inspire a new line of designer clothing by Christie

Brinkley, who lives in the Hamptons and worries about radiation

from Brookhaven all the time (WN 19 Nov 99).  



4. GALILEO: AGING SPACECRAFT IS NOW IN ITS DEATH SPIRAL.  Having

long since completed its primary mission, and then a second

mission of discovery to Europa, where it found a frozen ocean,

Galileo last week visited the small moon Amalthea.  Now in its

35th and final orbit of Jupiter, suffering arthritis in its

movable arm, and failing senses from years of intense radiation,

Galileo is running low on propellant.  While it can still be

controlled, it has been ordered to plunge into Jupiter next

September to be sure it doesn't contaminate Europa.



THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY.  

Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the

University or the American Physical Society, but they should be.



Archives of What's New can be found at http://www.aps.org/WN.

-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

102 Robertsville Road, Suite B, Oak Ridge, TN 37830

Toll free 888-770-3073 ~ www.local-oversight.org

.....................................................

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/