Reflectorites
Below are web article links, headlines and paragraphs for the period 11-17
February, with my comments in square brackets.
Steve
================================================================
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000113078204876&rtmo=wQK0no0b&atmo=FFFFFFtX&pg=/et/00/2/17/ecnbig17.html
Electronic Telegraph 17.02.00 Scientists go back to Big Bang atoms By
Robert Ward PHYSICISTS have turned back the clock 15 billion years to
re-create a type of matter absent since a fraction of a second after the
universe was born. ... "This matter has never been made by man before
and hasn't existed since the first few millionths of a second after the Big
Bang," said John Kinson, who led the British team. "We've always thought
that we understood what happened just after the Big Bang, but this is the
first experimental evidence that proves our theories are right." ... Scientists
induced the collision of lead atoms travelling at the speed of light inside a
particle accelerator. "This created temperatures of a million million
degrees, more than 100,000 times hotter than the centre of the Sun,
forming a droplet that has the same density as 20 Eiffel Towers
compressed to the size of a pinhead," said Prof Kinson. ... [More on this
as a possible counter to the claims that these CERN experiments were
inconclusive. The "lead atoms travelling at the speed of light" is
presumably an exaggeration? I like the Eiffel Tower illustration!]
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/021500sci-universeexpansion.html
February 15, 2000. Is the Cosmos Getting a Push From Another Dimension? ... By
JAMES GLANZ The discovery two years ago that the expansion of the universe is
speeding up has presented physicists and cosmologists with a major problem. The
gravity of all the known matter and energy in our own universe should slow that
expansion, not speed it up. Looking for a way out of this perplexity, several
cosmologists are now suggesting that the cosmic acceleration may be an effect
from some other universe.... The cosmologists who have made this proposal
concede that it is a radical idea. But in identifying another, or parallel, universe
with extra dimensions that may exist beyond our own three spatial and one time
dimension, the cosmologists are on the cutting edge of a trend in a branch of
theoretical physics called superstring theory. Dr. Andreas Albrecht...said that all
the simple ways of explaining the astronomical observations had already been tried
and had failed. ... In their paper, they showed that a strange kind of energy named
quintessence, which has been posited to permeate the universe, could develop into
a repulsive force at certain times, when it would accelerate the cosmic expansion.
The second part involves the application of an advanced theory called superstring
theory, which portrays elementary particles not as points but as wriggling,
incredibly tiny 10-dimensional strings. Many physicists hope superstring theory
may one day show the underlying unity of all forces in nature. ... To be taken
seriously, the new suggestion would have to undergo observational tests. Dr.
Albrecht said that it may leave a signature on the afterglow of the Big Bang, called
the cosmic microwave background, but that such subtle features had not been
observed with present instruments. ... [I smile at all this paradigm crisis in
cosmology when I remember only a couple of years ago that I was blandly assured
by a theistic evolutionist physicist on the Calvin Reflector that cosmologists had
well worked out models of cosmic evolution which did not require divine
intervention, and therefore, by analogy, God didn't need to intervene in biological
evolution either! Getting a push from another universe doesn't sound much
different from getting a push from heaven!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000214/sc/science_eugenics_1.html
Yahoo! ... February 14 ... Study Says U.S. Eugenics Paralleled Nazi
Germany By David Morgan PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.S. doctors who
once believed that sterilization could help rid society of mental illness and
crime launched a 20th century eugenics movement that in some ways
paralleled the policies of Nazi Germany, researchers said on Monday. A
Yale study tracing a once-popular movement aimed at improving society
through selective breeding, indicates that state- authorized sterilizations
were carried out longer and on a larger scale in the United States than
previously believed, beginning with the first state eugenics law in Indiana
in 1907. ... researchers said sterilization laws had authorized the neutering
of more than 40,000 people classed as insane or "feebleminded" in 30
states by 1944. Another 22,000 underwent sterilization from the mid-
1940s to 1963, despite weakening public support and revelations of Nazi
atrocities... Forced sterilization was legal in 18 U.S. states, and most
states with eugenics laws allowed people to be sterilized without their
consent by leaving the decision to a third party. "The comparative histories
of the eugenical sterilization campaigns in the United States and Nazi
Germany reveal important similarities of motivation, intent and strategy,"
the study's authors wrote ... Eugenics sprang from the philosophy of social
Darwinism, which envisioned human society in terms of natural selection
and suggested that science could engineer progress ... The U.S. practice
of neutering "mentally defective" individuals was backed by most leading
geneticists ... "It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute
degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility,
society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their
kind," Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in the majority
opinion of a landmark eugenics case in 1926. ... Also at:
http://news.excite.com/news/r/000214/18/science-science-eugenics [It
was *Social* Darwinism as taught in the textbook "Civic Biology" (1918) that
William Jennings Bryan objected to being taught in schools. But
the ACLU in the name of secular humanism, brilliantly neutralised these
objections by contriving the Scopes Trial in 1925 and so the USA (and
Australia too) for 40 years afterwards had a program of State-sanctioned
eugenics, backed by Darwinist scientific advice, which carried out Nazi-
style forced sterilisations and incarceration in mental hospitals of over
60,000 human beings, whose only crime was that they did not fit the
Darwinist criterion of `fit', which ironically Darwinist themselves quietly
changed from survival to reproduction while all this was going on!]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/news/02/14/dangerous.passion.salon/index.html
CNN ... 'Dangerous Passion': Jealousy is an evolutionary necessity By
Annie Murphy Paul February 14, 2000 ... (SALON) -- The next time you're
caught perusing your partner's diary or snooping through your lover's
suitcase, you've got a cutting-edge excuse: Darwin made me do it.
According to David Buss, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University
of Texas at Austin and author of "The Dangerous Passion: Why Jealousy
is as Necessary as Love and Sex," jealousy is a natural and utilitarian
mechanism. A less suspicious species than our own, Buss observes,
would have become extinct years ago. Jealousy spurns us to reproduce;
when we sense another moving in on our mate, we are more inclined to
procreate. ... SALON: Do you worry that your work will be used to justify
that kind of pathological jealousy? Are we going to see criminal lawyers
coming up with the Stone Age brain defense? DB: Scientific findings can
always be misinterpreted or misused, and I'm very sensitive to that. But
my belief is that we're all better off with more, rather than less, knowledge
about ourselves, and understanding a particular behavior doesn't mean
excusing it. I suppose a defense lawyer for a wife-batterer might say, "My
client couldn't help it -- his evolved jealousy mechanism made him do it,"
but that's not going to fly in the real world. Human laws are designed to
prevent people from doing precisely those things that they're naturally
inclined to do. ... [Despite the enormous evils it has wrought (see above),
Social Darwinism keeps popping up, in the guise of Sociobiology and now
Evolutionary Psychology. The fallacy of all of these versions of Social
Darwinism is that it regards human beings from a materialistic viewpoint
as essentially instinct-driven animals, rather than from a Christian
viewpoint as rational souls made in the image of God. Even on scientific
grounds, the ignoring of the enormous influence of human culture
(including religion), which has effectively negated Darwinist influences on
human beings for the last 100,000 years, is simply indefensible.]
http://www.newyorkmag.com/page.cfm?page_id=1931 February 13, 2000
... New York Magazine. the culture business. Look Who's Stalking The
ugly feud between pop paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and science
writer Robert Wright has been simmering for ten years now -- except
somebody forgot to tell Gould. BY ETHAN SMITH In a 25-year career as
a successful public intellectual, Stephen Jay Gould has accrued nearly all
the trappings of celebrity ... But recently, he's picked up one of the less
desirable accoutrements of fame. The graying, 58-year-old Queens native
has become the first paleontologist in history with his own stalker -- albeit
an intellectual one. Last December, The New Yorker printed a 5,000-word
essay, "The Accidental Creationist," with the subtitle "Why Stephen Jay
Gould Is Bad for Evolution." The writer, Robert Wright, openly mocked
Gould's credibility as a scientist and spokesman for evolution. In fact,
Wright, a well-connected D.C. journalist, called his subject an unwitting
accomplice in the fundamentalist crusade against science. The piece
accused Gould of the ultimate heresy among evolutionists: offering succor
to religious zealots who want to remove Darwin from the schools. It was a
foolish and outrageous claim, and even Gould's enemies were taken aback.
... Unrepentant, Wright quickly lobbed another grenade at Gould. His new
book, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, published last month,
devotes 30 pages to a no-holds-barred attack on Gould. Even the footnotes
contain digs, accusing Gould of "evasion," of inappropriately carrying out
"a psychoanalysis of Darwin," and of "flagrant illogic." ... [More
signs of public schisms in `the church of Darwin'! Sooner or later
the media is going to start asking why is Darwinism taught compulsorily
in public funded schools, when the Darwinists cannot even agree among
themselves what exactly it is?]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000212/sc/health_stemcells_2.html
Yahoo! ... February 12 ... Congressional Battle Builds Over Stem Cells By
Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters)
- A battle is shaping up in Congress again over the issue of stem cells --
the elusive master cells that have the potential to become any kind of cell
in the body at all. Lauded by some as holding the promise to transform
medicine and biological research, they are being tested by scientists who
want to use them as tissue transplants, as treatments for diseases such
as diabetes and Parkinson's, and perhaps someday as a source of entire
organs for transplant. ... But there are other sources of stem cells, notably
embryos left over from fertility treatments ... Although they are routinely
destroyed once parents have conceived all the children they want, many
consider the embryos to be potential human beings and current law
forbids federally funded scientists to work with them. Sen. Arlen Specter, a
Pennsylvania Republican, introduced a bill last month that would permit
scientists backed by taxpayer dollars to use discarded embryos as a
source of stem cells. ... Private companies are free to do as they please,
and some, such as Geron Corp. ...are developing cloning technology with
the idea of creating their own embryonic sources of stem cells. The
National Institutes of Health (NIH) wants to let its scientists work on
embryonic stem cells, just so long as they do not themselves take them
from a human embryo. ... But Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback
has other ideas. One of the key opponents of the use of embryonic stem
cells, he held his own hearing on the issue earlier this week. "The
embryonic stem cell research being proposed by the NIH is illegal,
immoral and unnecessary," Brownback said in a statement. Brownback
and supporters ranging from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
to fellow Republican Trent Lott, a senator from Mississippi, say every
embryo is a potential human life and thus cannot be experimented upon.
... [It is hard to argue that using embryos to make stem cells to help
existing human beings is better than destroying the embryos. If each
embryo is a potential human life, then the real evil would seem to be
creating surplus ones in the first place.]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/02/11/bugs.enn/index.html CNN ...
Insect science faces wobbly future, report says ... February 11, 2000 ... By
Environmental News Network staff Insect-borne diseases, the impact of
genetically modified crops and the tenacious Formosan termite are a few
of the biggest pests for entomologists in the new century, according to a
recent report. But the greatest challenge to entomology - the traditional
study of insects may be burrowed in the discipline itself. In an article that
addresses the growing turf war between entomology and molecular
biology, Mark Hunter, an associate professor at the University of Georgia's
Institute of Ecology, suggests the insect discipline faces hard times as a
unique branch of science. "There is an ongoing conflict between 'whole
organism' and 'molecular' approaches to studying insects," Hunter writes.
"Friction has evolved because molecular biology is taking over a
tremendous amount of resources, including funding and space within
universities." Molecular biologists are being hired in increasing numbers to
fill out entomology departments, Hunter notes ... [This is an interesting
`turf war'. Is Biology eventually going to be subsumed under Molecular
Biology?]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_639000/639241.stm BBC
... 11 February, 2000 ... Limited sea rises expected Antarctic ice sheet
could increase in volume. Sea levels will rise by "several tens of
centimetres" over the next century, according to Australian research. The
finding is based on a computer model of future climate change that
assumes the Earth's surface temperatures will rise by two to three
degrees over the coming century. The Antarctic Co-operative Research
Centre (CRC) says melting ice in both Antarctica and Greenland will
cause some increase in sea levels, but stresses that we are unlikely to
see the catastrophic melting forecast in some quarters. ... "Many of the
public are still under the impression that there is a distinct possibility the
ice cap on Antarctica will slide off into the sea and melt, thereby raising
sea levels by quite disastrous amounts over the next few years or
decades," he said. "One often hears this sort of implication when, for
instance, somebody reports that a particularly large part of an ice shelf
has broken off from somewhere in Antarctica. It seems well worth while to
make the point that informed scientific opinion does not agree with such
extreme scenarios." ...However, it is possible, it says, that the projected
warming could increase the flow rate of grounded ice into the sea, adding
perhaps one or two meters to sea levels over the next one or two
thousand years. ... [This is good news *if* it's true. The scuba divers
will be disappointed that they will have to wait a bit longer to dive
on New York City and London reefs! :-)]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000211/sc/health_ireland_1.html
Yahoo! ... February 11 ... P&U Defends Role in Irish Human Tissue Case
DUBLIN (Reuters) - U.S.-Swedish drug maker Pharmacia & Upjohn
defended its actions on Friday in harvesting human pituitary glands from
hospitals in Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s. "During the period from
1974 until 1985, Pharmacia & Upjohn (then called Kabi-Vitrum) received
human pituitary glands from hospitals in Ireland which were used for the
production of human growth hormone," the company said in a statement
released in Ireland. "This was the only method worldwide of producing
human growth hormone for the treatment of children with growth hormone
deficiency, which at that time was an area of significant unmet medical
need," it added. Irish Health Minister Micheal Martin announced plans for
an inquiry this week after revelations that a Dublin children's hospital
supplied tissues taken from dead children without seeking parental
consent. Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children produced documents
showing that in the early 1980s pituitary glands from 70 dead children
were handed over for use in developing the growth promoter. ... [It is
almost unbelievable that a hospital with a name like "Our Lady's Hospital
for Sick Children" was allegedly harvesting parts off dead children and
giving (or selling?) them to a drug company without the consent of the
parents. If the need was so desperate and the cause was so right, then
why not give the parents' the option of consenting? There may be more
to this than meets the eye.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000211/sc/science_genetherapy_1.html
Yahoo! ... February 11 ... Gene Therapy Doctor Not Pleased Over AIDS
Report By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gene therapy researcher accused of
possibly exposing 17 children to the AIDS and hepatitis viruses said on
Friday she was afraid that reporting such incidents too publicly and too
soon would scare people away from volunteering for experiments like
hers. The Washington Post...suggested the experiment, involving children
with terminal brain cancer at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in
Memphis, was an example of a lack of regulation in the field of gene
therapy...Federal regulators are considering tighter rules for reporting
"adverse events" in gene therapy experiments; also, some scientists and
industry have argued against making such reports public.... Bowman and
other researchers call their patients "heroes" and say their cooperation is
crucial to the fledgling field of gene therapy. In such early experiments,
usually only the very sickest patients take part and it is sometimes hard to
tell if they died from their disease or if the treatment played a role. ...
Earlier story: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000211/sc/health_aids_1.html.
Latest story http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/02/18/gene.therapy2.ap/index.html
CNN ... FDA: AIDS scare a false alarm. February 18, 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Extensive tests have found that gene therapy
given to a group of dying cancer patients was not contaminated with
hepatitis C or the virus that causes AIDS. ... [This is good news but it still
does not clear up the bigger question of whether this gene therapy is
working. What if some of the children died from the gene therapy
treatment itself or might have survived if given other treatment?]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_639000/639195.stm BBC
... 11 February, 2000 ... First life protein map completed .... By BBC News
Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse Scientists have completed the
first protein interaction map for an entire organism. It shows how all the
proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, better know as brewers' or bakers'
yeast, work together to build and maintain the organism. And, more
importantly, upstanding how these biological molecules behave in the
fungus could give scientists new leads in the ongoing fight against human
diseases and point to the development of novel drugs. ... In the near future,
scientists hope to identify the protein interactions within other known
genomes, including that of the fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and
humans. ... it will take only two years to identify the protein interactions for
the human genome, once the DNA sequence is publicly available... The
yeast genome sequence has been known since 1996 but until now,
scientists had rather limited understanding of the function of its genes and
resulting proteins. The yeast genome consists of 6,000 genes arranged on
16 chromosomes. .... It has a lot of genes in common with humans and fruit
flies, and a lot of genes that are very similar .... Scientists say that by
understanding the function of the proteins made by the yeast genes they
will be able to obtain a clearer indication of how the human version of that
gene works. ... [More on this protein map story. The complexity of the
yeast genome is *amazing*.]
HIV/AIDS:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000216/sc/aids_patent_2.html
Yahoo! ... February 16 ... U.S. Company Patents Key HIV Gene, Stock
Jumps WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A biotechnology company set up to
mine the human genome for targets for new drugs said on Wednesday it
had patented a gene considered key to HIV infection and was working on
therapies using the gene. Human Genome Sciences Inc. said it had been
given a patent for the CCR5 receptor gene, which codes for a cellular
doorway used by most strains of the AIDS virus to get into the immune
system cells it attacks. It hopes to license the information to companies
looking for new ways to treat or even prevent HIV infection. The
company's stock soared following the announcement. It rose $45 to $200
in afternoon trading on volume of more than 3.5 million shares.... But HIV
can mutate into a form that uses another receptor, known as CXCR4.
This strain seems to be unusually virulent, and even people lacking
CCR5 can be infected by the CXCR4 strain, so controlling CCR5 would
not offer a fail-safe therapy for HIV.... HGSI ... has applied for 7,500
patents involving potential medical uses of human genes and has had
112 granted. ... [Well, looks like the drug companies and their
stockholders are going to get rich, especially if HIV does not cause
AIDS!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000216/sc/aids_microbicides_1.html Yahoo!
... February 16 ... Grants Help Scientists Seek New Attack on AIDS
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Compounds found in coconuts, shampoo and even
saliva will be tested as possible agents for preventing AIDS infection using
$875,000 in new grants, the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR)
said on Wednesday. ...the money would go to 10 researchers to pay for work on
microbicides -- gels or creams that can be used to protect against sexual
transmission of HIV and other diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea. The idea is
to give both men and women a method, other than condoms, that will protect
them. "Women are increasingly at risk of HIV infection, and the research made
possible with these grants will help speed the development of a safe, effective
topical gel or cream that prevents HIV transmission," .... Women now make up 46
percent of all people infected with HIV -- 55 percent of those in sub-Saharan
Africa. In the United States women account for a third of all new HIV infections.
... [It will be good if any of these work. But if condoms don't work, why should
these?]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000216/sc/health_aids_2.html Yahoo! ...
February 16 ... Targeted Genetics to Collaborate on AIDS Vaccine NEW YORK
(Reuters) - Targeted Genetics Corp. (NasdaqNM:TGEN - news) is collaborating
with two institutions to develop a vaccine to prevent AIDS, the three concerns
said in a joint statement on Wednesday. Seattle-based Targeted Genetics will make
the vaccine by using its viral vector technology to deliver HIV genes into humans
with the goal of creating a protective immune response. Under the terms of the
collaboration, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) will fund
development, preclinical and Phase I studies of the vaccine at Targeted Genetics
and at Columbus, Ohio-based Children's Research Institute, the statement said.
IAVI expects to invest more than $6 million during the first three years of the
agreement, provided that certain milestones are achieved. Shares of Targeted
Genetics closed 7-3/16 higher on Wednesday at 19-3/4. ... [Is this saying that HIV
will be injected into healthy people? This could be the acid test of whether HIV
causes AIDS if no previously uninfected person immunised with HIV ever
developed AIDS. But if someone vaccinated with HIV developed AIDS, I can see
the company being sued! The mention of stock prices serve as a reminder that
AIDS is big business.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"All scholarly subjects seem to go through cycles, from periods when most
of the answers seem to be known to periods when no one is sure that even
the questions are right. Such is the case for evolutionary biology. Twenty
years ago Mayr, in his Animal Species and Evolution, seemed to have shown
that if evolution is a jigsaw puzzle, then at least all the edge pieces
were in place. But today we are less confident and the whole subject is in
the most exciting ferment. Evolution is both troubled from without by the
nagging insistencies of antiscientists and nagged from within by the
troubling complexities of genetic and developmental mechanisms and new
questions about the central mystery-speciation itself. In looking over recent
literature in and around the field of evolutionary theory, I am struck by the
necessity to reexamine the simpler foundations of the subject, to distinguish
carefully between what we know and what we merely think we know. The
first and strongest of our critics to be answered should be ourselves."
(Thomson K.S., "The Meanings of Evolution", American Scientist, Vol.
70, September-October 1982, p529).
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Feb 22 2000 - 16:33:31 EST