THINGS TO KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT

by GENE MASCOLI

Gene's Columns Are Archived HERE

THINGS TO KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT

Science is in the news. But the news is not science and not a day goes by without an alarm being sounded by someone in the media about science-related topics. If you're like me, and have only a limited time to scan the news, how can you tell what's really going on?

I suffer a double whammy with these news stories. I have little time, but also a very active imagination. The news usually conjures up images of doom and gloom for humankind, our planet or other species. My solution is this column. In the months ahead we will explore the stories of the day in a bit more depth than the headlines that often crowd out the science behind the news.

The Internet is a great medium for debunking opinions of those with a prejudiced slant on information. So we will also try to find some web sites that present an opposing opinion. That may get me in a bit of trouble since there seems to be only one sanctioned and approved opinion on controversial science subjects. But we all know that there is never one answer to anything. Science is about posing a hypothesis and testing it against facts, data and information. Coming to a conclusion from a preconceived position may be popular, but it's not science.

Here are some topics that readily come to mind:

Global Warming - what makes this so hot (excuse the bad humor) is that it pits those with an active view of the world, e.g. we must do this or that to compensate for our industrial activities or the earth will perish, with a passive view of the world, e.g. the earth has been around for billions of years and our minimal activities won't cause any long term harm, relax.

Food and Diet - eat this it's good for you, oops, never mind it's not. It makes your head swim. A lot of money chases these opinions and they proliferate in the media. It's hard to find a topic where the reports and studies are so contradictory.

Species extinction - similar to Global Warming, are we speeding the extinction of a good portion of the species that inhabit the earth by our activities, or are our actions diminimus compared to natural mass extinction, à la the KT event that wiped out most of the life on earth? Remember the spotted owl?

Evolution - this one is really tied up with a great number of things that have very little to do with whether it is a valid theory or not. There's a good dose of religion and politics that color this debate. There are also some raging debates between evolutionists and molecular biologists, some really fun stuff.

Natural Disasters - speaking of the KT event there is the potential at any moment to have a 10 kilometer chunk of rock impact the planet and end life as we know it, whew that's a bit of news. Does it keep you up at night? Or how about the greater and greater concentrates of prescription drugs that are showing up in our drinking water, or the Ebola virus, scary stuff. Irradiation of food, fluoridation of water, antibiotics in cattle, mad cow disease, lead in paint, parts per million, parts per billion, wow, my head is spinning.

Junk Science - popular cures of diseases and health fads fall into the junk science category. There is quite a bit of fuzzy thinking and illogical conclusions here. It is a source of amazement to me what stuff people will accept as real science. Again the problem can be blamed on getting our information second hand or in brief chunks from people not trained in science in the first place.

Cloning of animals, body parts and eventually people. This one again is tied in closely with religion and politics.

So let’s explore these topics together over the months to come. I’ll try to learn with you, gather up some information and scan the Internet to add some meat to the bones of the science topic du jour. I also would love to engage some of you to pass on your opinions and suggestions for topics on to me here at ScienceMaster.

Some Books To Keep You Up

	Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom by Peter William Huber List Price: $16.50 Our Price: $13.20 Paperback - 288 pages Reprint edition (February 1993)		The Triumph of Evolution...And the Failure of Creationism by Niles Eldredge List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $17.47 Hardcover - 224 pages (May 2000)
	Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution by Michael J. Behe List Price: $25.00 Our Price: $17.50 Hardcover - 307 pages (August 1996)		Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets: The Search for the Million Megaton Menace That Threatens Life on Earth by Duncan Steel, Arthur Charles Clarke (Foreword) List Price: $16.95 Our Price: $13.56 Paperback - 320 pages (October 1997)
	The True State of the Planet by Ronald Bailey (Editor), Competitive Enterprise Institute List Price: $15.00 Our Price: $12.00 Paperback - 472 pages (May 1995)		Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World by Bernard Dixon Our Price: $16.95 Paperback Reprint edition (February 1996) lity: Usually ships within 24 hours. Paperback 2nd edition Vol 1 (November 1995)
	Genetically Engineered Foods: Are They Safe? You Decide by Laura Ticciati, Robin Ticciati List Price: $5.95 Our Price: $4.76 Mass Market Paperback - 80 pages (December 1998)		High-Tech Harvest: A Look at Genetically Engineered Foods (Impact Books: Science) by Elizabeth L. Marshall List Price: $24.00 Our Price: $16.80 Reading level: Young Adult School & Library Binding (March 1999)
	Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? by Sheldon Rampton (Contributor), John C. Stauber, List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $17.47 Hardcover - 224 pages 1 Ed edition (September 1997)		Virus Ground Zero: Stalking the Killer Viruses With the Center for Disease Control by Edward Regis, Ed Regis List Price: $14.00 Our Price: $11.20 Paperback - 256 pages Reprint edition (July 1998)
	The Human Cloning Debate by Glenn McGee (Editor) Our Price: $16.95 Paperback - 270 pages (September 1998)		Global Warming: The Complete Briefing by J. T. Houghton List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $19.96 Paperback - 240 pages 2nd edition (December 1997)