WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 25 Sep 09 Washington, DC

1. CELL PHONES: "INCONCLUSIVE" MEANS THEY FOUND NOTHING.
Last week, Senate hearings were held asking whether cell phones cause brain
cancer. Brian Walsh, writing for Time, described the outcome
as "inconclusive." A collective groan rose from the nation’s
physicists. "Not again?" It's been almost 17 years since David Reynard,
whose wife died from brain cancer, was on Larry King Live. Reynard was
suing the cell phone industry.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 18 Sep 09 Washington, DC

1. NORMAN BORLAUG: THE DEATH OF THE GREATEST AMONG US.
He died Saturday at the age of 95. Writing in the Wall Street Journal,
Gregg Easterbrook described him as "the very personification of human
goodness." He was that, but he was also a brilliant scientist and tireless
teacher of poor farmers in distant lands. His own education began in a one-
room schoolhouse in Iowa. His work in agronomy led to the Green Revolution
and saved perhaps 1 billion lives.

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 11 Sep 09   Washington, DC

1. PLACEBOS: WOULD THEY WORK BETTER IF THEY HAD SIDE EFFECTS?
Every doctor seeks to evoke the placebo effect.  They might wear a white
smock with a stethoscope around the neck for a start.  A diploma and
license mounted on the wall further enhances the effect.  The doctor may
say that your condition has been studied, and effective treatment is
available.  "You should feel better in a few days," the doctor says while
writing a prescription.  You feel better before you fill it.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 04 Sep 09 Washington, DC

1. CLIMATE CHANGE: HOTTEST ARCTIC SUMMER IN 2,000 YEARS.
A major study published in today's Science marks a seminal advance in
climate change research. Sediments from Arctic lakes were used to compile
proxy temperature records for the last 2000 years. Arctic summer
temperature declined for thousands of years due to a shift in Earth's
orbit.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 28 Aug 09 Washington, DC

1. WIKIPEDIA: IT’S STILL A BEAUTIFUL IDEA, BUT MAYBE NOT PERFECT.
Let me begin with two observations: 1) people often know a lot about
something, and 2) technology exists that can store and retrieve whatever it
is they know. Eight years ago, a visionary group including Jimmy Wales
and Larry Sanger put 1) and 2) together to make a free encyclopedia. They
called it Wikipedia. Here's the visionary part: It’s not just free
information; anyone is free to edit it.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 21 Aug 09 Washington, DC

1. NIH: TO THOSE WHO HAVE MUCH, MORE SHALL BE GIVEN.
With an annual budget of $30 billion, NIH was already the world's top
funded research agency; now throw in another $10.4 billion from this year's
stimulus package and you should have an organization that can respond to
every challenge. The new director, Francis Collins, outlined his
priorities this week, including health-care reform and the translation of
research into medicine.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 14 Aug 09 Washington, DC

1. HOLY WAR: HAS IT FINALLY COME DOWN TO THIS?
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times ran an opinion piece by Chris Mooney and
Sheril Kirschenbaum with the provocative title, "Must science declare a
holy war on religion?" They contrast the "in your face" style of Richard
Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, to the strategy of the National Center
for Science Education, which simply focuses on getting the facts right in
public science education. I love them both.

Introducing  ITSnewsits [dot] org, the Newsletter and mailing list of the International Thermoelectric Society, your source for official Society announcements and thermoelectric news.

BMW is getting a lot of headlines about putting Thermoelectric Generators in cars.  Rightfully so.  But this headline really caught my attention:

"BMW testing Radioactive Exhaust Energy Generator"

It's not true, of course.  Nobody is putting anything radioactive into cars.