Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

 Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest, April 8, 2000

 Visit the CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer Magazine website at
 http://www.csicop.org. Receiving over 200,000 hits per year, the CSICOP site
 was rated one of the top ten science sites by HOMEPC magazine. Send comments
 regarding SI DIGEST to editors Matt Nisbet at mcn23@cornell.edu and Barry
 Karr at skeptinq@aol.com.

 In this week's SI DIGEST:

 -CHIC. SUN-TIMES: Art Bell to Quit Radio Show
 -LA TIMES: Celera First with Human Genome Code
 -NY TIMES: Experts Urge Caution on GM PLants
 -NRC PRESS RELEASE: Report on GM Plant Regulation
 -ASSOC. PRESS: Sharks Do Get Cancer
 -NPR SCIENCE FRIDAY: NASA Trouble
 -NPR ALL THINGS CONSIDERED: Heisenberg and the A-Bomb

 --CHIC. SUN-TIMES: ART BELL TO QUIT RADIO SHOW

 April 2, 2000

 For the full article, go to http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/bell02.html

 [Bell, whose "Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell" is America's most popular
 overnight radio program, made the announcement to his estimated 15 million
 listeners. "For myself, an ordeal looms ahead to clear my good name of
 accusations I committed a crime, committed against my own son," Bell said.
 Bell said his son Art Bell IV was kidnapped and raped in 1997 by a
 substitute high school teacher who was infected with the AIDS virus. The boy
 was 16 at the time. The teacher, Brian Lepley, was sentenced in May 1998 to
 life in prison. "The reality that, after suffering the fate of my son's own
 molestation, I now stand destined to be tainted for life as a child
 molester, has proven simply too much to bear," the Nevada-based broadcaster
 said. "God knows, I have tried." His last broadcast will be April 26, and
 his retirement will be permanent, Bell said. Bell's program, heard on more
 than 400 stations nationwide, deals with topics ranging from space aliens to
 FBI and CIA conspiracies. The program will continue with a new host, said
 Premiere Radio Network Inc., which syndicates "Coast to Coast."...]


 --LA TIMES: CELERA FIRST WITH HUMAN GENOME CODE

 For the full article, go to
 http://www.latimes.com/news/science/science/20000407/t000032644.html

 Science: Biotech company says it has deciphered DNA of a volunteer,
 completing initial step in mapping genetic material.


 By PAUL JACOBS, PETER G. GOSSELIN, Times Staff Writers

 [A biotech company announced Thursday that it has deciphered the genome of a
 human volunteer, claiming a scientific first that was greeted by both praise
 and skepticism from academic scientists who point out that the job remains
 unfinished. Celera Genomics, in a race with a public effort to map the human
 genetic code, said it has decoded millions of DNA fragments extracted from
 an anonymous person--the first phase of its effort to put together a
 so-called working draft of the genome. Celera President J. Craig Venter said
 it will take an additional three to six weeks for his team to assemble the
 pieces for a complete genetic blueprint. If so, the company is slightly
 ahead of its competition, the publicly funded Human Genome Project. The
 company's achievement is akin to taking millions of random satellite
 photographs of small sections of North America. The next step is assembling
 them into a complete map....]


 --NY TIMES: EXPERTS URGE CAUTION ON GM PLANTS


 April 6, 2000
 By Carol Kaesuk Yoon and Melody Petersen

 For the full article, go to:
 http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/040600sci-gm-crops.html

 [Saying that genetically engineered crops have the potential to pose food
 safety risks and harm the environment, the National Academy of Sciences
 yesterday cautiously endorsed the safety of biotech foods now on the market
 but called for stronger regulation of the novel plants. The academy focused
 only on plants that have been genetically engineered to produce their own
 pesticides. The report emphasized that there was no evidence that any foods
 on supermarket shelves made from those plants were unsafe to eat. The report
 also said the process of inserting genes from one species into another was
 not inherently dangerous....]

 NAT. RESEARCH COUNCIL RELEASE: REPORT ON GM CROPS REGULATION

 For the full release, go to:
 http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/(ByDocID)/0E189984C124697A852568B
 8004F17B7?OpenDocument

 Date: April 5, 2000
 Contacts: Bill Kearney, Media Relations Associate
 Megan O'Neill, Media Relations Assistant
 (202) 334-2138; e-mail <news@nas.edu>


 U.S. Regulatory System Needs Adjustment
 As Volume and Mix of Transgenic Plants Increase in Marketplace

 [WASHINGTON -- Even given the strengths of the U.S. system governing
 transgenic plants, regulatory agencies should do a better job of
 coordinating their work and expanding public access to the process as the
 volume and mix of these types of plants on the market increase, says a new
 report from the National Academies' National Research Council. The committee
 that wrote the report emphasized it was not aware of any evidence suggesting
 foods on the market today are unsafe to eat as a result of genetic
 modification. And it said that no strict distinction exists between the
 health and environmental risks posed by plants genetically engineered
 through modern molecular techniques and those modified by conventional
 breeding practices. The committee called on the U.S. Environmental
 Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Food and
 Drug Administration (FDA) to quickly come to an agreement on each agency's
 role in regulating plants that have been genetically modified to resist
 pests. It also said that any new rules should be flexible so they can easily
 be updated to reflect improved scientific understanding. "Public acceptance
 of these foods ultimately depends on the credibility of the testing and
 regulatory process," said committee chair Perry Adkisson, chancellor
 emeritus and distinguished professor emeritus, Texas A&M University, College
 Station. "The federal agencies responsible for regulating transgenic plants
 have generally done a good job, but given the current level of public
 concern and following our review of the data, it is the committee's
 beliefthat the agencies must bolster the mechanisms they use to protect
 human health and the environment. However, I must also emphasize that we
 believe it is the properties of a genetically modified plant -- not the
 process by which it was produced -- that should be the focus of risk
 assessments."...]


 --ASSOCIATED PRESS: SHARKS DO GET CANCER

 Updated 1:11 AM ET April 6, 2000
 By DANIEL Q. HANEY, AP Medical Editor

 For the full article, go to:
 http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000406/01/cancer-sharks

 [SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Researchers announced this week that sharks do get
 cancer, a discovery that could threaten a small industry based on the belief
 that shark cartilage contains a cancer-fighting substance. John C.
 Harshbarger, who heads the federally sponsored Registry of Tumors in Lower
 Animals, described 40 cases of tumors that have been found in sharks and
 their close cousins, the skates, rays and chimerids. Harshbarger, of George
 Washington University, presented the data Wednesday at a meeting in San
 Francisco of the American Association for Cancer Research. He said that most
 of the cases have long been known to scientists, although he added two new
 ones - kidney cancer in a dogfish shark and lymphoma blood cancer in a
 sandbar shark....]


 --NPR SCIENCE FRIDAY: NASA TROUBLE

 March 31, 2000

 To listen to the full audio, go to
 http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=03/29/2000&PrgID=5 .


 HOST: Ira Flatow

 To listen to the full audio of the program, go to
 http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=03/31/2000&PrgID=5

 HOUR ONE: NASA Trouble
 (14.4 | 28.8)
 Guests:

 Henry McDonald
 Director
 NASA Ames Research Center
 Moffet Field, California

 Edward Stone
 Director
 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 California Institute of Technology
 Pasadena, California

 Thomas Young
 Chairman, Mars Program Independent Assessment Team
 Executive Vice President, Lockheed Martin Corporation (retired)
 Gaithersburg, Maryland

 Joseph Rothenberg
 Associate Administrator, Office of Space Flight
 NASA
 Washington, DC

 James Schefter
 Contributing Editor
 Popular Science
 Author, "The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat Russia to the
 Moon" (Doubleday, 1999)
 Park City, Utah

 This week, NASA announced major changes to its Mars program in light of a
 new report that blames recent mission failures on poor management. In this
 hour, we'll talk about NASA's "better, faster, cheaper" philosophy and what
 the changes might mean for the future of space exploration.


 --NPR ALL THINGS CONSIDERED: HEISENBERG AND THE A-BOMB

 HOUR TWO: Heisenberg, Nazi Germany and the A-Bomb
 (14.4 | 28.8)
 GUESTS:

 THOMAS POWERS


 Author of Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb (Knopf,
 1993)

 JEREMY BERNSTEIN

 Professor Emeritus of Physics at Stevens Institute of Techology in Hoboken,
 NJ

 Author of Hitlers Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall (American
 Institute of Physics, 1996)

 Saw nuclear explosions in Nevada the summer 1957 full hour phoner from his
 home in Aspen,Colorado

 Werner Heisenberg was Germany's leading physicist during World War II and
 won the Nobel Prize in 1932 for his work on quantum mechanics. He also
 headed up
 Nazi Germany's nuclear research program. Heisenberg maintained until his
 death that there was never a danger of a German atomic bomb because he and
 his fellow scientists never were interested in building such a weapon.
 Heisenberg's detractors say Germany's failure to develop a bomb was because
 of scientific
 shortcomings rather than any moral decision on Heisenberg's part. More than
 fifty years later, questions still remain about what Heisenberg was up to
 during the war.

 --------------------------------

 SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
 the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)

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