Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest, May 9, 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.



 --ASSOC. PRESS: Celestial Alignment, Free of Calamity
 --WASH. POST: Findings of Fact, A Reality Check on Product Claims
 --WASH. POST: AIDS Declared Threat to National Security
 --NPR SCIENCE FRIDAY: Cosmology Update/Clinical Trials for New Medicines


 ASSOC. PRESS: CELESTIAL ALIGNMENT, FREE OF CALAMITY

 May 7, 2000

 [LOS ANGELES, May 6 -- An alignment of the Sun, the Moon and the five
 brightest planets with the Earth has arrived without the disasters predicted
 by some doomsayers. The tightest alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,
 Saturn and the Moon -- as seen from Earth -- since 1962 took place at 1:08
 a.m. on Friday, said Jane Platt, a spokeswoman for NASA's Jet Propulsion
 Laboratory in Pasadena.... Various planetary alignments occur about every 20
 years, and no special astronomical observations were made on Friday, Ms.
 Platt said, adding, "For astronomers, it's just another day."....]

 For more information, read "Doomsday: The May 2000 Prediction,"
 Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1988.  For the full text of the article, go to
 http://www.csicop.org/si/8804/doomsday.html .  Past articles or issues of
 Skeptical Inquirer can be ordered by calling 1800-634-1610.


 WASHINGTON POST: FINDINGS OF FACT--A REALITY CHECK ON PRODUCT CLAIMS
 By Keith Epstein
 Special to The Washington Post
 Tuesday, May 2, 2000; Page Z08
 For the full article, go to:
 http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50901-2000May1.html

 Is a 5,000-year-old Chinese remedy for asthma and flu, now the most popular
 herbal weight-loss dietary supplement in the United States, a safe and
 effective shortcut for thinning down and boosting energy? Or is it a
 dangerous and powerful drug whose potential for causing serious illness or
 even death makes it deserving of restrictions in several states and
 attempted regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration?

 WASHINGTON POST: AIDS DECLARED THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

 By Barton Gellman
 Washington Post Staff Writer
 Sunday, April 30, 2000; Page A01

 For the full article, go to
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40503-2000Apr29.html .

 Convinced that the global spread of AIDS is reaching catastrophic
 dimensions, the Clinton administration has formally designated the disease
 for the first time as a threat to U.S. national security that could topple
 foreign governments, touch off ethnic wars and undo decades of work in
 building free-market democracies abroad.

 NPR SCIENCE FRIDAY: COSMOLOGY UPDATE/ CLINICAL TRIALS FOR NEW MEDICINES

 May 5, 2000
 TALK OF THE NATION
 (14.4 | 28.8)
 (entire program)


 To listen to the program in RealAudio, go to
 http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=05/05/2000&PrgID=5

 HOST: Ira Flatow


 HOUR ONE: Cosmology Update / Gravitational Constant
 (14.4 | 28.8)
 Guests:

 John Ruhl
 Member, Boomerang Team
 Professor, Physics
 University of California
 Santa Barbara, California

 Alan Guth
 Author, The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic
 Origins (Perseus Press, 1998)
 V F Weisskopf Professor Of Physics
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Cambridge, Massachusetts

 Jens Gundlach
 Research Associate Physics Professor
 University of Washington
 Seattle, Washington

 Last week, cosmologists got a look at pictures of the universe back before
 there were galaxies, or even stars. Those images may provide key information
 about some of the most fundamental questions of the universe. In this hour,
 we'll talk about how scientists obtained those images, and what they might
 mean. We'll also speak with a researcher who believes he has a more accurate
 way of determining the gravitational constant--which leads to a different
 mass for the earth.


 HOUR TWO: Developing New Medicines/Clinical Trials
 (14.4 | 28.8)
 Guests:

 Dr. Gillian R. Woollett
 Associate Vice President for Biologics and Biotechnology
 PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
 Washington, DC

 Robert Finn
 Author, Cancer Clinical Trials: Experimental Treatments and How They Can
 Help You (O'Reilly & Associates, 1999)
 Freelance Science and Medical Journalist
 Half Moon Bay, California

 Dr. Joseph Betz
 Pharmacognosist
 American Herbal Products Association
 Silver Spring, Maryland

 It takes about 15 years and 500 million dollars worth of research for a
 single new medicine to make it from its original discovery to FDA approval
 to your local pharmacist. In this "drug pipeline," ten thousand drugs fail
 for every one that makes it through the rigorous testing required to make
 sure it's safe and effective. And although herbal medicines have escaped
 these tough requirements, that may be changing. In this hour, we'll talk
 about how new medicines are discovered, developed, and tested. Plus, testing
 new medicines in humans.

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

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