SCIENCE

A series of excellent editorials in Science indicates that something unusually good must be stirring in the inner sanctums of the AAAS.

First, "Risk Assessments of Low-Level Exposures,'' Science 265 (1994) p 1507 by P. H. Abelson endorses both radiological and chemical hormesis and includes the statement that, "The current mode of extrapolating high-dose to low-dose effects is erroneous for both chemicals and radiation. The public has been needlessly frightened and deceived, and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted.''

Second, "Chlorine and Organochlorine Compounds,'' Science 265 (1994) p 1155 by P. H. Abelson summarizes factual arguments against the enviro attack on chlorine and ends with the statement that, "There is reason to hope that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) will not continue to act like a tool of Greenpeace. A plethora of EPA regulations and unfunded mandates coupled with examples of brutality in enforcing them has cost the EPA support in Congress.''

Third, "Magnetic Energy Storage,'' Science 266 (1994) p 11 by P. H. Abelson endorses superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) as currently being supplied in small, cost-effective units built by American free enterprise. The summarizing statement that "Eventually a substantial demand will arise for intermediate-size SMES devices'' doesn't even hint at non-free-enterprise, tax-financed SMES.

Fourth, "The Time Traveler,'' Science 265 (1994) p 1639 by D. E. Koshland ridicules anti-technology enviroism and government entitlement programs with the fool of the piece suggesting corrective drugs for "people who get hooked on facts.''

Either Abelson and Koshland are both getting ready to retire, or else their recent writings portend good news for American science.