GOOD READING

"Cargo Cult Science'' by Richard P. Feynman, Engineering and Science, June 1974, pp 10-13, available from Engineering and Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.

We based an Access to Energy editorial on this but did not give the reference. This was the Caltech commencement address of 1974 and is a superb discussion of the distinction between science and pseudo -science - a distinction much more relevant today than in 1974.
"Maverick Mark Twain's Exhilarating American Individualism'' by Jim Powell, The Freeman, November 1995, pp 728-733, available from The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 30 South Broadway, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533.
"A Home Cure for School-Induced Funk'' by Sarah B. Miller in The Wall Street Journal for Wednesday, December 13, 1995, p A14. Home schooling is spreading throughout the United States in all divisions of society and at remarkable speed. This phenomenon, coupled with the decentralization made possible by computers and digital communications, is solving the problem of our dying socialist schools - by creating a marvelous and superior new educational system.
"Complex Questions: The New Science of Spontaneous Order'' by William Tucker, Reason, January 1996, pp 34-38. Although the philosophical implications of this subject are an intellectual mine field, the science is especially important as refutation of the utter nonsense published by Jeremy Rifkin and others claiming that the earth and universe are running down - citing the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

The Second Law, which deals with entropy, is entirely inapplicable to a nonequilibrium, open system such as the earth. It is also inapplicable to the universe, which is not at equilibrium and may also (not now known) be an open system, too.
"Laser Is a Guiding Light for Atoms'' by Robert F. Service, Science 270, p 914 (1995), describing a new technique for channeling a beam of atoms through a hollow optical fiber. By tuning the laser just below a resonant frequency of the atoms and directing the laser down the hollow fiber, the atomic beam can be made to follow the loops of the fiber. Moreover, the device acts as an atomic filter, since only those atoms of the appropriate resonant frequency follow the path.
"Use of Therapeutic Radionuclides in Medicine'' by P. J. Early and E. R. Landa, Health Physics 69, pp 677-694 - especially the short section about Marie Curie. This issue of Health Physics is devoted to papers about the history of medical uses of radiation and is good reading in its entirety.
"'Nanotechnology' Promises Endless Abundance - Courtesy of Molecule-Manipulating Robots. Is That Nuts? And Do We Want It?'' by Ed Regis, Reason, December 1995, pp 28-34.
It is not nuts, and we definitely do.

•	A Double Honor
•	CARBON 14
•	ATMOSPHERIC CARBON 14
•	ENVIRONMENTAL CARBON 14
•	THE PRICE OF POWER
•	STARK RAVING MAD
•	*GOOD READING*

Vol. 23, No. 5

Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
Volume: Issues
Issue/No.: Vol. 23, No. 5

Date: January 01, 1996 01:45 PM
Title: A Double Honor