ECHOES AND UPDATES

Many thanks to the two readers who gave me clues on the book about tracking German nuclear research during WWII [AtE Oct 92], whose author and title I had forgotten. S A. Goudsmith, Alsos, H. Schuman Publ., New York, 1947; reprinted by Tomash Publishers, Los Angeles, 1983.

The eye of hurricane Andrew went right over the Turkey Point nuclear plant (writes a reader employed there), which was shut down prior to the hurricane's arrival. It did no serious damage other than downing transmission lines, so that off-site power was lost (which happened to all power plants, nuclear or not, in the path of Andrew). For some reason, however, the demineralized (and de-aerated) water storage tank was only partially full, and though not immediately needed, a minimum capacity must be maintained in case of emergency. The truck ordered to bring in new demineralized water was hijacked by City homestead officials, presumably because the Miami Herald reported that hurricane vic-tims had drunk "radioactive water from the Turkey Point Plant."

"Re compact fluorescent light bulbs [AtE Sep 91]: can the phase difference between voltage and current be easily measured, i.e., for high school science fair projects and adult curiosity?"

The clearest way to demonstrate the phase shirt is by a double-beam oscilloscope, obtainable for about $1,000 or less from electronics mail-order businesses (Radio Shack does not sell them). The current is proportional to the voltage across a resis-tance (Y_1 plates), and the voltage across a capacitor or an induc-tance in series (Y_2 plates, common time base on X_1, X2 plates) is 90ø out of phase with it. You can also put the total voltage on the Y_2 plates and using a variable resistance, show the two sine waves moving closer or farther away from each other. It is a good invest-ment for a school because you can perform hundreds of other demonstration experiments with it. If your school cannot afford $1,000, then maybe they have the $400 for a single-beam oscillo-scope. Connecting the two voltages (e.g., resistance and induc-lance) to the X and Y plates respectively, you will get beautiful Lissajou figures, though they are not as easy to understand as two shifted sine waves.

Another subscriber wrote that my comments on DDT [AtE Oct 92] did not persuade his friends because I had not in-cluded any references. That is easily mended: The outstanding book Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns, ed. J.H. Lehr [AtE Aug 92] contains Prof. J. Gordon Edward's enlightening essay on "DDT Effects on Bird Abundance and Reproduction" (p. 195) together with 164 more references. See also T.H. Jukes, "The Tragedy of DDT" on p 217 of the same book, and the review of the book by J. Salmon in the Oct. 1992 Commentary. Prof. J.E. Gordon's essay contains, among other things, the origin of the canard that DDT makes birds' egg shells thinner. A bunch of Green ex-scientists performed a "studyþ in which the birds were fed a calcium-poor diet along with DDT and a calcium-rich diet with "harmless" pesticides. Even the Evergreen Science rejected such junk, which was eventually published in 1970 in the scholarly journal Poultry Digest. The fraud was exposed in several scientific journals, but the media predictably made it a well-kept secret, so that the superstition of DDT thinning egg shells is alive and well among duped suckers to this day.

Reader T.O. of Sweden lent AtE to an unknown reader who wrote back that I am "uninformed, a liar or a fool." As proof he quotes my assertion (actually a table taken from 21^st Century's "The holes in the ozone scare," [AtE Jan 92]) that 650 megatons of chlorine enter the atmosphere naturally, compared to .75 Mt of CFCs. But it is he who cannot even read. I was very careful to precede the table with some warnings, such as, and I quote literal-ly, "The amount [of chlorine] for seawater applies to the entire at-mosphere; only a part of it is raised lo the stratosphere by hurricanes and other mechanisms" [AtE Jan 92, p.4]. He is of course right that the chlorine in CFCs is not soluble in water, whereas most sea water droplets are washed out by rain. However, there is no moisture in the stratosphere, and there is nothing to dissolve the seawater chlorine (separated photochemically just like in CFCs) once it gets there. This process is as old as hurricanes and the oceans, but somehow the human race has survived. Even less controversial are volcano eruptions, which spew millions of tons of chlorine directly into the stratosphere. The sham-environ-mentalists now use the eruption of Mt. Pinotubo as an "excuse" why there is no global warming yet; but volcanoes are far older than man, who has survived some million years without any UV damage from depleted or destroyed ozone layers. On the other hand, if the chlorine from volcanoes (some 48 times more abun-dant than CFC production) does destroy the ozone layer, then in a million years man would have adapted to short wave UV just as he adapted to low-level radioactivity, and that argument alone (if there were not plenty of others) would invalidate Stephen Schneider's blabber. (Or could il be that he is a closet-creationist?)

The (congressional) Office of Technology Assessment has by now reversed its former output of good reports with only oc-casional junk. Its Fueling Development: Energy technology in developing countries (GPO stock no. 052-003-01279-1, $15) had Amory Lovins on its advisory board (Edward Kennedy is per-manently on its congressional board), and its authors, too, jet around the country with a car waiting for them at the airport. Backward countries will be grateful for their advice such as (p. 170) "Bicycles have many advantages. They do not contribute to air pollution, they are much less expensive per unit and they can be produced domestically, providing local employment.... They could relieve pressure on overloaded buses, may delay or offset the transition to private motorized transport, or may supplement motorized transport in areas with appropriate land use planning." Not to mention conservation of energy by environmentalists riding in rickshas. On a related subject, the EPA maintains a fleet of mostly luxury cars for its officials. It averages 6.3 miles per gallon, less than a quarter of federal fuel efficiency standards enforced and promoted by Reillyþs EPA. (Reason Nov. 1992).