News and Comment

News and Comment Fifth European ogy; Noah's flood; a report on para- Skeptic's Conference: normal research projects conducted by university students; and the subject Mars in Amsterdam that seemed to promote the great- est level of interest—the continu- ing debate over the so-called Mars here do you think you would effect of Franchise and Michel be if you heard these state- Gauquelin. Wments voiced in normal con- The Guaquelins have claimed that versation? their research shows a correlation be- "Skepticism is an attempt to bring tween the birth of sports champions science back to the general public." and the position of the planet Mars. "It is immoral to sell illusions as In the Saturday morning session three truth." Dutch researchers offered alternative "People need psychological place- explanations for the effect. For exam- bos—I will leave it at that if I don't ple, Cornelis de Jager, of the Labor- have a better alternative." atory for Space Research at the Uni- If you had guessed it would be a versity of Utrecht, said: "The Gau- meeting of skeptics, you'd be right. quelin/Ertel effect is not necessarily The venue for these statements physically related to the position of was the fifth meeting of European Mars but may be caused by the fact skeptics groups (or EuroSkeptics), that the birth of eminent sportsmen held October 4-5, 1991, at the Park does show an annual or daily varia- Hotel in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. tion." And the Dutch science journal- The meeting was organized by the ist C. E. Koppeschaar stated: "Gau- Dutch skeptics group, Stichting Skep- quelin found a correlation between sis. The conference brought together the birth of sports champions and the more than a hundred participants position of Mars in certain sectors of from Europe and the United States. the sky. Similar correlations were Previous meetings have been held in found for other professions. We show France, the United Kingdom, Ger- that these are most likely spurious many, and Belgium. effects. A thorough analysis of Gau- A wide variety of topics was dis- quelin's data reveals annual and cussed by the 16 scheduled speakers diurnal birth rates which are clearly during this two-day event, including: related to photoperiodicity." Franchise understanding the paranormal; quan- Gauquelin and Suitbert Ertel, profes- tum mechanics; alternative medicine; sor of psychology at the University of state interference in paranormal Gottingen, presented rebuttals to the practices; science in daily life; crop skeptics. Gauquelin began by stating circles; placebo effects and practi- that she was not an astrologer, and tioners; dowsing claims; parapsychol- "I am not in favor of astrology at all." 120 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 16 r^ • C2IJI 1 * Suitbert Ertel, Francoise G a u q u e l i n , Claude Benski, and Paul Kurtz discuss the "Mars effect between conference sessions. (Photo by Barry Karr) She maintained that during their ticular Jan Willem Nienhuys, Dick research the Gauquelins had taken Zeilstra, and Cornells de Jager, are to into account the objections raised by be congratulated for this year's very the Dutch researchers. She expressed successful meeting. an interest in working in cooperation While in Europe, I visited Hungary with the Dutch and others to see and met with physicist Gyula Bencze, whether "there is an effect or not." Gyula Staar, editor of the Science Paul Kurtz, who read a paper at Society's Termeszet Vilaga, and other the conference, said that efforts Hungarian scientists, including Janos should be made to independently Szentagothai, former president of the replicate Gauquelin's findings. Academy of Sciences and now a As with all conferences some of the Member of Parliament, who was one best moments occurred outside of the of the 186 scientists who signed the formal sessions. During one such "Objections to Astrology" document break, leaders from several of the that sparked the formation of national skeptics groups met in the CSICOP. lobby of the Park Hotel to discuss At our meeting, these scientists possible locations for future meetings. planned the formation of a committee What was striking was the enthusiasm in Hungary that would cooperate with exhibited by the groups to bring the CSICOP and other skeptics groups. next conference to their own country. Their first project will be to draft an At the EuroSkeptics meeting in Bel- open letter to newspapers in Hungary gium in 1990, the Italian group, explaining why they feel such a CICAP, made a formal request to host committee is needed and stressing the the 1992 European conference. This importance of defending science year in Amsterdam, the offer was against pseudoscience. Articles from voted upon and accepted. For 1993 a the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER have already joint proposal was offered by the begun to appear in Termeszet Vilager. Wessex Skeptics and the London Stu- dent Skeptics of the United Kingdom. —Barry Karr The Stichting Skepsis, and in par- CSICOP Executive Director Winter 1992 121 The author claims that there's an important lesson here—if a soil is Cold Fusion deficient in an essential element like calcium, we shouldn't just top it up Chicken & from a handy fertilizer bag, but instead should "balance" all the other nutrients in the soil, because soil n Growing Today (1990:21-22), a microbes can then use them to make widely read farming magazine in the missing elements. Are you short New Zealand, readers are told that of potassium in your organic garden? I Not to worry—soil microbes will make a "French scientist" named Kevran has discovered that a newly hatched chick up the deficit by combining sodium has four times more calcium in its and oxygen, or by stripping hydrogen skeleton than the egg did when laid, from calcium. and the extra calcium does not come from the eggshell. Moreover, Kevran This, maybe, is how soil microbes, found that experimental chickens and some plants, can enrich poor somehow off-load four times as much soils with nutrients and why rota- calcium in their eggs and droppings tion and companion crops work so as they get from their feed, and the well. Kevran believes micro- organisms are of the utmost impor- extra does not come from their tance in correcting soil imbalances, skeletons. while overuse of synthetic NKP Where does it come from, then? fertilisers leads to imbalances and We're told that if the chickens are unhealthy crops. given some extra potassium, they can make the missing calcium by "combin- If the author is right, what a ing" hydrogen with the potassium. For breakthrough!—even a desperately readers who wonder how they go infertile soil could be goosed into about doing that, the author explains. yielding magnificent harvests just by inoculating it with microbes that have A bit of atomic chemistry is helpful. a flair for adding up atomic numbers. It is the atomic nuclei, rather than But, before we accept cold-fusion the outer electrons, that alter. The chickens, eggs, and compost as fact, nuclei of elements other than hy- well need far more convincing evi- drogen contain both neutrons and dence, because the notion contradicts protons. The number of protons is some long-held scientific ideas. called the atomic number of the element, and written as a small Modern atomic theory pictures an number to the lower left of the atom as a central nucleus surrounded element. For example, potassium by electrons. When atoms react chem- has an atomic number of 19 (19K), ically the outcome depends on how hydrogen is 1 (1H) and calcium is their outermost electrons interact 20 (20Ca). If you take a potassium (Atkins 1987:3-6). Chemical reactions atom and add a hydrogen atom, you cannot create or destroy atoms— get a calcium atom (19K + 1H = 20Ca). rather, they can only rearrange exist- Calcium can also be formed by ing atoms into new molecules. How- adding oxygen to magnesium (12Mg ever, the author is describing nuclear + s O = 20Ca) or by adding carbon to reactions like fusion (when nuclei silica (14Si + 6C = 20Ca). Or you can remove hydrogen from calcium to combine) and fission (when a nucleus get potassium, or combine sodium breaks up). Bad luck, we now know and oxygen (nNa + a O = 19K). enough about nuclear reactions to be 122 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 16 confident that they don't occur in that the chicks developing inside them chickens and eggs: (l) fusion requires are busily making their calcium by too high a start-up temperature, and fusing oxygen and magnesium. (2) both fusion and fission release such There's another reason for doubt- prodigious amounts of energy that ing that chickens are cold-fusing vital we'd surely notice them. elements like calcium and potassium: 1. As far as we know, nuclear What's to stop them from going fusion reactions will start up only at further and fusing up some really temperatures of millions of degrees exotic elements, like gold and silver, Celsius—that's why fusion at room for example? After all, to make gold temperature has been dubbed cold they'd only have to fuse three calcium fusion. Such unimaginable heat is atoms and one potassium atom, and found under only extreme conditions they'd get silver just by fusing two like those found inside stars, thermo- atoms of calcium and one of potas- nuclear explosions, and plasmas. To sium. Surely by chance alone at least make calcium and other elements by a few of the millions of chickens that fusion without vaporizing themselves, have ever lived would have pulled off chicken eggs would have to do what that stunt by now, and somebody cold-fusion researchers have not done would have noticed, especially during yet, lower the ignition temperature of the centuries when alchemists were fusion to no more than body-heat.

Load more