3494 Why we need dissenters in science

Global-warming predictions are currently hampered by uncertainties about the amount of heat and carbon dioxide that the southern ocean will take up according to a report in the Journal of Climate, v. 19, 2006:6382-6390. A computer model developed by Joellen Russell of the University of Arizona in Tucson suggests that the ocean will be able to absorb more than previously thought. How much more? No way to know, plus she has to bow before the warming throne to even get this much research published.

And they've decided upon analyzing 580 million years old rock* that oxygen entered the deep oceans at the end of an ice age known as the Gaskiers glaciation. Fossil evidence indicates that large multicellular organisms appeared on the sea floor shortly after (i.e., 5 million years). End of an ice age? This was apparently some time before the industrial revolution and humankind messing everything up. Science: Vol. 314. no. 5805, p. 1529

Egyptologists have been arguing with materials scientists for about 20 years on whether the pyramids have blocks made up of a synthetic mix like concrete. Fifteen samples scanned by electron microscopes show calcium and magnesium which do not exist in nearby limestone. See? Scientists don't agree on a lot of things. The limestone guys probably are trying to shut down the synthetic mix guys with threats of "denial" charges. Journal of American Ceramics Society v.89, 2006:3788-3796.

Battle of the biofuels is heating up. Follow the money. Prairie grass will mop up more carbon than it produces, dwarfing the amount of carbon dioxide released during production and combustion. Look out corn and soybean growers. I still think the inputs will cost more than any benefit we get from this, so we REALLY need to encourage dissension in this field.

A 60 year old Somalian woman has had her IUD removed in Seattle. She continued to have children after it was inserted and (it) migrated after perforating her uterus. Seems they do that about 1-2 cases per 1000 insertions. Would you fly if 1-2 out of every 1000 jets disappeared? New England Journal of Medicine 356(2007);4:397

*I personally don't believe the earth is that old, but I can read and report it without having my mind all bent out of shape like the evolution people.