Today, we watch as conspiracy theories realign
themselves. The University of Houston's College of
Engineering presents this series about the machines
that make our civilization run, and the people
whose ingenuity created them.
These are fascinating times.
While the media provide an ample supply of
conspiratorial interpretations of the natural
world, levelheaded people try to separate the few
real cover-ups from a sea of contenders. July 1997
has provided a lot of information that'll force us
to alter our thinking about such mischief.
For example: The Air Force recently revealed that
the aliens whom people saw near Roswell, New
Mexico, fifty years ago were actually dummies used
in an experiment. That won't satisfy people
committed to a conspiracy theory. But it makes a
far more plausible picture than Air Force personnel
doing lab tests on extra-terrestrials.
And that plays against the backdrop of a small Mars
lander beaming back evidence consistent with the
suspicion that Mars once sustained life -- and
might still do so. By July's end, our questions
about alien life won't be erased, but they will be
changed.
Back here on Earth, the National Cancer Institute
and the University of Minnesota have just released
a new report on the non-effects of low-frequency
electromagnetic fields. For years we've heard
claims that fields generated by power lines (both
in and outside our homes) are causing childhood
leukemia. No compelling evidence has supported the
idea, yet it has lingered. Now a
five-million-dollar study convincingly shows no
connection.
I'll be curious to see how cover-up accusations
shift in the wake of this new evidence. A few
people will choose not to be convinced. And many,
on both sides of the issue, will see the study as
wasted money. But the conspiracy claims will shift
in its wake.
Then there's the enigma of the Neanderthals --
those heavy-browed, intelligent, and communal
toolmakers. A group of scientists in Munich has
just isolated Neanderthal DNA. It's different
enough from ours to suggest that Neanderthals split
off from our common ancestor a half-million years
ago -- long before our subspecies appeared. For
biblical literalists, that enforces the idea that
modern humans were a separate creation. Racists are
bothered by the way it vectors all human evolution
back into Africa.
And so the data pour in this summer. Conspiracies
and cover-ups occur just often enough to leave us
all suspicious on some level. The government really
did let Black patients die untreated in the
Tuskegee syphilis experiments. Big tobacco really
has set out to addict our children.
But this new bumper crop of information is
reshuffling the deck. With each new piece of hard
data, we have to spin new yarns and seek out new
fears. We have to rewrite our fringe beliefs and
our superstitions. And, make no mistake, we all
have superstitions. It's worth the trouble to look
coolly and analytically at cover-up theories. We
need to find that subtle point where our own
thinking takes leave of empirical reality.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds
work.
(Theme music)
Kahn, P., and Gibbons, A., DNA from an Extinct Human.
Science, Vol. 277, 11 July, 1997, pp.
176-178.
Kerr, R. A., Pathfinder Strikes a Rocky Bonanza.
Science, Vol. 277, 11 July, 1997, pp.
173-174.
Taubes, G., Magnetic Field-Cancer Link: Will It
Rest in Peace. Science, Vol. 277, 4
July, 1997, p. 2.
Much of this episode arises out of conversations
about his Web home page with local
junior-high-school student Shamsundar Dileep. See:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/7670
The Engines of Our Ingenuity is
Copyright © 1988-1997 by John H.
Lienhard.
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