“Screw immortality!”—said the man in the funny hat

ON FRIDAYS, physicist Robert L. Park of the U of Maryland puts out a terrific little science news bulletin called What’s New. Today’s issue is especially good:

1. [PRESIDENTIAL] SCIENCE DEBATE 2008: CAN WE TALK ABOUT ISSUES NOW?

The U.S. blocks climate agreement in Bali; American children trail the industrialized world in math; stem cell researchers are preoccupied with getting around the embryonic stem cell ban; the green revolution is diverted to feed SUVs instead of people; creationists are conspiring to get God back in the classroom; and our space program is reduced to pointless media spectaculars.

Instead of candidates debating who loves Jesus most, Lawrence Krauss and Chris Mooney propose that science be the subject of a debate. An impressive group of science leaders has already signed on [to A call for a presidential debate on science technology]. It deserves the support of every scientist and every science organization.

2. ENERGY BILL: SENATE DEMOCRATS CAPITULATE

As oil lobbyists mounted a full-scale assault on Capitol Hill, the Senate yesterday passed a diluted energy bill that significantly raised fuel-economy standards, but omitted a tax on oil companies. The bill also dropped requirements that utilities generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources….

3. POPE BENEDICT XVI: A HINT OF ENLIGHTENMENT?

Under Pope John Paul II, from whom so much was expected, there was little progress. However, in his second encyclical letter to the faithful last week, [entitled] "On Christian Hope," Pope Benedict XVI, reveals an unexpected side. … About "eternal life" he now asks: "Do we really want this—to live eternally? It appears more like a curse than a gift." Elsewhere he finds: "The atheism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is—in its origins and aims—a type of moralism: a protest against the injustices of the world and of world history."

4. BIRTH CONTROL: FINDING THE COMMON DENOMINATOR

…The Church remains a powerful force in opposing birth control, although we note with some glee that the population growth rate in Vatican City is zero, as it is over most of Europe. The rate is highest in poor countries, leading many to argue that the solution to the population problem is prosperity—but in some very rich oil countries, such as Saudi Arabia, the growth rate is quite high.

It’s not prosperity that keeps population growth down; it’s the freedom of women to achieve their potential—and prosperity follows.