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...Still, to make any real discoveries, Kepler will have to look at a lot of lights on a lot of porches. With perhaps 70 sextillion stars in the universe (that's 7 followed by 22 zeros), the spacecraft can't possibly survey them all. Instead, it will sample about 100,000 in a region of our solar system known as Cygnus-Lyra. That spot was chosen both because it's rich in stars and because it lies above our own orbital plane. Kepler - which will be launched into not an Earth orbit but a solar orbit - can thus simply train...
...unblinking look at Cygnus-Lyra is important because even if Kepler were to detect any telltale fluctuations in stellar light, that wouldn't be proof of a planet. The telescope would have to keep looking and see if the flickering is repeated roughly once a year, or about the time it would take an Earth-like planet to circle around its star and pass in front again. Record three or four such passes, and you can be pretty sure you've got a planet - hence the 3½-year mission...
...Washington is sure to keep an eye on the brouhaha, and the states may take a look too - as Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick did last August when he signed a law banning certain types of gifts to doctors and requiring the industry to disclose any others over $50 in value. Harvard has convened a 19-member committee made up of representatives of its medical school, affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes, and the student body to review its pharma policy, though the university is hedging on whether it actually plans to change the way it operates. "We cannot speculate...
...describing himself as "greatly disturbed" by the reports and accusing Pfizer of trying to "intimidate young scholars." Grassley cited the 149 Harvard professors or instructors who have received payments or benefits from Pfizer specifically and demanded a detailed accounting of all of them. He closed with a terse "I look forward to hearing from you by no later than March 10, 2009." Pfizer has pledged to cooperate. (Read "The Year in Medicine 2008: From...
...outrage comes easily for Grassley and the students - and when it comes to doctors and professors accepting what look like legal bribes or drug companies strong-arming protesters, it should. But there are some gray areas. Medical-school professors get their jobs in the first place because they know their fields. Forbid such educated people to consult with the companies that develop new medicines and you cut off a valuable source of knowledge. What's more, pharma's largesse also flows to the schools themselves in the form of multimillion-dollar endowments. Whether or not the companies are trying...