Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1979-04-29

              7 1 si Year No. !." ('. nul Wnn'tul h's Siimlay. itril 2' K lt7, f 5 Sections 0 lt' ." i." Viti
Imsifffoi;
Astronomer
skeptical
of alien life
By Malcolm W. Browne
New York Times
NEW YORK A standing scientific
assumption that the universe abounds
with advanced, human- lik- e
civilizations is encountering a
challenge from a small but growing
number of astronomers.
While most scientists continue to
believe that extraterrestrial in-telligence
must be common in a cosmos
filled with trillions and trillions of stars,
dissenters increasingly are calling this
assumption into question. In fact, they
say, it is quite possible that our earthly
civilization is the only one of its kind.
A particularly strong attack on the
established view of a populous universe
has come from an American
astronomer in the form of articles
published by the specialist journal
Icarus and a British quarterly. The
Journal of the Royal Astronomical
Society.
The astronomer, Michael H. Hart of
Trinity University in San Antonio,
Texas, has completed a computer
analysis of hypothetical planets,
sketching in the features they would
seem to require to produce advanced
civilizations like our own. His con-clusion
is that, far from being common,
civilized life must be exceedingly rare
and the civilization that we have on
Earth may even be unique.
" The exobiologists and other
believers in advanced extraterrestrial
civilizations have estimated the
number of those civilizations at
anything between 50,000 to 1 billion or
more," Hart said in an interview. " This
study shows that such theoretical
estimates are 100 times to 1,000 times
toohign."
Two basic planetary conditions are
assumed to be necessary for the
creation of life and the evolution of an
advanced civilization, he said.
The first condition is that prevailing
temperatures must be moderate, and
the second is that they must remain so
continuously for at least 3.7 billion
years the time that elapsed on Earth
between the origin of life and the
present level of evolution.
" My computer simulation varied the
brightness of hypothetical stars and
varied the distance of hypothetical
planets orbiting them," Hart said.
" From this, calculations showed the
proportion of planets that would fall
within the continuously habitable zones
required to produce life and let it evolve
to an advanced civilization. The con-clusion
of the study was that existing
estimates of the number of planets that
could produce advanced civilizations
would have to be reduced by a factor of
between 100 and 1,000. In fact, I think
ours is the only advanced civilization in
the universe and almost certainly the
only one in our galaxy."
In his earlier computer studies. Hart
concluded that our Earth just barely
made it as a cradle for life. At a
distance of 93 million miles ( 148.8
million kilometers) from the sun,
earthly temperatures have supported
life. But if our Earth had been slung
into an orbit only 5 percent closer to the
sun, a runaway greenhouse effect
would have turned the planet into
something like Venus a cloud- shroud- ed
planet with a surface tem-perature
close to 900 F ( 482 C).
If, on the other hand, we had been
only 1 percent farther from the sun
( See HART, Page 12A)
Petition leaders say home rule
would streamline bureaucracy
By Delia Fichtel
and Harry Papineau
Missourian staff writers
The following is the first in a series of
articles about home rule in Boone
County.
A picnic this afternoon that was
planned as a celebration of the end of
the home- rul- e petition drive may turn
out to be just another stepping stone
in the League of Women Voters' ef-fort
to bring charter government to
Boone County.
Leaders of the petition drive had
hoped to have the 7,040 signatures
needed to authorize formation of a
charter commission by now, but
things have not gone quite so well as
expected. The public picnic at 2 p. m.
today at Cosmos Park will go on as
planned, and organizers hope it will
bring them closer to their goal.
George Trial, co- chairm- an of the
drive, said last week more than half
the necessary signatures had been
collected. He hopes that today's
" hoopla" complete with
refreshments and live entertainment I
will attract the public attention I
needed to finish the job. i
Once the signatures are collected I
and verified by the county clerk, the
Boone County Circuit Court judges
will appoint seven Democrats and
seven Republicans to hash out the
details of the county's new govern-mental
structure.
The charter commission will have
one year to draw up a charter and
submit it to the voters for approval.
During that time, the commission
will take a long hard look at the state
statutes that shape county govern-ment
and decide how well they meet
the needs of Boone County.
Under the current statutory
( See HOME, Page 14A)
University makes plans for China exchange
By Diana Dawson
Missourian staff writer
When the People's Republic of China
opened its doors to the United States in
January, a University task force began
planning a student- facult- y exchange
between the two countries.
" Since we've normalized relations
with China, arrangements can be made
above the table, with greater ease,"
said Prof. Paul Wallace, associate
director of the Center for International
Relations and Studies.
Prof. Clara Louise Myers, chairman
of the Chinese exchange task force, said
Pennsylvania reactor
successfully shut down
HARRISBURG, Pa. ( UPI) Three
Mile Island's nuclear reactor was
safely shut down Saturday, but area
residents say the trauma of the near- catastrop- he
lingers.
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
spokesman Richard Vollmer said the
nuclear reactor's new cooling process
was successful. " We're certain it's
working. I would describe it as very
stable and safe," said Voilmer.
Vollmer said engineers will work to
isolate the cooling system so that no
radiation carried off from the uranium
core in the cooling process will get into
the air. Experts estimate that the
Isolation operation will take a
minimum of a month.
Heat in the damaged uranium core
will remain near 212 F ( 100 C) for some
time, plant chief Victor Stello said. For
that reason officials hesitated to use the
phrase " cold shutdown."
A shutdown occurs when water in the
cooling system circulates by natural
convection rather than by use of a
DUSK).
Workaday life in the vicinity of Three
Mile Island, 10 miles ( 16 kilometers)
south of Harrisburg, resumed its pace.
Robert Reid, mayor of Middletown,
was able to go fishing.
But some, including Reid's wife,
Priscilla, are worried.
" We just don't know what's going to
happen to the future generation of
children. Will they get sick because of
radiation? It's an unknown," she said.
Mark and Julie Sipling and their 14- month-- old
daughter left town after the
March 28 accident They're not going
home again ever.
" It was my little girl, Debra. I didn't
want to take a chance on her, health,"
said Sipling, who is looking for another
home at least 10 miles ( 16 kilometers)
away. " It's a hassle, but it's better than
living back there."
The Rev. Jackson Otto, pastor of
Middletown's Wesley United Methodist
Church, said he has stopped mentioning
Three Mile Island in his sermons.
" People want to forget," he said.
" Also the realization there could have
been a real catastrophe just caught up
with some people."
IiasMe
Five Soviets
describe joy
of being free
By Pranay B. Gupte
- New York Times
NEW YORK The five dissidents
who were exchanged Friday for two
convicted Soviet spies spoke Saturday
of their disbelief at being released from
prison, of their delight at being flown
from the Soviet Union to New York, and
of their hope that more Soviet prisoners
would be freed.
" We still can't believe that all our
camp burdens are behind us," said
Eduard S. Kuznetsov, reading in
Russian from a prepared text.
" Yesterday, we were still deprived of
all rights: today, we are here in a
Related stories, Page 3A
country which for more than 200 years
has been a symbol of freedom."
" We are here in the United States
and this is as incredible as if we found
ourselves on the moon," he went on.
The elation of the dissidents at being
free seemed to be darkened somewhat
by memories of their experiences,
about which they spoke with con-siderable
emotion.
They told of harsh conditions, of
being denied medical attention and the
right to religious worship, of abuse and
anti- Semit- ic epithets hurled by guards
and of the fact that, within minutes of
being informed of their imminent ex-pulsion
from the Soviet Union, each
man was told he had been stripped of
Soviet citizenship.
Kuznetsov spoke at a crowded news
conference at the United Nations Plaza
Hotel, barely 24 hours after he, Georgi
P. Vins. Mark Dymshits, Valentin
Moroz and Alexander Ginzburg landed
at Kennedy International Airport in a
Soviet airliner. The plane picked up
Valdik A. Enger and Rudolf P. Cher- nyaye- v.
the spies who had been sen-tenced
to 50- ye- ar terms in the United
States.
The episode was the first in which
Soviet citizens were exchanged by the
United States for Soviet citizens.
Each of the five dissidents was
weary, and each would occasionally
smile or wave to their supporters in the
audience, some of whom applauded the
speakers from time to time.
the exchange would benefit both the
United States and China. Now the task
force is sifting through the University
curriculum to determine what the
Columbia campus could offer Chinese
exchanges. Such inquiries are taking
place on all four campuses.
" This gives us an opportunity to
participate in areas that the University
is strong in, in an international sense,"
said David McDonald, acting associate
vice- preside- nt for academic affairs.
Chinese scholars are interested in the
University's plant pathology, political
science, journalism, cyto- geneti- cs and
engineering programs. They want to
learn how to apply American research
methods to Chinese problems, Wallace
said.
" During the cultural revolution,
higher education did not function well
in China," he said. " Now the
educational institutions are em-phasizing
merit rather than political
criteria. The exchange program is
representative of the Chinese education
today they recognize that they have a
lot of catching up to do."
One Chinese alumnus of the
University has expressed interest to a
former classmate, now a horticulture
professor, in " catching up" on plant
viruses that effect Chinese crops. The
professor has sent him information on
the program which will help him make
arrangements in China.
University students and faculty- studyin- g
in China would do research in
their areas of interest.
Older Chinese scholars, rather than
undergraduates, will comprise most of
the participants, Wallace said. When
they complete their study here, they
will then return to China to pass on
what they leam during the exchange.
An exchange with younger Chinese
would not be practical, Wallace said,
because Chinese society favors the
aged. It would be considered
disrespectful for young students to
teach their elders.
To arrange for an exchange, the
University must follow federal
guidelines as well as going through the
institutional hierarchy.
Besides red tape, other problems
might arise with an exchange program.
Since most Chinese, prior to Mao, were
admitted to universities for political
reasons rather than academic merit,
their transcripts are hard to evaluate.
In his reccommendations to
( See WALLACE, Page 12A)
Capital idea
To mall or not to mall; Columbians
are asking themselves whether the
city needs a regional shopping center,
and if so, where it should be built.
Some say that a downtown mall would
help revitalize the center city, while
others argue that a peripheral mall
would best serve mid- Missou- ri's
needs. This week the Missourian
traveled to Jefferson City, site of the
new Capital Mall, to see how that
community worked to balance the
needs of downtown business with the
trend toward shopping- cente- r sprawl.
Read about it en the Background
Page of today's Missourian.
science suffers
Two decades after science became
the favored child of American
education, biology, chemistry and
j& ysics are once again fighting for
their place in American schools. Read
about bow the " back to basics"
movement is affecting science in
I American schools on Page 6A.
Vins, a leader of a group of Reform
Baptists, the Initsiativniki, said, " I
thank my Lord that I am free. I thank
President Carter, the American
Congress and all the Christians in the
United States and all the people of
good will who have been interceding for
the persecuted Christians in the Soviet
Union."
Vins paused, then smiled.
" I was delighted that the first book I
saw in this hotel in New York was the
Bible." he said. " For five years I was
deprived of this book."
Like Vins, Ginzburg, who was sen-tenced
last year to a third term of eight
years in a strict labor camp to be
followed by three in exile, occasionally
grew emotional during the news con-ference.
" You can't tear Moroz away from the
Ukraine, you can't tear me away from
Russia that is not within the power of
the Supreme Soviet.'" Ginzburg
declared.
Asked whether he knew of the
whereabouts and welfare of another
prominent Soviet political prisoner,
Anatoly B. Shcharansky. Ginzburg said
that he had heard in his labor camp that
Shchanransky was recently transferred
to a new prison at Christopol.
Although Dymshits said he was never
tortured physically, he said he was
subjected to " moral torture and
pressure."
" Could I have stayed on in the Soviet
Union if I had a choice?" Dymshits
said. " Absolutely not! I couldn't bear it
any longer I couldn't bear the anti- Jewi- sh
policy and the Soviet approach
to Middle East policy."
But Moroz told of beatings he had
received from prison guards. In par-ticular,
he said, he remembered a train
ride to Moscow three years ago when
guards pummeled him " without
reason."
" During the past 12 years, a certain
degree of normalization has occurred
between the West and the Socialist
camp." Kuznetsov said. " We believe
our liberation can be looked upon as
another instance of such normalization,
but with certain reservations. We hope
that this step taken by the Soviet
government will not be the last step in
this direction.
a! i ttSfMES tSvZstit. j-- t. hrfffiiTiigmSffi i lrfnnff? ffsa?
Playboy's emissary of good will and good looks, playmate
Michele Drake, came to Columbia to go out with a win- a- da- te
contest winner. Read about her in today's Vibrations
Ihr towm
3 p. m. University Concert Chorale:
University Singers, Ira Powell direc-ting.
First Presbyterian Church, 16 Hitt
St.
5 p. m. University Percussion En-semble,
University Fine Arts Recital
Hall.
8 p. m. An Evening with Billy Joel,
Hearnes Auditorium, $ 4.50 to $ 7.50 for
MSA members; from $ 5.50 to $ 8.50 for
general public.
9 a. m.-- 3 p. m. University MA can-didates'
art exhibition through May 4,
Fine Arts Gallery.
8: 15 p. m. University Concert Band
and University Symphonic Band,
Charles Emmons and Frank Krager
conducting, Jesse Auditorium.
Spring forward 1
Twice a year we have a day with two 2
ajn.' s, and today is one of them. We're
back on daylight savings time again.
Set your clocks up one hour.