This is the continuing monthly column for the astronomer in all of us, or the aspiring astro-physicist. Compared to areas near Boston or New Bedford, generally speaking, the Tri-Town has pretty good dark skies and we are very fortunate in that regard. Though we can’t normally make out the Milky Way’s signature glow, we can still spot a lot. This year has already brought with it some great stellar sights, and NASA is working still to launch to the moon this month.

            On March 3, there will be a Full Moon. This moon is known as the “Worm Moon,” due to earth worms making their break through the hard soil around this time. Not only will we have a Full Moon, but a total lunar eclipse that same day. The eclipse will be visible across the entirety of the United States. On the East Coast, we will only have visibility for a bit less time as the epicenter is the mid-Pacific. However, it will last about an hour in its entirety. The eclipse will give the Worm Moon a rusty-red glow in the early morning, between 6:00 am and 7:00 am.

            On March 8, Venus and Saturn will be very near each other in the sky, or in “conjunction.” Regardless of the fact that these two bodies are about 1,320,000,000 miles apart, they will be about 1-degree apart in the sky, making them easy to spot, both having off-yellow glows. They will sit near the constellation Pisces in the sky.

            If you or anyone you know happens to be in the Southern Hemisphere in March 18, you may be able to see the comet 88P/Howell before it leaves on its relatively small orbit, returning in 2031.

            On March 19, there will be a New Moon. This will be the perfect time to look for nebulae, galaxies, and faint, more distance objects!

            At long last, on March 20, the vernal equinox, or the spring equinox. Spring will come at last and bring an end to this snow… right?

            NASA’s Artemis II was scheduled to launch last month and was then confirmed to be sometime in March. Now, it seems likely it will be pushed into April. They had eyed Friday, March 6 as a launch date, but the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has confirmed they will roll the SLS rocket off the launch pad for further work this week. The rocket had been set on the launch pad for the past month, ready to go at a moment’s notice until a helium leak was discovered in pre-launch preparation. NASA’s press correspondent Rachel H. Kraft confirmed the rocket is being prepped for its 4-mile trek back into the VAB (vehicle assembly building), but an April launch is still possible. It has been over 50 years since humans were in lunar orbit, and it seems we will have to wait a little longer.

Astronomy Update for March

By Sam Bishop

            Researchers want people to appreciate their work and to get funding for more research, so they and the institutions for which they work want favorable publicity.

            Reporters want to get bylines and publishers want readers, because more readers mean more advertising dollars. Thus, news outlets have every incentive to trumpet research results as big news, breakthroughs that will attract “eyeballs.”

            Combine these aligned incentives with the fact that very few reporters have much background in science and you have a recipe for over-hyping minor advances or preliminary results as big news.

            How can you critically read a story about a supposed major medical advance and know if it is truly important?

            First, accept that mice are not humans. What works in mice may or may not work in people. Some 5% of initial promising results in lab rodents end up being similarly effective in humans. Even those that do cross over take a very long time before being useful – an average of 17 years between the first trial in mice and an approved human product.

            What about human studies?

            Be VERY skeptical of association as proving causation: the observational trial Researchers live in a “publish or perish” world and look for associations between habits or exposures and diseases or longevity that can form the basis of a published paper.

            Good medical science depends on a controlled clinical trial, in which people are randomly assigned to the treatment being studied and are generally otherwise very similar. Observational trials may suggest linkages but almost never prove them.

            The fact is that people who do one thing, like drink coffee, may do many other things differently. Coffee drinkers may be more likely to smoke, or eat donuts or work in offices than those who do not drink coffee. Unless the researchers have been able to match the people who do the thing studied with those who don’t, and can be sure that is the ONLY difference between them, the outcome may be due to something completely different.

            Good trials, in addition to randomly assigning people to the treatment(s) being studied are double blinded. This means that neither the people being studied nor the researchers know which treatment or placebo they are getting. Other than death, few outcomes of a trial are absolutes. There is a strong placebo effect for most conditions, and if people know they are getting the active drug, many will feel better for that reason.

            If researchers are heavily invested (emotionally or financially) in drug A being better than drug B, they will be tempted to ignore side effects or encourage feeling better in the group given A.

            Finally – be careful not to assume that “statistically significant” is always the last word. Statisticians devise ways to tell if trial results are purely due to chance. This is given as a “P value.” A P of 0.05 means there is only a 5% chance that the results were just luck; the lower the P value, the more likely there really was a difference between groups.

            Small differences in outcome may be called statistically significant when their clinical significance is minor. When a study result says that people given A lived significantly longer than those given B, look carefully to see how much longer.

            This is particularly common with trials of new cancer drugs. You may read a headline saying that cancer patients given X lived significantly longer than those given Y. Buried deep in the story may be the facts that those given X lived 6.5 months and those given Y lived 5.3 months – and that those given X had many more side effects and had to pay $50,000 more out of pocket. It is not so clear that you would always want to choose X.

            Edward Hoffer MD is Associate Professor of Medicine, part-time, at Harvard.

What Does The Doctor Say?

By Dr. Edward Hoffer

Trigger Warming! The opinions expressed in this opinion column are those of the opinion writer and may not be the opinions of the editor or publisher of this paper or its affiliates and are meant to stimulate the opinions, enjoyment, and entertainment of the reader. Got it?

            Recently our country celebrated Presidents Day, formally known as George Washington’s birthday until the woke crowd determined that old George was not worthy because he lied about cutting down a cherry tree. It therefore would be politically correct to honor all presidents, good and bad. Sort of every kid gets a trophy deal.

            One former president, also named George, came out of hibernation in Texas to offer an opinion on Presidents Day, specifically about General Washington our first president. (Who was actually our nineth president. Eight gentlemen were appointed before him by Congress to one-year terms to preside as “President of the United States in Congress Assembled”. John Hanson of Maryland was the first and John Hancock the fifth. But I digress.).

            To the surprise of many pundits, President Bush published an eloquent essay expounding on Washington’s leadership, humility, willingness to avoid becoming all powerful, and his loyalty to the country and the Constitution first. The 43rd president went on to note that Washington “understood that he didn’t know everything” deferring instead to experts. And he noted that Washington “set the standard for all presidents to live up to.”

            In so doing “Dubya” proved that he (or a ghostwriter) was a master of writing sentences that are meant to be read between the lines.

            The current tenant of the Peoples’ House, on the other hand, in a statement issued on his Truth Social media platform celebrated how the country is “bigger, better and stronger than EVER BEFORE!!!” and is “at the dawn of a new age of greatness…” never mentioning any of his predecessors. He then went back to planning the biggest celebration of our country’s 250th Anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of our Independence on July 4. Ben Franklin, who was reported to be a real party animal, knew how to celebrate independence. He suggested that there should be fireworks, parades, and celebrations throughout the land.

            You may have heard that the current leader of the free world is planning to build a 100,000-seat stadium on Lafyette Park across from the White House to celebrate the Semiquincentenial (also known as a Bisesquicentennial or a Sestercentennial, in case you were wondering.) by holding an historic UFC no-holds-bar fight. The winner coming out with a face celebrating the colors of the flag…red and blue.

            Later, in August, the celebration will continue with a “Freedom 250 Grand Prix” race through the streets of our nation’s capital. It will be the biglyest, the best, the grandest Grand Prix race ever, even outdoing the Grand Prix of Monaco thus alienating another close friend of the United States. If construction moves fast enough the expensive racing cars might be able to race around and through the new grand “Victory Arch” and under the giant gold eagle sitting on top that our chief executive is planning to build.

            Personally, I think they should be Ford and Chevy stock cars, but that’s just my opinion.

            Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and happily retired writer. His newspaper columns appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.

By Dick Morgado