To The Best of Our Knowledge

from Wisconsin Public Radio

The sky is black. The wind's picking up. The hurricane is coming. Nothing you can do about it. But wait! Scientists from Dyn-o-Storm fly into the hurricane. They release a chemical that stops the hurricane dead in its tracks. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, should we? Just because we can? We'll get some perspective from the farms of the Amish. Also, one woman's crusade – she doesn't believe HIV causes AIDS.

Christine Maggiore is the author of "What If Everything You Thought You Knew about Aids Was Wrong?" and is herself HIV positive. She denies that HIV causes AIDS and says science is abandoning its own model of proving a theory. Maggiore has been denounced by the medical establishment and AIDS activists like Larry Kramer.

Chicago historian Tim Samuelson tells Jim Fleming about the time the City of Chicago decided to reverse the flow of the Chicago river and send its waste south along the Mississippi rather than into Lake Michigan. It was a massive project, undertaken with more than a little hubris, but to the disgust of St. Louis, they did it. Also, Brother Guy Consolmagno, author of "Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist," talks wit Jim Fleming about the historic rift between science and religion.

SEGMENT 3:

Peter Cordani is CEO of Dyn-O-Mat. He invents things. Like Dyn-O-Storm - a polymer gel that can be sprayed on clouds to make them go away. Cordani claims he can stop a hurricane in its tracks. He tells Anne Sytrainchamps all about his company and its amazing new product. Also, Donald Kraybill, author of "The Riddle of Amish Culture," tells Steve Paulson that Amish attitudes towards technology are nuanced and complex. They have telephones, but not in the house. They drive a horse and buggy instead of a car, but raise cloned tobacco. He says they prefer to think through the implications of new technology before they adopt it.

Books:

• Brother Guy Consolmagno, Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist (McGraw Hill)
• Donald B. Kraybill, The Riddle of Amish Culture (Johns Hopkins)
• Christine Maggiore, What if everything you thought you knew about AIDS Was Wrong? (American Foundation for Aids Alternatives, 11684 Ventura Bvd, Studio City, CA 91604)

Music:

• Orbital, "Remind" on the Why? album on Full Frequency Range Recordings.
• The Lounge Lizards, "Incident of South Street" on the Lounge Lizards album on EG Records.
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Soundtrack on the Sony Music Soundrack.
• The Cemical Brothers, "Playground for a Wedgeless Firm" and "one Too Many Mornings" on the Exit Planet Dust album on Astralwerks Records.

Distribution dates:

• week of 04/21/2002 - hour 1