THE FISHER KING

When the king is ill, the country does not thrive. While Big Ben was silent for 4 years from 2017, the country was politically paralysed over Brexit. Symbolism is a real thing, as any astrologer can tell you.

The country needs renewal: that is what King Charles' illness tells us. The Fisher King, the guardian of the Holy Grail, recovered, and his land recovered, when Parsifal asked him, "Whom does the Grail serve?" In our case, we maybe need to ask "What is the point of the UK, who are we now?" We lost an Empire, and tried to find a new purpose as part of the EU. That didn't work out. So who are we? We have an election coming up, but neither party has the vision of renewal necessary for the King to be well again.

Charles has Leo Rising, befitting a king. It is ruled by Sun in the collective sign of Scorpio, conjunct Chiron: his wound is collective. Uranus is currently opposing his Sun, a lightning rod for the country's malaise. In the Fisher King story, the wound is to the groin - the place that generates new life - very appropriate for Chiron in Scorpio.

My theory is that England forgot who she was 1000 years ago, when the Norman (Viking) conquest turned us into a conquering nation, beginning with the rest of the British Isles. The Empire has gone, and Scotland and Northern Ireland may go too. Charles' kingly line began with the Normans: that is one way of seeing the wound that he carries. His illness is that old soul loss healing. Just a theory :)

We may have to wait until next year, when Neptune enters Aries and begins a long slow sweep across the UK's Sun, Moon and Angles, to start to find the way again post-Brexit, with humility and reality: no longer a superpower; and no longer the next best thing, the vicarious power that came with being part of the EU.

 

 

KING CHARLES' HEALTH

Pluto is currently changing signs in King Charles' 6th House of Health, while squaring his Moon/Node in Taurus. This suggests his cancer diagnosis is of major significance. Pluto will not finally leave his 6th House until the end of 2027, giving a possible time frame for his illness. At that point, Neptune will be completing a square to Prince William's Sun-Moon conjunction in Cancer: a defining change for him is also in the offing. Uranus has also just turned direct, opposing Charles’ chart ruler, the Sun. Here is wishing him well!

 

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Everyone is weird once you get to know them. Aquarians are just more upfront, even honest, about it. That is why they are Everyman.

 

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A friend said recently that he felt Gemini was associated with the fairies, and was that the case? I said if it wasn't, it is now.

 

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I think Pluto in Aquarius will see GM crops come into their own, allowing for improved food production in the 3rd world. The power (Pluto) of technological invention (Aquarius.) Much of the opposition to GM, as with oil, is simply hatred of technology and human progress, and Pluto will march through that.

 

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Astrology is poetry.

 

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All the planets from Jupiter outwards are going forward. Time to make new s**t happen.

 

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On 12th Feb, Mars will cross the MC of the Northern Ireland chart, with Venus following soon after. Pluto crossed it 3 weeks ago. An agreement has just been reached on a return to devolved government, after a 2 year gap due to Brexit fall-out. Pluto still has 2 more crossings to go this year. NI is inching towards eventual reunion with Eire.

 

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The world is being held back from the abundant energy that nuclear power promises, and the abundant food that GM promises, by irrational fear of technology and hatred of humanity. The coming age of Pluto in Aquarius will march through this opposition, taking no prisoners, because it is our survival and flourishing (Pluto), through human inventiveness (Aquarius), that is at stake. And our destiny. Pluto is in this sense a protector of what humanity can become. Neptune in Aries will also play its part in this renewal of the collective dream. 

 

Elon Musk, with his vision of humanity as an interplanetary species, symbolises the optimism and inventiveness of this coming age. And let's not forget Uranus moving into Gemini too. A whole new age to look forward to.

 

 

THE AQUARIAN REBELLION AGAINST GREEN POLICIES

The last transit of Pluto through Aquarius saw both the French and American Revolutions: the people rebelling against unrepresentative, authoritarian government. Power (Pluto) to the People (Aquarius.) I think we will see a similar mood in the coming years, this time with green policies as the focus, as they begin to erode people's standards of living. I'm not saying this is good or bad: I'm just saying I think it is what will start happening. They have become the norm, and that is something Aquarius sees the holes in and pushes against.

 

 

In the UK we see it already, with the two main parties, in the run-up to a general election, vying to water down their commitments to net-zero. We saw it in the lack of media coverage of COP28. We see it in the huge protests by Dutch and German farmers against the imposition of green policies, and the rise to power of political parties that reflect this mood. In the US, Donald Trump is well-known for his lack of belief in the climate crisis. The rebellion will also be against the authoritarian, ideologically driven way net zero is often being implemented. The media is likely to tar this political movement with the label 'far right', a term that is gradually losing its meaning through over-use.

 

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If you attempt to turn astrology into a statistical truth, then you disrespect the gods and they will stop speaking to you. Astrology is not scientific. It is not for us to try to probe and judge the workings of the divine. It is for us to stand back in awe.

 

 

VENUS IN CAPRICORN

Venus is now in Capricorn. Not very romantic. Or, at least, not a time for love-bubbles, based around 2 people not knowing each other. That's so yesterday, so Venus in Sag. Venus in Capricorn wants you to listen to your experience, listen to the whole of yourself. That takes time and patience. But it can produce results that actually work, that last.

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Aquarians, if you want to be radical, be conservative. If you want to be even more radical, go to church. Got this idea off Nick Cave in this brilliant interview. Nick Cave has a hell of a work ethic. I looked him up: Sun in Virgo square to Saturn. 

 

 

PLUTO IN CANCER?

In Sardinia, the use of the "femina agabbadòra hammer" was a women's practice. Whenever an elderly man or woman of a given family was dying and in great pain, the family would call for the Accabadòra or Lady of the Good Death. She would usually be a widow dressed entirely in black, who likely inherited her role from her own mother or grandmother. The title Accabadora means "She is the One Who Ends." She arrives with a large hammer of carved olive wood wrapped in heavy wool, and is left alone with the individual who may yet be screaming in agony and terror. 

 

A witness testimonial of the practice translates: "It was dark. The room was illuminated by a single wick in mastic oil. The Accabadòra entered the house -- the door had been left open for her. She passed no one as she enters her patient's room at at the bedside. "She caressed the face of the dying person, chanted the rosary, sang one of the many lullabies usually sung to children. Finally she raised her hammer wrapped in thick, black wool, and gave a quick sharp blow on the skull. 

 

"She then left the bludgeoned patient in quiet peace, and our family blessed and thanked and paid her for her good work as she was leaving. It is a hard job. The Accabadòra may herself be feeble, and is often a friend of the ailing individual. So you must always respect her. "We do not consider her a murderer. In our village she is known as compassionate, a holy assistant in fulfilling the final destiny. Her act is loving and benevolent. She is our Last Mother." 

 

Though usually done with a hammer, each Accabadòra may have her own technique, including smothering with a pillow, or climbing atop the sufferer to wrap her legs around the neck to squeeze the throat closed. The last recorded Accabadòras went about their missions of euthanasia in 1929 in Luras and in 1952 in Orgosolo. But a recent work of fiction about the life of a modern Agabbadòra alleges that the ancient practice still exists in rural parts of Sardinia, where there are no physicians or any other help for the suffering.” 

 

=== Photo: An Accabadòra ready to serve, though her hammer is considerably larger than would be used by a real Accabadòra. Inset: An actual femina accabadòra hammer in a Sardinian museum.

 

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The Ukraine War will have it's Mars Return in early Feb, a Mars (at 22 Capricorn) that is at the same degree as the Saturn-Pluto conjunction the year before. That connection makes this minor war very significant geo-politically. Whether the Mars Return leads to an escalation or to negotiations, I do not know. But new developments are likely around that time.

 

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We belong not to ourselves but to the universe. Ordinary humanity does not understand this, astrologers and healers do.

 

 

PLUTO in CAPRICORN CRISES

Pluto can be associated with crises, inasmuch as they often precede the fundamental restructuring that this planet engenders. Pluto's time in Capricorn has been a time of institutional (Capricorn) crises, beginning with the financial crisis of 2008, the biggest since the 1930s. Then there was the Eurozone crisis, the political crises that led to Trump and Brexit, and then the COVID crisis. Last but not least has been the climate crisis which big business and government (both Capricorn) are being seen to ignore, despite protestations to the contrary, as Pluto leaves this sign.

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The International Climate Conference (COP) started in March 1995. This year it has its Saturn Return at 17 Pisces. Last year's COP 28 was barely front page news. I reckon the age of climate anxiety is starting to come to an end.

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The transit of Neptune through Pisces will be remembered for its religious madnesses around climate and gender and the victimhood of minorities.

ASTROLOGICAL DEBRIS

I'm not so inclined to write longer pieces at the moment, more the odd topical comment as it occurs to me. I tweet them (@Astrotabletalk), and I post them in the UK Astrologers Facebook group, which I have opened up for anyone to join.

Here are some recent ones, while they remain topical 😎

The military rebellion in Russia may well be the first sign of a revolution to come, as Pluto moves in on the Russian Moon (the people) in Aquarius (revolution) in the next few years.

 

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Chiron cannot be seen with the naked eye. He is therefore transpersonal. His apparent 'wounding' is a call to listen to the outer planets. If your life doesn't seem to work around your Chiron placement, then treat it as a blessing, as a calling.

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 Ceres' daughter was abducted by Pluto. This time she has been abducted by Neptune: there is currently an opposition between the two, and the Titanic sub has gone missing. Ceres changes sign on Wednesday 21st, so maybe it will be quickly located. (NB I was being hopeful when I wrote this! Privately, I wasn't optimistic with such a short astrological window. Also, there had been a void moon when they embarked on the Sunday.)

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The current economic woes are payback time for the lunacy of shutting down the economy over a minor disease. They will probably continue until Pluto - god of riches - finally moves to enter Aquarius in October 2024. Just in time to decide the next UK election.

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The transits for Boris Johnson's resignation as an MP, in response to having been found guilty of lying to Parliament over parties during lockdown. He is having his 2nd Saturn Return - the reaping of consequences - and it was today being activated by the Moon. Saturn in Pisces just can't keep its flies done up.

 

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After the 2nd Saturn Return, aged 58 or so, we need no longer pretend to be a responsible adult. It is time to play. And out of that can come our best work.

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Perhaps Jupiter in Taurus will give a boost to the world economy, after its Covid battering. Interestingly, he was last in Taurus in 2011, in the wake of the 2008/9 financial crisis, bringing a long bull-run (Taurus!) in his wake.

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 It would make sense that Prince Harry, having first left the vocation laid out for him (tr Uranus opp MC) should now separate from Meghan (tr Uranus conjunct Moon, the long-term partner for a man). Meghan was a catalyst along the way towards an entirely new life.

 

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The Northern Ireland chart has MC at 29 Capricorn. There are 2 more crossings by Pluto to go. I think this transit will see Sinn Fein decisively prevail, and it will be all over bar the shouting in favour of a united Ireland. And let's not forget the 2nd Chiron Return: the first, aged 50, was the start of 'the troubles' that led to the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The second Return recently completed, and Sinn Fein became the largest party in the NI Parliament.

 

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One aspect of the current Pluto-Jupiter square has been the call to legislate (Jupiter) AI (Pluto in Aquarius). The fear (Pluto) can be exaggerated (Jupiter), as we saw under the conjunction in 2020, when Covid hit and the world panicked in the face of the unknown.

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 With the advent of ChatGPT, many experts are worried about AI taking control. A Pluto in Aquarius issue. But maybe it will be a matter of opinion, and surely it will be politicised? Do social media already control us? Or does the government? Is anyone or anything ever in control?

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 I think that electional astrology runs counter to the divinatory nature of astrology. I think it is always best to do something at a time that seems right to you, and to use the chart of the event afterwards to understand what you did. Otherwise astrology becomes a substitute, instead of an aid, to the intuition. The guidance from within is all-important, it is what we are here to trust and to live from.

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 I think that evolutionary astrology attempts to place a linear model on a cyclical paradigm. It asks us to imagine that we are headed somewhere, as we emerge from putative past lives. This misunderstands the nature of astrology, which simply - and strenuously - asks us to live in balance with the calls of the different gods who inhabit us. It is not going anywhere, it is about our fate and a wise response to it.

 

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How you think about the so-called 13th sign of the zodiac maybe describes what kind of astrologer you are. The thing is, it works. But it makes a nonsense of the system-as-is.

 

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The thing with doing readings is that it's not just about the chart. It's also about the impact the person makes on me. And that may not clarify till afterwards, and it may be quite different to how they present themselves.

 

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And last but definitely not least, my 2 books: Surfing the Galactic Highways and The Medicine Wheel. The deal is that if you buy either of them from Amazon and leave a genuine rating, I will give you a free astrology or tarot reading.

PLUTO MATTERS

 COVID and SATURN-PLUTO

On 23^rd March, Pluto will move into Aquarius. A major event for the collective. A new age slowly dawning, especially with Neptune also changing sign in two years. About time too. Covid was a rubbish time for so many people, occurring under the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020, and therefore an event of great significance, whose implications will be with us for years. When Saturn and Pluto team up, Pluto’s darkness, often ultimately restorative, is given a channel into the world. The loss of education for many children, that will impact on their futures. The economic hardship. The enforced isolation.

 

But why should this type of school education matter so much? And many people in the so-called 3^rd world would die for what we call hardship. Maybe, in an extraverted culture, we have learnt to be with ourselves and question ourselves more. There is depth to Pluto’s darkness. But it is also usually painful.

The Saturn-Pluto conjunction occurred in Capricorn, the sign of government. The governmental response to Covid was almost universally totalitarian. Very Saturn-Pluto. I have heard the US government’s response to Covid traced back to the totalitarian response to 9/11. Very interesting, because 9/11 occurred during the preceding Saturn-Pluto opposition. In both cases, it was governments acting scared, over-reacting like a spooked herd of horses. I don’t think we need read darker motives than that into the governmental responses, even though they make for a conspiracist’s dream. Nonetheless, totalitarian responses are a bad habit for governments to get into.

 

In the case of 9/11, there was not a single terrorist attack on the US mainland after that event. And Covid turned out to be much less of a threat than was initially feared. Like I said, over-reactions by government. But that is what herds of prey animals do. And that is what we are, as human collectives. Pluto is a collective planet, and he can show us our collective nature.

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS, COVID and GENETIC ENGINEERING

Pluto, however, is moving into Aquarius, and that is what I want to talk about, having already written two blogs on the subject (Jan 24th and Feb 5^th). But I had a reason for talking about Covid first. This is because Aquarius is a sign of human inventiveness, of new technology, for better or for worse. So I have been on the lookout for hints of those technological advances in the run-up to the Pluto Ingress. That was the idea behind this piece.

THE WUHAN LABORATORY

 

It has recently come out that Covid in all likelihood did indeed escape from a Chinese lab. It was the product of genetic engineering, and caused a worldwide pandemic. What better example of Pluto in Aquarius could you get? Of course, it happened some years before Pluto in Aquarius, but the conclusion that it was human-made is only now starting to be drawn more conclusively. Great advances can come from genetic engineering, it is a very powerful technology. As well as disasters. These are the 2 sides of Pluto, its destructive as well as its creative power, in the realm of technological inventions (Aquarius). Technology itself I prefer to think of as Virgo, but the initial genius behind it is Aquarian.

There was always suspicion Covid had come from a lab, some people because they wanted it to be true, others because there was a plausible scientific possibility. Trump continued to call it the Chinese virus: he wasn’t just being childish, he had a point. As ever with Geminis, sometimes what look like lies turn out to be truths. Trickster Mercury.

The Chinese were engaged in ‘gain of function’ research with a virus, speeding up, through genetic engineering, the process of it becoming highly infectious and transmissible in humans. This was one of the giveaways, because this new virus became so infectious so quickly. Proper safeguards were not in place. Scientist Matt Ridley lays all this out in proper detail in his interview with Jordan Peterson, which you can find on youtube.

 

It was cock-up that caused the pandemic, and herd panic was the response. So much can be explained in these kinds of ways. I think it is psychologically more sound to do so, firstly because there is a lot of truth in that way of explaining things; and secondly, because once you start attributing dark motives to unnamed individuals, you are usually giving them powers they do not have, and projecting your own malignity and agency (Mars) onto them. Saturn-Pluto and the pandemic was a notable time for this kind of shadow projection, as might be expected. Same with 9/11, another Saturn-Pluto era, and the idea that it was a US government set-up.

So we might expect genetic engineering to make considerable advances in the coming years, for better and perhaps for worse, because it has been flagged up as Pluto advances towards Aquarius.

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I offer astrology readings on a donation basis. Contact BWGoddard1@aol.co.uk. My offer also remains open indefinitely, that if you buy and rate at Amazon my astrology book Surfing the Galactic Highways, I will give you a free reading. The same deal goes for my book The Medicine Wheel.

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NUCLEAR FUSION

Nuclear fusion is the Holy Grail of energy research. It had been 30 years away for decades. Until now. In a recent youtube interview with Lex Fridman, research physicist Dennis Whyte claimed that, due to recent advances, the first working fusion reactor is only about 4 years away.

 

Energy produced from nuclear fission – the splitting of heavy atoms – is currently the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels, for the intensity and reliability of energy needed for our major cities: major cities is where humanity is mostly headed. Those ongoing giant cultural melting pots. But many people have been unnecessarily spooked by nuclear energy since the end of the Cold War, when the fear of nuclear war faded, and the fear passed over to the peaceful use of nuclear energy. This was as Pluto moved towards the nuclear axis at 2-10 Gemini-Sagittarius.

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This axis, which has proved sensitive to transits, is based on the first controlled use of nuclear energy, in Chicago in 1942. The Uranus (splitting) -Saturn (matter) conjunction is very descriptive. The axis will next be activated in 3 years time, when Uranus in Gemini begins to cross the nuclear axis, and Pluto in Aquarius begins to trine/sextile it. It will also be the first Uranus Return of the nuclear chart, and this is highly significant, maybe suggesting a completion of the cycle of nuclear energy as fission (Uranus), as it moves on to fusion. But also, perhaps, a re-acceptance of fission energy for the meantime, on a needs-must basis, if we are to gradually wean ourselves off oil. The chart for the 1^st Oil Strike in 1869 is having its 1^st Neptune (oil) Return in the next 2 years, suggestive of this gradual shift – from oil, to fission, to fusion.

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Controlled Fusion needs its own chart, but we have yet to achieve it, so a chart will have to wait. But we do have a chart for the first uncontrolled reaction – ie the first H-Bomb – in 1952. That will have to do the job for now. And it does it very well, in that it has a Saturn-Neptune conjunction: the fusion (Neptune) of matter (Saturn). This is quite remarkable, given that the fission chart has an equally descriptive, parallel signature of Saturn-Uranus. Neptune will begin to oppose this fusion signature in 11 years time, as Saturn squares it.  It too, has its own axis, for the Moon opposes Saturn-Neptune, so we have a tighter axis of 20-23 Aries-Libra.

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Just as remarkable is Pluto on the Midheaven in Leo: the power (Pluto) of Leo’s ruler (the Sun). It is fusion that powers the Sun and all other stars. Astrology can be eerily descriptive sometimes. The Sun itself is hidden by Sign and House, in 12^th House Scorpio, showing perhaps the difficulty we have had in creating a technology to harness this energy, as well as its hidden power (Scorpio). But Pluto is coming up to square the Fusion Sun, and then he will hard aspect the Angles in 15 years time – as Neptune finishes with the Fusion Axis.

Putting all this together, something will be happening in just a few years as Uranus and Pluto activate the Nuclear Axis of the basic nuclear chart, and this is in line with the claim of some kind of working fusion reactor in 4 years time. But it will take another 10 years or so after that for the technology to reach some kind of initial maturity.

What has happened is that the Americans, spinning off from ITER, the giant international experimental fusion reactor, have used a new superconducting material that enables the prolonged sustaining of the magnetic field that contains the plasma of hydrogen nuclei, without using vast amounts of energy. This plasma, heated to tens of millions of degrees, hotter than the sun, causes a fusion reaction. And vast amounts of energy are released, with no radioactive waste, and no possibility of an explosion. Expect the news to get exciting in 2 years time, when Uranus first enters Gemini, and Pluto settles into Aquarius.

In another method of catalysing fusion, in which lasers are fired at pellets containing fusion fuel, more energy was released than was put in. This is a first, and was reported in December 2022.

This technology promises to transform humanity in the long-term.

QUANTUM COMPUTING/ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

A step forward in quantum computing was also recently announced. Data was reliably transferred from one quantum chip to another. This is another first, and holds the eventual promise of computational power of an entirely different order to what we have currently.

 

This raises the wider question of machine intelligence, a very Aquarian theme. Already, computers are producing useful answers to problems where, due to the complexity of the calculations undertaken, the operators/programmers do not understand how the computer has reached its conclusions. There is now a branch of computing dedicated to trying to understand what the computers are doing. This problem can only get harder as ever more sophisticated and demanding programmes are used. Already the machines are irreversibly more intelligent than us in certain ways: Pluto in Aquarius can only empower this trend.

A fortiori quantum computing. I don’t pretend to understand how it works. But there is already, to my mind, something a bit spooky about the ability of conventional computers to be beyond our understanding. Throw in not just the exponentially increased power of quantum computers, but the fact that they operate on the quantum level, a universe that is hard to understand rationally, if at all: the spookiness to come may be of a different order.

Another advance has been ChatGPT, which I covered in my February blog. It was released in the autumn, and had an electrifying effect due to the human-like way it was able to create essay responses to questions.

So these are 4 technological Pluto in Aquarius themes that I have noted activity around in the run-up to the Ingress: Genetic Engineering; Nuclear Fusion, and Quantum Computing/AI.

The dark side that we have seen already is a pandemic created in all probability by genetic engineering in a lab. This is an event of huge significance, but uncertainty over the scientific conclusions, lack of co-operation by the Chinese, and political considerations have kept the issue muted.