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Microbes are scary
By STEPHEN STRAUSS
Saturday, April 5, 2003 - Page F9
In the modern world, people don't much worry about becoming a lion's dinner or their children being carried off by wolves. But microbes -- tiny, rapacious, multitudinous microbes -- scare everyone.
To get a sense of the context for how the current war against severe acute respiratory syndrome is likely to go, the past provides a useful context.
At www.lehigh.edu/~jgm4/virology/history.html, the past 2,500 years of the battle between humans and flu are detailed.
You learn what ancient army was decimated by it and the point in history in which an estimated three-quarters of the population of Britain came down with the disease. (Hint: It wasn't 1918.)
For anyone interested in the current state of the outbreak, with particular attention to this country, click on http://www.sars.gc.ca, where Health Canada has mounted a day-by-day chronicle of the disease's spread here and elsewhere.
Quite informative is a part of the site that tells you what doctors are being advised.
Particularly striking is the lengthy listing of the negative side effects of treatment drugs -- none of which has to date proved extremely effective at counteracting SARS.
In the news
Two cow-related stories: U.S. researchers announce that they are using ultrasound to determine whether live cattle will produce lean, tasty cuts of meat. Meanwhile, Agriculture Canada scientists say they have begun a five-year study to see if they can reduce bovine burping. the purpose is to help Canada to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that 80 per cent of the greenhouse gases coming from farms is generated by the methane from cow burps.
The newspaper of the future may be printed on bioengineered paper if studies at North Carolina State University bear out. Scientists there announced that they were able to produce genetically modified trees with 40 to 50 per cent less lignin in them. Lignin operates as a kind of tree fibre glue and is something that the pulp and paper industry spends billions of dollars removing in the papermaking process.
Apparently you should wipe your feet even if you are going into a cave. A report out of France says the famous paintings at Lescaux are being attacked by a fungus that probably got into the cave from a workman's muddy boots. The French are fighting the fungus with the same chemicals farmers use to kill it in their fields.
Stop the global warming presses. A review of 200 climate studies by researchers at Harvard says the 20th century was neither the warmest nor the most variable in the past 1,000 years.
A South African physicist is claiming that by adding oxygen to diamonds he has been able to create superconductivity at room temperature. Superconductivity allows electricity to be carried with zero resistance. Skepticism over the claim abounds, as the previous "highest" temperature materials could superconduct at was -200 C.
This past week included April Fool's Day and its potential silliness did not escape notice in the science world. The American Chemical Society declared "dilithium" -- the fictitious substance that powers the Star Trek ships -- as its "molecule of the day." The pro-biotech Agbioview organization reproduced supposedly news reports about the creation of the Mickey Mouse potato. It got its name because the addition of a mouse gene gave it the shape of Senor M. Mouse. Another joke news item described the discovery of the gene that makes you eat the whole bag of potato chips.
Not since Waterworld has a film received as much criticism from the scientific community as The Core. The movie's critics contend that the Earth's core couldn't stop rotating; even if it did, it wouldn't cause the planet's magnetic field to stop for 20,000 years; without a magnetic field, the amount of cosmic radiation hitting the Earth would go up only slightly. And finally, the tunnelling device used to start the core moving again is magnitudes larger than any present nuclear weapon.
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MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
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OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.