NEW SCIENTIST Highlights
EMBARGO: NOT FOR PUBLICATION BEFORE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1997
ORDER #1: HIS AND HERS
Estrogen could be used to treat heart disease in men, a new US study
suggests. But to ensure that men being treated with the female hormone don't
develop breasts, researchers will have to find non-feminizing versions of
it. Page 24
ORDER #2: WOOL COMES UP TO SCRATCH
The tickle has been taken out of woolly sweaters by a clothing
manufacturer. Researchers have developed a technique of stretching and
thinning individual woolen fibers to make them less scratchy. Page 7
ORDER #3: DEVIL IN THE DIESEL
A compound discovered in the exhaust fumes of diesel engines may be the most
strongly carcinogenic ever analyzed, say researchers. They warn that the
chemical could be partly responsible for the large number of lung cancer
cases in cities. Page 4
ORDER #4: EYE CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
Naturally bifocal contact lenses have been developed by an Austrian optical
team. The new lenses, made from birefringent optical materials, overcome the
problem faced by existing bifocal contact lenses which work poorly because
light rays from different parts of the small lens interfere with each other.
Page 6
ORDER #5: SILENT SLAUGHTER
Statistics on the numbers of laboratory animals killed each year ignore
hundreds of thousands sacrificed purely for their tissue, claims a new
report from a antivivisection group. Page 25
ORDER #6: YOU'RE LISTENING TO RADIO WHALE ...
The first radio station featuring round-the-clock coverage of marine mammal
sounds will hit the airwaves within a month. The broadcasts - the brainchild
of a zoologist at the Vancouver Aquarium - are designed for scientists who
follow migrating killer whales, but nature enthusiasts are also expected to
tune in. Page 12
ORDER #7: NOT DEAD, JUST SURFING
You may have made a will and decided who will receive your goods,
but who will look after your Web site when you die? Afterlife provides just
such a service, promising to ensure that pages can be read by any new Web
technology that comes along. Page 19
ORDER #8: THE UNSELFISH GENE
Our genes must somehow learn from our environment, say a small but growing
band of evolutionary biologists. And these ideas are turning the traditional
idea of the selfish gene on its head. Pages 28-32
ORDER #9: THE THRILL OF SPILL
Why do coffee stains have dark rims at their edges? American scientists
think they have the answer and believe that the same staining phenomenon
could be used to print the circuits onto future generations of microchips.
Pages 34-35
ORDER #10: HIGHS AND LOWS
Heroin really screws up your immune system, but cocaine may actually boost
it, say researchers. Pages 36-39
ORDER #11: THE FUTURE'S BRIGHT
Optical computers are set to hit the desktops within the next few years.
These machines will be hybrid computers in which electronic microchips are
linked together by thin beams of laser light. There will be no metal wiring,
just a maze of lenses, prisms and mirrors to shift data from one chip to
another. Pages 40-44
- ENDS -
October 22, 1997
Issue cover date: October 25, 1997
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