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2:00 PM EDT WEDNESDAY, 28 APRIL 1999
ORDER #1: FIGHTING BACK
A more affordable alternative to the expensive drug cocktails used against the HIV virus has emerged to help combat AIDS in developing countries. Trials in southern Africa have shown that a combination of hydroxyurea with an existing HIV drug can work effectively against the virus. Page 4
ORDER #2: SQUEAKY CLEAN
Birds caught in oil spills could soon be cleaned using iron powder and magnets. Researchers in Australia found that oil sticks to fine iron powder, and that both oil and iron can be removed by combing the feathers with a magnet. Unlike detergents, the treatment does not destroy the properties of the feathers. Page 11
ORDER #3: BUGS BEAT THE BENDS
Food supplements laced with bacteria could protect deep-sea divers from getting the dreaded "bends". When researchers in the US injected cultures of a gut-dwelling bacteria into the intestines of pigs and simulated a dive, they suffered no ill effects afterwards. Page 23
ORDER #4: MORE GAIN, LESS PAIN
When mammograms reveal a suspicious lump only painful breast biopsies can prove if it is benign or cancerous. Now, however, a new scanning device from the US can detect tumours by passing an electric current through the body, reducing the need for many biopsies that turn out to be negative. Page 16
ORDER #5: DOWN BUT NOT OUT
A liquid crystal display that keeps showing its last image even after someone has pulled the plug has been developed by British researchers. The new LCD will eat up less power and extend the battery life of cellphones, palmtops and laptop computers. Page 10
ORDER #6: BACK FROM THE BRINK
The key to the liver's amazing powers of regeneration could be stem cells migrating from bone marrow, say biologists in Pennsylvania. They hope that bone marrow stem cells could be used to grow new liver tissue for patients with cirrhosis. Page 22
ORDER #7: JUST LIKE MOTHER
The old wives' tale that a newborn baby will be scared of the things that frightened its mother during pregnancy may be true - at least for some lizards. Biologists from the University of Sydney found that when pregnant skinks were exposed to live snakes their offspring were more likely to flee when exposed to snake scent. Page 24-25
ORDER #8: WE CAN WORK IT OUT WITH OUTRAGE - (SHORT)
Company spin doctors have a new trick up their sleeves. Faced with a impending public relations disaster they can now seek advice from a software expert system called Outrage. Page 11
ORDER #9: A CHILL IN THE AIR
Above the clouds, the upper atmosphere is growing colder at an alarming rate, and it seems that the greenhouse effect is to blame. Scientists are concerned that if this cooling continues at its present pace, the Arctic could soon have an ozone hole to rival the one that opens each year over the Antarctic. Pages 29-32
ORDER #10: DEATH BY FIRE
Giant animals and birds once roamed Australia, but disappeared about 10 000 years ago. Debate now has centred on whether the first Australians hunted them to death. In a controversial new theory, a geologist from Colorado argues that it was fire, lit by the first colonists, that drove the megafauna to extinction. Pages 38-43
ORDER #11: OUR TORTURED STAR
Why is the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, hotter than its surface? What causes colossal balls of plasma to be blasted from the Sun causing havoc if they hit Earth? Such questions are closer to being answered thanks to a fleet of satellites now studying the Sun, revealing its secrets. Pages 44-48
ORDER #12: OF DUMBBELLS AND DOUGHNUTS
Physicists have found that atomic nuclei can take on a huge variety of shapes such as dumbbells, pyramids and even sausage shapes. Even stranger is the idea that these new elements are all formed from clusters of alpha particles. Scientists are now designing machines that will hunt down other exotic shapes. Pages 35-37
LOCATION INDEX
CO: #9; #10;
CT: #12;
DC: #1; #4; #6; 11;
IL: #12;
MD: #3; #11;
MT: #11;
NJ: #4;
NY: #9;
PA: #6;
- ENDS -
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Issue cover date: 1 MAY 1999
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