MAGAZINE ISSUE DATE: 7 AUGUST 2004 (Vol. 183 No 2459)
GLOBAL BSE CRISIS/ SPECIAL REPORT:
AMERICAN NIGHTMAREThe US has so far found only one cow infected with BSE. But all the experts New Scientist has contacted say "there is no such thing as an isolated case, and it's likely the disease has been circulating in herds for years" . Despite the potential hazards, American consumers seem unconcerned and sales of beef remain unaffected. Pages 33-36
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND?No one in the US has ever been formally diagnosed with variant CJD, the human form of mad cow disease. But does that mean there's nothing to worry about? Pages 37-38
WHEN PROTEINS ATTACKAs soon as BSE, and vCJD struck, an obscure group of proteins, called prions, went mainstream. Today new insights are helping scientists deal with questions such as: Why some strains of prion spread from one species to another " as BSE did to humans " while other strains " such as scrapie in sheep " don't affect humans at all. Pages 39-41
NEWS:
HUMAN BSE " WHY IS A CURE SO ELUSIVE?Eighteen years after BSE first emerged in the UK, we still have little idea how to treat people with vCJD. Researchers still privately disagree over which drugs show most promise, but later this month, the UK government's Medical Research Council will launch a trial of potential treatments for vCJD. Pages 12-13
COLD WAR STARTS OVER LIFE IN ANTARCTIC LAKEControversy has erupted over Lake Vostok, which lies deep beneath the Antarctic ice. A Russian and French team believe there are no authentic bacteria in the ice above the lake's surface, and that any microbes that have been found there are contaminants from the drilling. Furthermore, they say, the lake is too toxic to support life. If they are right, Lake Vostok will be the only known sterile body of water on Earth. But American scientists insist the lake is a source of undiscovered life forms. Pages 6-7
BUSH-MEAT TRADE BREEDS NEW HIVThe HIV virus has jumped from primates to people on at least seven separate occasions in recent history, not twice as commonly thought. It's thought that new strains of an HIV-like virus are circulating in wild animals and infecting those who eat them. The warnings come from experts at a meeting this week in New York, who say that a flourishing trade in bush meat is creating ideal conditions for new diseases to emerge. Page 8
STEALTH WALLPAPER KEEPS COMPANY SECRETS SAFEThe same technology designed to hide radar on warships can also stop intruders gaining access to secure company networks inside buildings. A British defence contractor has developed a type of wallpaper that can prevent Wi-Fi signals escaping from a building, while still letting through mobile phone signals. Page 19
ROBOT GUARD WILL SMOKE OUT VILLAINS6-wheeled robot security guards will soon be patrolling companies or airports in Japan. Robot X can chase intruders, take pictures of them, issue loud warnings, and even release a cloud of billowing smoke to confuse them. Page 21
INVENTIONScrolling through page after page of text on a computer screen is often tedious as it involves repetitive pointing and clicking with the mouse, which could cause repetitive strain injury. US inventors suggest three different ways to avoid operating the mouse with one hand. One idea moves the action to the feet. Page 21
OTHER FEATURES:
DO WE HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT? The search for alien messages relies heavily on radio telescopes sweeping the skies for signals. But this strategy assumes that they are intelligent aliens using the same technology as us. What if ET has left a message for us by some other means? The perfect place to leave a message for us could be an attention grabbing DNA sequence inserted into our living cells by specially crafted viruses. Page 30-31
FIRE DOWN BELOWNo one questions that an intense heat exists at the centre of the Earth. But according to an independent physicist, we are standing on an enormous natural nuclear reactor several kilometres across. We may not be able to journey to the centre of the Earth to have a look, but scientists are building machines to detect subatomic particles, produced from radioactive decay, that have travelled out from the core. Pages 26-29
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NewScientist is the world's leading science and technology news weekly, boasting a circulation of 145,000. The magazine is now available to readers worldwide, with US and Australian editions of NewScientist now being published.Visit our public website for further stories on our daily online news service: www.newscientist.com
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