NEW SCIENTIST PRESS RELEASE
EMBARGO: NOT FOR PUBLICATION BEFORE
1900 HOURS GMT WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1997
ORDER #1: WHITE BREAD IS GREEN
Vegetarians may be healthier, but meat eaters do more for the environment. A survey of the energy used to produce and distribute various foods has found that meat and processed food such as sweets, ice cream, potato chips and white bread are among the most energy-efficient - and so least polluting - foods in our diet. Page 10
ORDER #2: SEX 'N' DRUGS 'N' SEROTONIN
The time lag between male orgasms may be controlled by a part of the brain just behind a man's eyes, US neuroscientists reported this week. The discovery may help chemists redesign drugs such as antidepressants which can cause sexual dysfunction. Page 18
ORDER #3: MISTREAT A MACAQUE AND SHE MAY ABUSE HER YOUNG
Infant abuse in monkeys is concentrated in certain families and passes from generation to generation just as in humans, says a scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. Page 19
ORDER #4: ANATOMY OF A CRASH
A smart camera originally developed to help golfers improve their game is now helping traffic police in their efforts to cut the number of accidents. Positioned by the side of the road at busy junctions, the video camera records the events of a car crash, as the noise of crunching metal causes the sequence to be saved onto the camera's memory chip. Page 12
ORDER #5: SLEEP EASY IN SYDNEY
A window that dramatically reduces the noise of low-flying aircraft by closing automatically when a plane approaches has been developed by researchers at the University of Sydney. This could have a huge impact on those living under a flight path who cannot open their windows on hot summer nights without being deafened. Page 22
ORDER #6: THE LAST STRAW
The state of California produces 1.5 million tons of rice straw every year but most of it is burnt rather than reused. A local company has suggested another use for this waste: BioFab's rice straw coffins will be available once the company has tested the biodegradability of its product by burying dead pigs in them. Page 15
ORDER #7: DISHONEST BROKERS
Behind the scenes at the climate change conference in Kyoto, Japan, this week, the US and Japan are pressing to change the date from which any reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are calculated. Instead of basing each country's cuts on its emissions from 1990, they want them based on 1995 figures. As carbon dioxide emissions from industrialised countries went up in this period, this would mean that they would have to cut their emissions by much smaller amounts. Page 4
ORDER #8: RUSSIA'S TOXIC SHOCKER
Radioactive contamination from the production of plutonium for the former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons was far higher than anyone believed, warns a new study from Russian and Norwegian radiologists. Page 15
ORDER #9: THE VANISHING POINT
Military scientists are developing a thick artificial fog that will engulf future battlefields. The idea is to equip troops with goggles that can peer through the smog while the enemy remains blind. Pages 38-41
ORDER #10: HERE'S THE ONE I PREPARED EARLIER
Flexible flat screens could be made from a new generation of plastic chemical sandwiches that glow when a current passes through them. Pages 40-43
ORDER #11: TRUST ME, I'M AN EXPERT
Financial traders are turning to artificially intelligent computers to manage people's life savings. Pages 26-30
ORDER #12: ON THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE
Living examples of an ancient tree thought to have died out with the dinosaurs have been uncovered by researchers. Now scientists are struggling to work out how "the botanical find of the century" could have survived. Pages 36-39
- ENDS -
December 3, 1997
Issue cover date: December 6, 1997
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