EMBARGO: NOT FOR PUBLICATION BEFORE
2:00 PM EST WEDNESDAY, 13 JANUARY 1999
ORDER #1: UNLOCKING THE MIND
Researchers in Germany and America claim to have developed a device
which teaches totally paralysed patients to type, without using surgery of
any kind. The device reads brain waves through the skull, enabling
patients to control a cursor on a computer screen. Page 4
ORDER #2: INTO THE WOMB
Gene therapy could be used on human fetuses sooner than expected.
Next month, a prenatal treatment for cystic fibrosis will be tested on
rhesus monkeys. The technique could be ready for human trials before
the end of the year. Page 12
ORDER #3: IT'S THE SOLUTION
Human eggs don't freeze well. But researchers in New Jersey say they
have overcome the problem by abandoning the idea that the eggs should
be frozen in a solution resembling body fluids. They have obtained high
survival rates by using a solution of choline ions instead of saline. Page
10
ORDER #4: CHILLING OUT
The blood vessels and airways in our heads may be arranged to act as a
heat exchanger that cools blood before it enters the brain. What's more,
researchers in London believe the failure of this system to lower brain
temperature might be a cause of sudden infant death syndrome. Page 7
ORDER #5: MARK OF A PRINCESS
The face of Diana, Princess of Wales could become a registered
trademark. The executors of her will are attempting to trademark a
virtual reality model of her face to prevent Diana's image being used on
unauthorised goods. Page 8
ORDER #6: CLOSING IN ON CANCER
A fast three-dimensional imaging device could be the ultimate in
noninvasive screening for cancerous tissue. This new US technique,
called Hall Effect Imaging, uses ultrasonic emissions to highlight
variations in electrical conductivity between healthy and diseased tissue,
and could avoid the need for painful biopsies. Page 9
ORDER #7: SNOW BUSINESS
A skier from Denver has thought up a simple breathing contraption
which could help avalanche victims survive being buried in snow for up
to an hour. The device, called the AvaLung, is sewn into the front of a
jacket and extracts air from the snow itself. Page 16
ORDER #8: MARS ON EARTH
A barren island in the Canadian Arctic could be the next best thing to
landing on Mars. The Mars Society plans to build a simulated Mars
station on Devon Island, which bears a lot of similarities to the Martian
environment. The Arctic station could help researchers test everything
crucial to survival on Mars. Page 19
ORDER #9: BREATHE EASY
Fears that thousands of people worldwide die each year from lung
cancers caused by naturally occurring radon gas may be groundless. In
the first study of its kind, carried out in New York, researchers have
failed to find a link between domestic exposure to radon and lung
cancer. Page 13
ORDER #10: ABSOLUTE SUSHI
Despite a delay from a ship fire, the fleet for Japan's programme of
"scientific" whaling is getting ready to catch its full quota of minke
whales.
Opponents allege that this is commercial hunt for whales in the guise of
science. Page 5
ORDER #11: SYNCHRONISED SEX
When the biological clocks of males and females are out of sync, their
sex lives suffer. Japanese researchers, who made their discovery while
studying the melon fly, say that differences in daily rhythm might even
promote the evolution of new species. Page 15
ORDER #12: SPACE ODDITY
Decades ago, astronomers realised that most of the mass in our galaxy is
invisible. Initially, one theory for the nature of this "dark matter" gained
ground: it was locked up on the outreaches of the Milky Way in stars,
called MACHOs. At the same time evidence has emerged for rival
carriers of the missing matter. These are "weakly interacting massive
particles", which shoot through all of us all the time. Today the WIMPs
are on the ascendant. Pages 24-28
ORDER #13: NUCLEAR LIFELINE
Physicists believe they have come up with the ideal solution for
destroying hazardous radioactive waste, and making underground
nuclear storage a cinch. The answer is a neutron treatment called
transmutation, and the race is on between Europe and America to get
there first. Pages 31-33
ORDER #14: THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
Researchers have long been trying to work out why our eyes can let us
get something as seemingly obvious as up and down so wrong. Visual
illusions are helping researchers work out the neurological basis of
perception. Pages 39-42
ORDER #15: MAKING LIFE SIMPLE
A team of researchers believe that relics from the most distant biological
past, before DNA arrived on the scene, may have been more like the
complex cells of today's animals and plants than the bacteria normally
regarded as life's most ancient ancestors. Pages 34-37
LOCATION INDEX:
CA(Bay Area): #12; #14; #15;
CO: #7; #8;
GA: #1;
ID: #13;
IL: #12;
LA: #2;
MA: #15;
MD: #6;
NJ: #3; #12;
NM: #13;
NY: #9;
PA: #9;
UT: #7;
Canada: #8; #14
- ENDS-
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Issue cover date: 16 January 1999
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