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Two or three unprovoked seizures may greatly increase the risk for more seizures and should be necessary criteria for diagnosing epilepsy, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. The study, published in the Feb 12 New England Journal of Medicine, establishes the first mathematically sound definition of epilepsy. The data could lead to a better understanding of seizure occurance and more appropriate treatment intervention.

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A University of Iowa researcher may have made a key advance in finding more effective and safer drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune disorders.

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Survey results revealed that even in the age of modern technology, an overwhelming majority of Americans (94 percent) would prefer to receive a handwritten love letter to one sent by e-mail. As for those most likely to send love letters . . .

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Deep inside the earth, two thousand miles beneath its surface, pockets of molten rock can be found in a region where many scientists did not expect to find anything but solid rock. Researchers funded by the National Science Foundation report the finding in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

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Rancho Mirage, CA ó Physicians reporting at the annual spine-section meeting of the combined American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) societies this week will describe how the Digital Holographyô System from VoxelÆ (NASDAQ:VOXL) helps them diagnose and treat disorders of the spine.

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A Carnegie Mellon University astrophysics professor is weighing in on the ultimate fate of the universe, with a new analysis that shows the universe may eventually stop expanding.

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Neuroscientists at Brandeis University have found new evidence of how memory is selectively retained by the brain. In a paper published in the Feb. 15 Journal of Neuroscience, John Lisman, Ph.D., and Nonna Otmakhova, Ph.D., show how the chemical dopamine operates in the hippocampus of the brain to retain memories. Dopamine appears "to modify the rules of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity," the authors say.

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A new technique for reducing waste from chemical processes involved in everything from petroleum refining to pharmaceutical manufacturing also may hold the key to cleaning up radioactive remains at eastern Washington's Hanford nuclear site, according to University of Washington researchers studying the new process.

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Overdevelopment and the rise in human population are fast becoming the downfall of coastal regions. The greatest threat to sea life today -- other than overfishing -- arises from human activity on land. In fact, humans affect coastal areas, even if they live hundreds of miles inland. This is a critical, global topic, and the New England Aquarium is one organization tackling it.

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A Johns Hopkins anthropologist regarded as one of the leading experts on Islamic movements in the Middle East and Europe is available as a source on the Arab view of the Middle East peace process and the confrontation with Iraq.

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While covering a story on battered women for The New York Times, journalist Andi Rieden became intrigued by the stories officials told her. Given extraordinary access, she spent three-and-a-half-years with inmates and correction officers researching the material for her recent book, "The Farm, Life Inside a Women's Prison."

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Schools interested in attracting involvement from parents and communities can now join a national network focused on the same goal. The National Network of Partnership Schools has been developed by the Center on School, Family and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University.

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Advisory on Johns Hopkins political scientist Steven David, an expert on military strategy and defense issues available as a source on the Iraq crisis.

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Professional tax preparers have been warned, and consumers would do well to heed the advice: income tax information you find on the World Wide Web is likely to be old, out-of-date, and just plain wrong, according to Alan Sumutka, professor of accounting at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ.

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Women still face special roadblocks that discourage many from pursuing careers in engineering and science. A national project, announced Feb. 3, will use the information superhighway to lessen the detours encountered by female college students majoring in engineering and other sciences.

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A study led by University of Minnesota molecular biologist David Zarkower has found that a nematode maleness gene is very similar to maleness genes in fruit flies and maybe humans. These are the first examples of sex-determining genes whose structure has been conserved through eons of evolution, in this case the approximately 500 million years since ancestors of the three animal species split from each other.

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Tulane University and University of Rochester medical researchers find that a vaccine therapy for ovarian cancer using genetically altered tumor cells could improve the effectiveness of certain chemotherapy treatments. The research will be presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

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A new book by a University of Illinois at Chicago art historian tells how the atomic bomb came to occupy its spot at the center of postwar American culture and psychology. Peter Bacon Hales's "Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project" draws on de-classified government files, plus medical records, letters, and photos. Creating the bomb, concludes Hales, "created a new form of American cultural landscape."

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Robert Vecchio, the Franklin D. Schurz Professor of Management at the University of Notre Dame, has edited a new book on leadership in the workplace. Published by the University of Notre Dame Press, "Leadership: Understanding the Dynamics of Power and Influence in Organizations" is an anthology of key writings by leading scholars in the field.

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What do the 1923 Teapot Dome Scandal and the current White House crisis have in common? Plenty, according to Gary Fine, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University who is writing a book on reputation politics.

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A Sandia National Laboratories physicist and his Texas-based colleague have done calculations that may offer additional insight into a decade-old controversy about whether up to 30,000 house-sized snowballs, or icy comets, are striking Earth each day.

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The American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS) recommends that people considering lipoplasty, popularly known as liposuction, be fully informed about the procedure before surgery. In a position statement issued today, the organization states that lipoplasty is believed to be generally safe, provided that patients are carefully selected, the operating facility is properly equipped, and the physician has proper surgical education with special training in body contouring.

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Baltimore Orioles third baseman, Cal Ripken, Jr., and Sinai Health System have formed a partnership to establish Cal Ripken, Jr., Sports Acceleration centers, advanced, sports-specific training programs for athletes. Sports Acceleration will develop several centers in the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area.

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If musicals are back, as newspaper headlines are proclaiming, Northwestern theatre graduates are out there winning the roles that make these shows sing. "It's been another incredible year for Northwestern," says Dominic Missimi, the director of the music theatre program and an associate professor in Northwestern's legendary theatre department.

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1) "Seismic quiescence" sometimes precede the world's strongest and most damaging earthquakes, 2) Scientists have detected an ongoing seafloor volcanic eruption 300 miles off the Oregon coast, 3) Certain habitat conservation plans that promote timber-cutting accords often are based on few hard scientific results

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Creighton researchers spent three months fishing in Antarctica. A three-year NSF grant funds the study of Antarctic teleost fish's ability to survive in the Antarctic Ocean. Research will focus on the fish's salt regulation, and function and size of their chloride cells.

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As prologue to a soon-to-be-published study that confirms the efficacy of valacyclovir--a new, more potent, cost-effective and convenient anti-herpes medication--the study's lead author warns that stopping the spread of genital herpes will take more than popping a pill or avoiding sex during outbreaks.

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A molecular biologist at the University of Georgia has proposed that transposable elements may play a crucial and central role in evolution and could be the "missing link" in our understanding of how multicellular organisms work.

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Women facing surgery for endometrial cancer may want to think twice before embarking on a lengthy course of radiation treatments after the operation, a national study chaired by a Stanford researcher suggests.

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Before the Internet and television, women's magazines were a one-stop shop for advice on fixing marriages, making a casserole, planting flowers and teaching children manners. Vanderbilt University Professor of English Nancy Walker usually researches women's literature, but her most recent book focuses on women's magazines from 1940 to 1960. "I think there is scarcely a better way to look at the lived history of a nation than to look at a popular periodical," Walker said. "You don't get that from a history book."

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Rules established by religious denominations allowing women to be ordained as ministers -- or prohibiting it -- have little to do with the roles women actually play in the church, according to a new book by a sociologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Daily smokers have twice the risk for major depression compared to people who have a history of smoking on an occassional basis, according to a Henry Ford Health System study.

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Medical researchers from the University of California-Irvine and the State University Hospital at Stony Brook, NY, have determined that a vaginal delivery will result in an increased postpartum regression rate for pregnant women with abnormal antepartum cervical cytology. Their findings will be presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

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A revolutionary new tool has been introduced which will help women determine their risk of being attacked by one of the most deadly of all killers: reproductive cancer (cancer of the ovaries, uterus, and cervix). The Women's Cancer Network (WCN) website, at www.wcn.org, is the world's first interactive reproductive cancer website and allows a woman to instantly receive an assessment of her risk for developing these cancers.

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As much as one-fifth of the U.S. population may be at increased risk of heart attacks and strokes because they do not eat enough food with vitamin B-6 and folic acid, according to a report in today's Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Approximately 80% of women with cervical cancer receive a favorable prognosis if treated with a radical hysterectomy and early radiotherapy. However, in the last 30 years, the 20% mortality rate of patients following surgery has not improved. Now, medical researchers specializing in the treatment of women's cancers have completed research that offers hope to women recovering from treatment for this deadly disease. Their findings will be presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

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Medical researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have conducted the first long-term follow-up of ovarian cancer patients having a negative second-look laparotomy, after treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy. Their findings will be presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

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Through a public awareness campaign, researchers in Normal, Ill. were able to significantly improve people's knowledge of stroke warning signs and, in the process, found that women were more apt to listen to stroke messages than men.

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One of the most popular courses at Johns Hopkins University this spring is "Anthropology of Love." Assistant professor Sonia Ryang, who teaches the course, is an excellent Valentine's Day story source on "falling in love" and society's view of romantic love.

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Cornell English Prof. Culler has written a new and very brief introduction to literary theory that is brief, lucid and witty and makes the case that not only will literary theory not kill you, it may even be fun.

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"Through These Eyes: The Photographs of P.H. Polk," one of the South's most eminent African-American photographers, is on display now, north of the Mason Dixon Line, at the University of Delaware.

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Two University of Wyoming scientists have discovered a gene that produces the most highly elastic fiber from a spider's silk.

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NIGHT VISION -- Military and beyond ENERGY -- Lighting tomorrow's way COMPUTING -- Passing today's chips

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The press is invited to attend a meeting of the National Advisory Council (NAC) for Health Care Policy, Research, and Evaluation on February 12, 1998. The Council provides advice to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) on matters related to AHCPR activities.

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After several well-publicized meat safety scares in recent years, irradiation was approved late in 1997 for beef, pork and other red meats. What will this mean for food safety? For consumers?

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It began long ago as a special day for lovers. But modern marketing has transformed St. Valentine's Day into a commercial holiday for all to enjoy, according to n assistant professor of marketing at the University of Maine.

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Researchers at Henry Ford Health System have discovered evidence that suggests the male brain shrinks faster with age than the female brain.

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A University of Arizona geologist and a Yale University colleague have found an unlikely new source of informati9on source of information about prehistoric earthquakes - rock-loving lichens.

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A virtual "flight" through a colon, new math and high-resolution telescopes, a promising new cancer-fighting technique, and new information about plant growth hormones. What do these technological innovations have in common?

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Audio recordings of arguments in Clinton v. Jones before the U.S. Supreme Courts can now be heard on the Supreme Court Web site developed by Jerry Goldman, associate professor of political science at Northwestern University.