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Acting as the world's most powerful telescopic tandem, the Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Telescope are starting to unravel the evolutionary histories of galaxies dating back to when the universe was just 10 percent of its current age. Embargoed * For release at 9:20 a.m. EST Thursday, January 16, 1997, in conjunction with the presentation of paper #103.05 at the American Astronomical Society meeting.

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January 15, 1997 Annals of Internal Medicine Tip 1) Providing Quality Care for Dying Patients; Practical Issues for Physician-Assisted Suicide 2) Tuberculosis in HIV-Infected Individuals More Common in Eastern United States 3) Medical Decision Rules Should Not Be Based On Medical Necessity, Cost-Effectiveness

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Neurologists and nutritionists at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center are using a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet to control seizures in epileptic children who do not respond to, or cannot tolerate, medication. The "ketogenic diet" was actually devised in the 1920s, but fell out of favor with the advent of effective anti-seizure medications.

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U-M computer model detects "fingerprint" of massive black holes in three nearby galaxies.

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People called upon to sit on juries for capital crimes often do not understand the language of the law, the factors they are supposed to weigh in considering a sentence, or even that they have final responsibility for imposing punishment. New research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks ways to improve the judgment of jurors who literally make life and death decisions.

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Powerful winter storms that strike the U.S. West Coast often occur in series, like the ones that recently raked Washington, Oregon, and California. These storms have their counterparts in the North Atlantic, and scientists are hot on their trail. A major field program involving NCAR, UCAR and researchers from 11 countries is straddling the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland to study fierce oceanic winter storms.

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The first international conference on computational molecular biology will be held at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe, N.M., from January 20-23, 1997. Among the expected 200 participants are Nobel laureate Rich Roberts and Turing Award winner Richard Karp. If that werenít enough reknown, "Interestingly, some of the scientists involved in this conference are so famous in their fields that they were tapped to testify at the O. J. Simpson criminal trial," said Sorin Istrail, a Sandia National Laboratories scientist and one of the conference organizers.

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While DHEA is lauded as possibly the nutritional supplement of the decade, Phase I clinical trials of a synthetic version believed to be more effective and without the side effects of the natural steroid begin late this month.

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Giant balloons floating around the Antarctic helped UAH scientists gather what may be the first evidence of specific sources of cosmis rays, especially the cosmic rays which carry the most energy

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Image-guided software developed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville may help doctors better diagnose cancer and plan surgery by allowing the more effective use of information collected from computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanned images.

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A slightly cooler than normal December ended a slightly cooler than normal year. December's Global Temperature Report includes a special advisory relating to a new analysis of satellite data.

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A new approach for manipulating laser light on the microscopic scale was announced Jan.2 in the journal Nature in a cover story by Yale University applied physicist A. Douglas Stone. It could expand traffic on fiber-optic networks, speed up computers, improve video displays and lead to better laser printers.

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Fewer sunspots will erupt on the sun's surface during the next decade, indicating an unexpected decrease in the activity of magnetic fields that churn the sun's hot gases, Yale University and NASA astronomers predict. The milder "space weather" -- marked by a decrease in magnetic storms, cosmic rays and ionspheric disturbances -- could bring cooler temperatures on earth, fewer power blackouts and less interference with radio waves. Embargo: Jan. 14, 1997, 10 a.m. edt

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Called sonoluminescence, the enigma has intrigued scientists since it was discovered in the 1930's. Today, researchers are trying to harness the process for possible commercial applications ranging from broad-band underwater sonar to pollution-free energy. A Yale mechanical engineer challenged colleagues around the world to come up with new experiments to test the growing list of theories.

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Yale University has entered a dark horse in the international race to find dark matter, the 90 percent or more of the universe's mass that is unseen and unknown but exerts a profound influence on the distribution and shape of visible galaxies. Theories about the composition of this missing matter range from exotic new kinds of subatomic particles to black holes, burned out stars or intergalactic dust and gas.

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An array of new ideas are being explored by the Yale Center for Computational Vision and Control ranging from a three-dimensional computer mouse that can control the motion of a robotic arm to a visual tracking system that can superimpose a clown face over a human face on a television monitor.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now determining whether mercury emissions should be regulated under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. If the decision is made to regulate mercury emissions from electric power plants, what's the best way to control the emissions? Do methods exist to accurately measure the type and amount of mercury in exhaust gases emitted from power plants?

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Today, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Toronto, Canada, astronomers Kurt Slinglend, David Batuski, and Chris Miller of the University of Maine, presented evidence for what appears to be the longest single structure yet seen in the universe, a supercluster of galaxies about one billion light-years in length.

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Platynus indecentis, a "bog beetle" misidentified for 85 years, has been discovered in a Cornell insect collection and given proper species identification.

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Student ethnobotany expeditions to the Venezuelan Amazon and Mexican Yucatan are identifying plant-based medicinals used by indigenous peoples for centuries. Potential antibiotics, contraceptives and insect-bite remedies are among the chemical compounds under analysis by Cornell University students, whose expenses are paid by the Minority International Research Training Program of the National Institutes of Health.

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What educators can teach young parents about becoming good parents is the topic of a new and revised curriculum from Cornell University.

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DETROIT -- Men and women with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have a higher incidence of tuberculosis if they live in the eastern United States or test positive for mumps, say researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. EMBARGOED UNTIL: 5 p.m., Jan. 14, 1997

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Washington, D.C., January 13, 1997 -- An Environmental Protection Agency proposal to set new clean air standards would still leave 89 million people potentially exposed to dangerous levels of deadly particle pollution, according to a new report by the American Lung Association.

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Many quasars, the most luminous objects in the universe, are swaddled by galaxies containing ordinary stars that lie at the same distances from earth as the quasars themselves, according to new research that used the Keck Telescopes in Hawaii.

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A high-engery power source hidden inside a galaxy 660 million light years from Earth has provided new evidence supporting a theory that all such "active galaxies" harbor quasars in their nuclei. The findings are being released Jan. 13 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE AT 9:20 A.M. EST ON MONDAY, JAN. 13, 1997

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Does job stress adversely affect blood pressure? Research hasnít provided clear answers. Now a new Australian study suggests that itís what a worker does to cope with stress, not the stress itself, that may raise blood pressure and thus endanger health. The study participants should know about stress in the workplace: they work in a tax office.

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According to recent measurements by Purdue University physicists, an electron may not be a simple negative point charge, as scientists often describe it. "Science and engineering students have learned for years that the electron has a constant electronic strength, but now we've seen that this may not be the case," says David Koltick, professor of physics at Purdue.

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Wildlife Conservation Society researcher develops a new trawl net that drastrically reduces the number of undersized fish caught in the high-volume commercial pollock fishery -- the world's largest trawl fishery. In the U.S. alone, pollock catches $6 billion in 1994. This new net will affect this industry with in the next year.

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Johns Hopkins chemist David Draper says he works in an "RNA world." He considers DNA "this monotonous double helix," and has chosen instead to focus on the multi-folded, complex, and important shape and structure of RNA.

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By recreating the genetic mayhem that characterizes cancer development, Stanford researchers have isolated a key gene involved in human breast cancer. The gene, called TSG101, was defective in almost half of the breast cancers the researchers studied.

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Johns Hopkins Children's Center scientists have identified TWIST as the disease gene causing Saethre-Chotzen syndrome, one of the most common genetic conditions with craniosynostosis, the early closure of the cranial sutures. Their findings, which also include the mapping of TWIST in the human genome, appear in the January issue of Nature Genetics.

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Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood of UC Santa Cruz, a nationally recognized biologist, spokesperson for higher education, and an experienced voice in the arena of national scientific policy, has been chosen by her peers as the next president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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The new Intel Pentium MMX microprocessor may lure buyers because a new study shows a majority of current World Wide Web users have begun to experience hardware and software problems when attempting to test new innovations.

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National tax reform may have a substantial impact on the environment as well as on economic growth, researchers at Resources for the Future and Stanford University suggest. They have recently launched a study of the environmental implications of three alternative tax plans -- the flat tax, the national sales tax, and the unlimited savings account tax -- now under discussion in Congress.

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A University of Minnesota entomologist has found that a line of "hygienic" bees can defend their hives against the huge Varroa mite and also against two common honeybee diseases, a finding that spells hope in the face of a 100 percent Varroa infestation rate in hives nationwide. The work is published in the current Apidologie.

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University of Wisconsin researchers have found that a single protein orchestrates not only cell differentiation, but also cell division. Reported in the current Science, the findings may have important implications for understanding pancreatic and colon cancer.

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ASME International (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) is contributing 12 technical sessions and symposia at National Manufacturing Week, to be held March 10-13, 1997, in Chicago, Ill. The sessions will explore energy conservation, asset management, problem solving and other issues impacting the safety, reliability and maintenance of plant facilities and their systems. Speakers include members of the ASME Plant Engineering and Maintenance Division.

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Dr. John Lienhard, the MD Anderson Professor of Mechanical Engineering and History at the University of Houston, invites those attending Energy Week to travel with him down "The Highways of the 30's," on Wed., Jan. 29, at 6:00 p.m., at the George R. Brown Convention Center, 3rd Level. An honorary member of ASME International, Dr. Lienhard will describe how engineering advancements in automotive technology, fuels and service have changed our society.

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January Tip Sheet from the American College of Emergency Physicians: 1) Defincienceis in Some Technologies for Identifying At-Risk Patients; Costs Nation Approximately $3 Billion; 2) Improving Speed, Accuracy of ED Triage Key Saves Lives and Money in Chest Pain Cases; 3) ED Chest Pain Observation Units Preferred by Patients Over Hospital Inpatient Care; 4) Requiring Stress Testing of Chest Pain Center Patients Cost-Effective; 5) Some Teen Visits to EDs May Indicate Depression

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A study of 934 patients may offer some guidance to heart disease patients, their doctors and even insurance companies facing a choice between open heart surgery and the less invasive procedure called balloon angioplasty.

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ATHENS, Ga. -- The steady warming of the Earth's atmosphere, along with increased concentrations of carbon dioxide, could one day bring cataclysmic changes to the planet, some scientists believe. They have suggested global warming could cause anything from the widespread elimination of species to the melting of polar ice caps. But new studies in USDA's Southern Global Change Program indicate there is at least one hidden advantage to increased CO2 concentrations: much better tree growth due to improved photosynthesis.

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Beginning early January, a new FAA/NCAR system being demonstrated at LaGuardia and O'Hare airports will provide snowfall "nowcasts" up to 30 minutes in advance for participating airlines to help reduce takeoff delays, increase safety, and save money on deicing procedures. United, USAir, and Delta are testing the new system.

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Purdue University's Center for Agricultural Business (CAB) is celebrating its 10th year as a link between the university and the agricultural marketplace.

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More than 500 space technology scientists from around the world are expected to attend the University of New Mexico Space Technology and Applications International Forum scheduled for Jan. 26-30 at the Hyatt Regency in Albuquerque, NM.

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A Johns Hopkins engineer has developed "magnetic tweezers," a joystick-controlled device he uses to grab and manipulate single molecules of DNA. He is developing the device for such uses as non-invasive transportation of medicine through a patient's veins directly to diseased cells.

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Consuming a substance found in red wine, grapes and other foods may prevent cancer, University of Illinois at Chicago researchers report in the Jan. 10 issue of Science magazine. The researchers discovered the cancer chemopreventive activity of the substance, resveratrol, as part of a project to test plants from around the world for their ability to prevent cancer. EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE by Science magazine Thursday, Jan. 9, 1997 4 p.m. Eastern time

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Experiments with hamsters show that exposure to bright light blocks the effects of serotonin in the brain, acording to a letter in Thursday's Nature.

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The benefits of Redux (d-fenfluramine) don't outweigh the risks, according to Cornell University nutritionist David Levitsky,who has examined the 40 studies on long-term use of the diet pill. "People do lose weight more easily with than with a placebo, but the advantage of taking the medication over a placebo after a year is less than 5-and-a-half pounds."

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The 12-state Northeast was sopping, soggy, soaked and sodden as the region sloshed its way to the wettest year in more than a century -- 102 years of official records -- with 53.89 inches of precipitation. This easily broke the old record set in 1972 by 2.55 inches, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University.

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Concerned that raccoon rabies could infect wildlife and humans, Canadian authorities are reaching across the border to help support oral vaccination programs in Northeastern states by veterinarians and wildlife biologists from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.