EMBARGO: NOT FOR PUBLICATION BEFORE 2:00 PM EDT WEDNESDAY, 5 MAY 1999
ORDER #1: SNORING KILLS Studies in Sweden and Australian show that women who snore when they are pregnant may be at risk of developing dangerously high blood pressure. Around 10 per cent of pregnant women suffer from pre- eclampsia, where high blood pressure can lead to injury or even death in the mother and the fetus. Page 11
ORDER #2: HACKERS HAVE FIELD DAY WITH FREE WEB MAIL Free Web-based e-mail services are vulnerable to hackers, according to findings by an Internet security consultancy in Maryland, US. They found that the three biggest Web-based e-mail services failed to provide a basic security feature that helps keep hackers out. Page 21
ORDER #3: GREEDY BUGS Chicken manure, old newspapers or straw can be used to clean up land contaminated with dangerous chlorinated pesticides such as DDT, say Canadian scientists. They used soil bacteria that feed on rotting waste to break down hazardous substances to less toxic by-products. Page 6
ORDER #4: BUOY SCOUT Japan should soon be able to get advance warning of tsunamis, the giant waves that create havoc when they hit the coast. A new alerting system uses Global Positioning System navigation satellites to monitor the vertical motion of a buoy moored out in the ocean. Page 7
ORDER #5: HIDDEN SACRIFICE Bioethicists have voiced concern over an alarming number of mice that are being slaughtered as "waste'" in transgenic experiments. Technicians have to kill off many mice that don't successfully incorporate the DNA that genetic engineers are trying to insert into them. Page 4
ORDER #6: ALGAE STOLE OUR CARBON Currents spreading into the ocean from the coast of Spain may provide an important clue to where the world's carbon is going. European oceanographers say they have found where the "missing sink" of carbon is going--to the bottom of the ocean with dying algae. Page 15
ORDER #7: PLANE DECEIT The Royal Air Force deliberately concealed the fact that its aircraft may have exposed Fijians to dangerous radioactivity during the nuclear test era of the 1950s. Crews of RAF bombers landing in the South Pacific islands were ordered not to tell the authorities that their engines were coated with radioactive material, after flying through mushroom clouds collecting samples. Page 14
ORDER #8: I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL Today many people are spending an awful lot of time in front of a computer, so wouldn't it be nice if they could read exactly how you felt--telling you to take a break when you're stressed, playing a CD when you're feeling sad. Researchers are exploring the new science of "affective" computing, where the machine is able to detect and respond to your emotions, and even let others know how you're feeling. Pages 27-31
ORDER #9: THE TWILIGHT ZONE Are there really planetary systems around other stars, or are we being fooled by tiny, mischievous stars called brown dwarfs? Pages 38-41
ORDER #10: HEADS IN THE CLOUDS Climate change could be killing frogs in the Costa Rican cloud forest. For the first time a biologist and climatologist have worked together to show the effects that global warming has had on wildlife in this unique habitat. They say that warmer temperatures during the forest's dry season have shifted the cloud bank up to a higher altitude, spelling doom for many of the region's animals. Pages 32-36
ORDER #11: THE HAND IN YOUR HEAD Keeping control of our arms and legs is no mean feat, and no one really knows how we coordinate all this information to perform quick movements. But neuroscientists are close to an answer. The cerebellum in the brain acts as a virtual reality centre, creating simulations of our movements to help control the real thing. Pages 43-45
LOCATION INDEX CA(Bay Area): #8; #9; #10; CA(Elsewhere): #9; FL: #3; #10; GA: #8; MA: #8; #9; MD: #2; TX: #9; Canada: #3;
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Issue cover date: 8 MAY 1999
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