to terms
al limits
Thursday
Page 9
October 10, 1996
ISSUES
MPAICI
Jeformed frogs
reate concern
Ross Perot
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HENDERSON, Minn. (AP) —
nice Nelson was catching
for catfish bait last year
lien he realized something
as horribly wrong: Some of
it frogs had stumps for legs,
id others had as many as four
ngled hind legs.
“You see deformed things all
letime in nature, but nothing
lethis,” Nelson said.
1 across Minnesota and
neighboring Wisconsin,
wth Dakota
id Quebec, sci-
itists and lo
lls are seeing
esame kind of
itesquely mis-
lapen limbs,
with frogs
I tails, miss-
gor shrunken
es, and small-
sex organs.
Scientists
vehad a hard
Be finding
itlands in Min-
sota with no deformed frogs,
ost recently, deformed frogs
“You see
deformed things
all the time in
nature, but
nothing like
this.”
Bruce Nelson
Fisherman
What worries many around
the state is whether humans are
in danger, too.
“There's a reasonable as
sumption that if there’s an ex
ternal substance influencing
amphibian development, it
could influence human devel
opment,” said David Hoppe,
who is on a state-financed
team of scientists researching
the problem.
The federal Environmental
Protection
Agency plans to
do its own study.
The fact that
the abnormalities
are widespread
suggests that the
problem has more
than one source,
said Hoppe, a her
petologist from
the University of
Minnesota at
Morris.
His best guess
5 arguments to makes® f found in Vermont.
ent
uchecTina
scares me, said Judy Hel-
|j n, a research scientist with
iMinnesota Pollution Con-
1 Agency. “I’m at different
els of getting a chill down
: spine.”
Scientists aren’t sure what’s
|iising the deformities. The
lories run the gamut from
iticides to parasites to radia-
mfrom ozone depletion, or
le combination of factors.
is some sort of water
pollution, possibly from some
thing airborne.
That could come from heavy
metals, pesticides or a whole
array of things that settle onto
the landscape.
In researching some 10,000
frogs this summer, Hoppe.found
that the most aquatic frogs had
the worst abnormalities.
“I was very surprised, star
tled even,” he said, “because
I’ve seen a lot of frogs over the
years and I’ve never seen any
thing like that.”
FDA confirms
heart drug’s
effectiveness
BOSTON (AP) — A new study
confirms the safety of one widely
prescribed medicine in a controver
sial class of heart drugs called calci
um channel blockers.
These drugs are often given to
treat high blood pressure and angi
na chest pain. Worries about them
arose over a year ago when research
suggested they may increase the
risk of Heart attacks.
In January, an expert panel of the
Food and Drug Administration con
cluded that newer versions of calci
um channel blockers are safe.
In the latest study, doctors tested
a long-acting calcium channel
blocker called Norvasc, .or amlodip-
ine, on 1,153 people who were se
verely ill with heart failure.
Dr. Milton Packer and col
leagues from Columbia University
published the results in Thursday’s
issue of the New England Journal
of Medicine.
During follow-up ranging from
six to 33 months, 33 percent of pa
tients getting Norvasc died, com
pared with 38 percent taking dum
my pills. The difference was not
statistically meaningful.
While the treatment is not
proven to help heart failure patients
live longer, the researchers said the
study shows the medicine can safe
ly be given to these patients for
angina or high blood pressure.
Pfizer Inc., which makes Nor
vasc, said the drug is taken by about
5 million people worldwide.
lue-ribbon commissim <•
th an earlier crisis ini
ranges are pretty muclii NEW YORK (AP) — Six scien-
he campaign. The subjet is—five of them Americans —
in Nobel Prizes on Wednesday
dime Dole adviser onto i discovering soccer ball-
3S on the advisory col iped molecules dubbed “buck-
Is" and a strange form of heli-
iti’ ithat could shed light on the
itrse’s first few instants,
k) Texans and a Briton won
r-reaching privatizai*
of Social Securityi
viduals, not theg
) invest the money,
signaled an openns'i chemistry prize for discover-
m recent interviews^
U.S. government
orporations?”
both expressed a
her. It is now
by the advisory
l billion of Social Sec® 1
Ives.
at forward by the advisi
in turn, said re;
e and Kemp were
billion tax s
uld ‘‘blow a hole foil
and cause much deef 1
ive Americans win Nobel Prize
family of carbon molecules
i of Retired Persons,!® itspawned a new field of study,
tain reservations.DA anally known as fullerenes and
ormally called buckyballs, the
■shaped molecules were
led for architect R. Buckmin-
rFuller because of their resem-
nceto his geodesic domes.
Hid The prize was shared by Harold
Kroto, 57, who teaches at Sussex
other two plans wotildi iversity in England, and Robert
id, Jr., 63, and Richard E. SmaJ-
53, of Rice University in Hous-
1 fairly dramatic just aifi, The three discovered bucky-
institute, a group pustt IsatRicein 1985.
Buckyballs haven’t become a
tical part of daily life, but
emists predict that fullerene
hnology is on the horizon,
mong other things, they are
rking on using buckyballs to
$550 billion t^cscW J( | uct electricity without re-
tance or to deliver medicine
othe body. Scientists might
dedicate, Medicaid,etW ; n g e a fii e to turn buckyballs
the environment.” o diamonds,
promoted Clintonsit does is it gives you a
eted tax cuts to helpfe jiiding block that can be em-
ddle-class families^ y e dfor a number of possibili-
'g e - i,”said Stuart Staley, a chemist
o countered that govt® Carnegie Mellon University in
lould not engage in ■ tsburgh. “There’s certainly a lot
gineering” bypicW acitement.”
s and losers through- Fullerenes were thought at first
cy. In any event,^ bean exclusively manmade in-
vas “four years too 1« I: ition, but after the chemists cre-
ton to be promisingi® dthem in the laboratory, the
s tax cuts. ilecules were found in natural
) fudged when asked^gs on Earth and in space
vith Dole’s call for a ref David M. Lee, 65, Robert C.
mily leave law. ‘Two# hardson, 59, and Douglas C.
ed for it,” Kempsaid, beroff, 51, were honored with a
iw is popular with W#
, a critical constitud 11
e sensed an opening,
lould n’t be repealed
o be extended," the' 1
it said.
Nobel in physics for finding that
at temperatures within two thou-
sandtlis of a degree of absolute
zero, the isotope helium-3 can be
made to flow essentially without
slowing down. The phenomenon
is known as superfluidity.
Lee and Richardson teach at
Cornell University in New York.
Osheroff is a professor at Stan
ford University in California.
Their research was done at Cor
nell in the 1970s.
“Superfluid helium-3 just
popped up. We weren’t really
looking for it,” Osheroff said from
his home in Redwood City, Calif.
The research has recently
shed light on the first moments
of the universe.
The physical transitions that oc
cur as helium becomes frictionless
are similar to processes believed to
have taken place a fraction of a
second after the big bang, accord
ing to the Nobel citation.
The discovery of superfluidity
in helium-3 also helps physicists
explore the rules that govern the
behavior of subatomic matter.
With almost all of the heat sucked
out of it, helium-3 behaves ac
cording to weird quantum rules
that are hard to discern under
normal conditions.
No technological applications
have resulted from the discovery
yet, but the possibilities are great.
Among other things, the research
could help scientists understand
superconductivity, the phenome
non whereby some substances at
very low temperatures conduct
electricity without resistance.
The winners will split the
chemistry and physics Nobels,
worth $1.12 million this year.
The prizes will be bestowed
on Dec. 10, the anniversary of
the death of dynamite inventor
Alfred Nobel, whose will created
the prizes.
N O B EL
Chemistry • 1996
Winners since 1986
1996 Harold W. Kroto, Britain and
Robert F. Curl Jr. and Richard
E. Smalley,
United States
1995 Paul Crutzen, Netherlands
and Mario Molina and
F. Sherwood Rowland,
United States
1994 George A. Olah, United States
1993 Kary B. Mullis, United States
and Michael Smith, Canada
1992 Rudolph A. Marcus,
Canadian-born American
1991 Richard R. Ernst,
Switzerland
1990 Elias James Corey,
United States
1989 Sidney Altman and
Thomas Cech,
United States
1988 Johann Diesenhofer,
Robert Huber and
Hartmut Michel,
Germany
1987 Donald J. Cram and
Charles J. Pedersen,
United States
Jean-Marie Lehn, France
1986 Dudley R. Herschbach
and Yuan T. Lee,
United States
John C. Polanyi, Canada
Follow the bouncing man.
Fred and his partner, ballerina Daielma Santos, will inflate your spirits and make your eyes bug out in amazement!
With air-filled props that whirl and dance,
Fred Garbo puts you in a trance.
And while he roles and glides and shakes
You’ll laugh until your belly aches.
J
,JR.
FOR THE YOUNG AT ARTI
http://opas.tamu.edu
MSC Box Office: 845-1234
Persons with disabilities please call 845-8903 to inform us of your special
needs. We request notification three (3) working days prior to the event
to enable us to assist you to the best of our ability.
Now accepting AggieBucks.™
Saturday / October 12,1996 / Texas A&M's
Rudder Auditorium / 6:30pm
O
The Dslav Sistas'
Fist 100 Yeas
1
.ftIt 4s,-..
4 JBBh.
K--; I
b L
Mm
Opera & Performing Arts Society
0NAL BESTSELLER
IS NOW AMERICA S
BEST-LOVED PLAY!
“Having Our Say”chronicles the
lives of Sadie and Bessie Delany,
two pioneering women who have stood witness
to 100 years of American life. Born a generation
after the Civil War, the Delany Sisters, played by Lizan Mitchell
and Micki Grant, invite the audience into their home for a remarkable
narrative journey, revealing their memories of the past, their secrets
of the present, and their hopes for the future.
October 20th. 3:00 p.m.
Rudder Auditorium
For Tickets Call 845-1234
http://opas.tamu.edu Now accepting Aggie Bucks'"
t_ Persons with disabilities please call 845-8903 to inform us of your special needs. We request
(3- notification three (3) working days prior to the event to enable us to assist you to the best of our ability.
Dew Drop Inn Tour ‘96
with special guest: JOSH CLAYTON-FELT
MONDAY, OCT. 28 • Rudder Auditorium
Tickets at Foley's, Randalls and Texas MSC Box Office
or charge by phone : 409-268-041 4 1
Produced by MSC Town Hall and PACE Concerts
Persons with disabilities please call 845-1515 to inform us of your special needs. We request notification three (3) wc
ing days prior to the even to enable us to assit you to the best of our abilities.