5
I uesday, f'ebniar,
1. DELU
! This Do55a)t'
The SCRet/Ji
vi »/ (JHEK5 ARE
scienceStechnology
sday, February 15,2000
THE BATTALION
Page 5
^HAT
aJoiSE ??
iillM.homoprtgp.com
B-H
amily health and fitness
tudy focuses on link between genetics and exercise
BY I) WE AMBER
The; Battalion
Ilhere mighi be bad news for some
Iters and fitntss freaks.
I Genetic Hints miglit keeptlieni iVoin
fehing their desired goals.
Jack Wilrrbre, Texas A&M depart-
ht head and professor of health and
kinesiology, Is part of a large intema-
pnal study pf genetics’ role in fitness.
I Based oi results from the recent
Jdy, Wilrrore said it might not matter
|\v hard some people tr> to achieve a
i fitnesslevel.
People respond to exercise stimuli in
nerent tuays and each person has ins
In fitness range, affected more by
|nes thapr.kv
That people’s genes might limit their
|ness potential might seem like an ob-
ous result, but this is the first large-
ale population studs' to suggest this.
Wilmoreand fellow investigator Jim
Skinner, an Indiana University professor
of kinesiology, compiled a large inter-
generational data set of families’ re
sponses to exercise to provide a clearer
quantitative difference between those
who respond to exercise and those who
do not.
Their project, the Heritage Family
Study, examined sex, age and racial dif
ferences in exercise response.
The study, funded by the National In
stitutes of Health, is in its fifth of eight years.
Scientists generally agree that
African-Americans have a higher inci
dence of hypertension than Caucasians.
However, before the Heritage study,
the race and age effects on training re
sponse was unclear.
“There really is not much informa
tion in terms of racial differences,” said
Wilmore, who began examining sex dif
ferences in exercise during the 1960’s.
“We usually think of training as a
form of adaptation, and with increasing
age the ability to adapt goes down,”
Skinner said.
Skinner said the research team found
a wide range of responses to exercise stim-
“There is a low correla
tion between how you
are right now and how
you will be in the
future”
— Dr. Jim Skinner
Indiana University professor of
kinesiologist
uli in all age groups, races and genders.
“There is a low correlation between
how you are right now and how you will
be in the future,” Skinner said.
A person might respond a certain
way to exercise at one age, but dif
ferently when he’s older.
In other words, there might be no
easy way to predict who will not re
spond to exercise.
Skinner said that although genetics
might limit a person’s fitness potential,
family genetics probably matter more
than the genetics of race or sex.
The study now will begin a time-
consuming scan to find gene se
quences that may indicate differ
ences between responders and
nonresponders to exercise.
Research into variations in health
by gender and race can sometimes be
controversial, especially if results show
large differences, said Dr. Reuben
Wright, a professor of physical educa
tion at Prairie View A&M University,
who studies health variations in differ
ent ethnic groups.
90 non-Hispanic Caucasian
families of at least 5 members
40 African-American families
of at least 4 members
Total of at least 650 subjects
subject requirements
- healthy and desease-free
• sedentary
- must commit to complete
training
- parents £ 65 years old
- children £ 17 years old
J.P. BEATO/Thf. Battalion
Dr. Jack Wilmore, health and kinesiology professor and department head,
spoke about recent exercise research to the American College of Sports
Medicine Texas Regional Chapter’s 21st Annual Meeting last week at the
Bush Conference Center.
Wright said the key is to present clear
factual results from large population
samples.
On the practical level, Skinner said
that since activity and fitness do not nec
essarily go together, athletic coaches
might want to focus on the regularity of
exercise rather than fitness goals that may
be unattainable. “Coaching is both an art
and a science because we don’t know
how somebody will respond based on
current fitness,” he said.
irst artificial asteroid orbits satellite
Science Briefs
l got rid of the min®'
t one that required n?-
antrollerortvjwdwrfji.
until it brckc.Mso,eai& |
game hewitefcow
theme toaddtotlie
of the name.
LAUREL, Md. (AP) — With near
|;m less precision, a spacecraft slipped
ito orbit around the asteroid Pros, he
lming the first manmade satellite of
asteroid The craft now starts a year-
ng close-up study of the potato-
aped space lock, hoping to deter-
ine its origiis and help scientists
ount a strategy to protect Earth from
bulders from outer space.
A short rocket firing on Monday
[hanged the orbital path of the Near
arth Asteroic Rendezvous (NEAR)
pacecraft to Alow it to settle into an
orbit of Eros. The maneuver success
fully completd a four-year odyssey
that included a failed attempt to ren
dezvous with the rock last year.
“The NEAR spacecraft is in orbit
around the asteroid Eros,” mission di
rector Robert Farquhar announced
minutes after engineers received a sig
nal that a rocket had fired with an er
ror of less than 1 percent.
“We are very happy and very ex
cited,” Farquhar said.
Automatic instructions stored
aboard the craft triggered the rocket
firing at 10:33 a.m. EST and engineers
waited tensely in Mission Control for
almost 20 minutes before success was
confirmed. They broke into applause
and high-fives when it was clear that
NEAR had reached its target.
Farquhar said the rocket firing
aimed for an Eros orbit of about 200
by 299 miles and the craft hit that tar
get within 30 to 40 miles. This is con
sidered excellent “shooting” for such
a small object that is 160 million miles
away. Eros is so far out that a radio sig
nal takes 14 1/2 minutes to reach Earth.
Project scientist Andrew Cheng
said the success thrilled scientists ea
ger to get an unprecedented close-up
view of an asteroid and gather data
with five different instruments.
“Monday may be Valentine’s Day
for most people, but its Christmas Eve
for me and all the presents are piled
about, waiting to be opened,” said
Cheng.
NEAR will spend a year orbiting
Eros, dropping in stages to lower or
bits.
It will gather basic research that
one day may help humans defend the
Earth against a “killer asteroid” like
the one thought to have fkiped out the
dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
“Understanding the physical char
acteristics of asteroids will be very im
portant if we are ever called on to de
flect one coming at the Earth,” said
NASA’s Carl Pilcher.
On
Thieves worldwide steal Copernican texts
the downs* A.
you havetohav
o least three tnnnaii
ers for the game
fun. The compuie
control led play®
incompetent and
o challenging. Al
there is no suck
^ as a “short gait:
Mario Paly l
^ sit down to play
u |,,n game, be read)
s-minute chunk oftiitf
i have the time, it isw
Is together to play
:: B+)
MOSCOW (AP) — Copies of one of the world’s
rarest and most valuable books have been disap
pearing— a rash of mysterious thefts that have per
plexed police from the former Soviet Union to the
United Slates.
The first-edition copies of 16th century as-
ronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ renowned treatise
n Latin, “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium”
On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) have
ranished from collections across the globe.
In Poland, i reader said he had to use the bath
room —and made off with the treasured volume. A
hiefin Kiev, Ukraine, pilfered the book using a fake
wlice ID. The latest theft of the book, published in
1543 and valued at up to $400,000, was discovered
arlier this month in Russia.
Gabk'iM R uss ' an police said they have appealed to Inter-
d for help iji locating that book, which disappeared
from the Academy of Sciences Library in St. Pe
tersburg. Pcjice would give no further details.
At leastseven of the 260 known copies of the
1543 edition of “De revolutionibus” have disap
peared in recent years, including one copy each from
the Univeriity of 11 linois at Champaign-Urbana and
he MittagLeffler Institute in Stockholm, Sweden,
PRICING:
Men's
10K-$345.00
14K-$450.00
i/Vomen's
IOK-$220.00
14K-$243.00
Irfrf $8.00 for Class '99 Of
teiorc and $15.00 for
tut of town ring delivery
>6-00
w
posted.
>u may present
lice no later
tiori
ENTS
DR.,
7840-2918
according to Owen Gingerich, a professor at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in
Cambridge, Mass.
Five copies remain missing.
Some police have speculated that a ring of
thieves and collectors is behind the rash of thefts or
that the books may have been stolen on some col
lectors’ orders.
However, Gingerich said there is no evidence to
suggest an international conspiracy to steal copies
of the treatise, which describes Copernicus’ then
revolutionary theory that the Sun, not the Earth, was
at the center of the universe.
Gingerich has worked for a quarter-century com
piling a list of all known copies ofthe first- and sec
ond-editions of the work, a quest that has taken him
to cities and libraries worldwide — and has helped
him trace at least two stolen copies.
While the book is a tempting target for thieves
because of its value, it’s also “a very dangerous ti
tle to steal,” Gingerich said in an Internet interview,
noting that his census can help identify any known
copy, making it risky to try to sell a stolen copy at
auction or on the international antique market.
Still, the disappearances continue.
The theft in Poland occurred in November 1998
at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ library in
Krakow, where a man in his 40s asked to read a first-
edition copy of “De Revolutionibus” valued at
$320,000.
Sometime later, the reader said he had to visit the
toilet — and disappeared.
He left behind his belongings and the book’s
covers, said Krakow’s deputy police head Euge-
niusz Szczerbak.
Three months earlier, a man walked out ofthe
Ukrainian National Library in Kiev carrying a first-
edition Copernicus.
The thief had an apparently fake police ID and
appeared to be well-acquainted with the library’s se
curity arrangements.
Librarians said he requested six books, includ
ing the Copernicus.
He then returned the books to secure a receipt,
took a break and came back to request more books,
including the Copernicus.
The man vanished with the rare book just before
closing time, apparently showing the guard the ini
tial receipt to prove he had returned it.
Eye surgery more
common for whites
CHICAGO (AP) — A study of
Medicare claims found that African-
Americans were only half as likely as
whites to undergo surgery for glauco
ma, the most common cause of blind
ness in African-Americans.
The researchers, whose study ap
pears in the February issue of
Archives of Ophthalmology, said the
reasons could include lack of health
care access, inadequate education
about the disease, overtreatment of
whites and racial bias.
An estimated 3 million Americans
have glaucoma, the nation’s second-
leading cause of irreversible vision
loss.
The researchers noted that more
than $1 billion is spent on federal aid
yearly to about 120,000 blind glau
coma patients.
Glaucoma is characterized by a
buildup of pressure within the eyeball.
Excessive pressure may damage the
optic nerve.
The most common form usually
occurs after age 40. Treatment typi
cally begins with medication, followed
by surgery — either conventional or
with lasers — if that fails.
The disease is at least four times
more prevalent in black Americans
than in whites, but the current study
and others suggest blacks are un
dertreated.
The researchers, led by Dr. Uday
Devgan, a UCLA ophthalmologist, an
alyzed Medicare claims for both types
of glaucoma surgery for 30,495
blacks and 160,792 whites between
1991 and 1994. Patients were at
least 65 years old.
Taking into account the prevalence
of glaucoma in patients of both races,
the researchers determined that the
rate of surgery for blacks was nearly
half that of whites and 47 percent be
low what would have been expected.
Previous researchers found a
racial gap in glaucoma surgery when
examining Medicare records from the
late 1980s through 1991.
Though Devgan and colleagues
said the gap appeared to be narrow
ing in the mid-1990s, they said the
disparities still were troubling.
UPenn: therapy
death an accident
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Univer
sity of Pennsylvania told the federal
government Monday an Arizona teen
ager’s death from a gene therapy ex
periment was an unavoidable tragedy,
not the result of research violations.
The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) last month suspended all the
university's gene therapy studies, cit
ing 18 rule violations in the experi
ment that killed 18-year-old Jesse
Gelsinger, of Tucson, Ariz., last fall.
On Monday, the university filed a
response with the FDA acknowledg
ing some “procedural” problems but
disagreeing with some of the
charges.
The university insisted it immedi
ately notified the FDA of Gelsinger’s
death, fully cooperated in the ensuing
investigation, and that none ofthe al
leged violations would have changed
Gelsinger’s care.
• “With the best medical judgment
and scientific information we had, we
just didn’t anticipate — nor in retro
spect do we believe we could have an
ticipated — this tragic event,” said Dr.
Richard Tannen, the university’s med
ical vice dean.
Gelsinger’s liver was injected with
a virus bearing genes designed to cor
rect a genetic liver disorder.
h
Texas A&M University
Masters Programs for
Special Educators and
Adapted Physical Educators
Available Degrees:
• Generic Special Education
• Low Incidence Disabilities*
• Bilingual Special Education
• Educational Diagnostician*
• Transition Services
• Emotional/ Behavioral Disorders*
• Consulting Reading Teacher
’SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
For more information contact:
Carol Wagner
Department of Educational Psychology
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843
(409) 845 -1833
m
Pick up your favorite supplements
now at GNC’s best prices ever...
Sale
$ 39.99
kilo
(good thru Feb 29, 2000)
Just
$ 7.99
lb
Now Accepting
AGGIE BUCKS!!!
Post Oak Mall
696-6159
Freedom Blvd.
(across from Super Walmart in Bryan)
774-9699
i A €71 'VyTA: 1J
Ag Workers Mutual Auto Insurance
Archer Daniels Midland Co.
Aventis Crop Science
Cargill
ContiGroup Companies, Inc. — Cattle Feeding Division
Environmental Care, Inc.
Excel Corporation
Holm-Dietz FAMOUS Software
Fireman’s Fund Agribusiness, Inc.
IBP, Inc.
Lambert Landscape Co.
Lawns of Dallas
Peace Corps
PIC
Premium Standard Farms
Sanderson Farms, Inc.
Sunkist Growers, Inc.
Texas Agricultural Extension Service
Texas Agricultural Statistics Service
Texas A&M Career Center
Texas Parks & Wildlife
Tractor Supply Company
T-Systems International
USDA/AMS/Dairy Programs
Wright Brand Foods
Learn more about these companies on the C.O.A.L.S. web page at http://coals, tamu.edu.