sciencbStechnology
liursday. March
Page 6
THE BATTALION
I'hursday, March?,
Protecting the coral reefs
One-fifth of America's coral reefs are to be protected as “ecological
reserves" under a Clinton administration proposal announced last week.
Here is a look at the coral reefs in national wildlife refuges that are part
of the government’s holdings.
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North
Pacific Ocean
/
Northern
Mariana
Islands
Midway Atoll
n -- Hawaii
Guam
Johnston
Ato11 BO
EH
Equator
jW'GHtyEA
American Samoa
AUSTRAt^A
B
Total acres of coral reefs
1. Hawaiian Islands
2. Midway Atoll
3. Johnston Atoll
4. Howland Island
5. Baker Island
6. Rose Atoll
7. Jarvis Island
8. Guam
9. National Key Deer
Refuge
10. Key West
611,914
298,369
119,367
32,984
31,314
39,266
37,569
772
8,542
Limits for species recovery
Ecosystem diversity might take longer time to rebound
11. Great White Heron 192,494
12. Crocodile Lakes
13. Buck Island
14. Green Cay
15. Sandy Point
16. Cabo Rojo
17. Culebra
18. Desecheo
19. Laguna Cartagena
20. Navassa Island
208,308
Source: Interior Department
AP
(AP) — For all practical purposes,
when a species is gone, it’s gone.
Scientists analyzed fossils and calcu
lated that it takes about 10 million years
after a plant or animal becomes extinct
before anything resembling it reappears.
“When we got that result, I was just
stunned,” said James Kirchner, a geolo
gist at the University of California at
Berkeley who conducted the analysis with
Duke University biologist Anne Weil.
Kirchner and Weil said the analysis
confirms the fears of many scientists wor
ried about the increasing loss of plant and
animal life.
Biologists estimate that up to half of the
known animal and plant species in the
world could be wiped out within a century.
“It’s not just, ‘Stop the extinction!’
and things bounce back immediately.
Rather, the recoveries required the
fabric of the ecosystem to be rebuilt, and
it takes a long time,” said Douglas Erwin
of the National Museum of Natural His
tory in Washington.
Stanford University biologist Paul
Ehrlich, author of the 1968 best seller
“The Population Bomb,” said the research
suggests the near future may be grim.
“We’re going to turn into weedy-
world,” he said. “The kinds of organisms
that persist are weeds, rats and insects.”
Kirchner and Weil studied a database of
marine fossils to track when various
species of hard-shelled animals originated
and when they disappeared over the past
530 million years.
Then they applied mathematical tech
niques developed for astrophysics.
They reported their findings in Thurs
day’s issue of the journal Nature.
“The passenger pigeon ain’t coming
back,” and neither are the dinosaurs,
Kirchner said.
Weil and Kirchner said their research
shows that Earth may have a “speed lim
it” on the rate of recovery and that there
is an underlying “heartbeat” to life on the
planet that has some some fundamental
rhythm.
At the rate of recovery they calculat
ed, they figured humans themselves
could become extinct before Earth re- I
covers.
“We spent some time debating whether
this was the most exciting result we found,
or the most depressing,” Weil said.
Diverse but shrinking habitats
A global inventory shows that more than a third of the Earth’s plantaod
animal species exist exclusively on just 1.4 percent of its land surface,
Red areas below reflect the original range of these rich habitats. Human
activity has destroyed 88 percent of these once-sprawling ecosystems
Li.
F
freshmc
lefender in tl
feAgg
O California Floristic Province
© Mesoamerica
© Choco/Darien/Western Ecuador
©Tropical Andes
© Central Chile
© Brazilian Cerrado
©Caribbean Islands
© Brazilian Atlantic Forest
© Guinean Forests of West Africa
<£> Succulent Karoo
«T>Cape Floristic Province of South Afr
Mediterranean Basin
Caucasus
Eastern Arc Mountains and Coasts
Forests of Kenya and Tanzania
Madagascar/Indian Ocean Islands
Western Ghats and Sri Lanka
South Central China
Sundaland
stra
Wa
Phi
Pol
Net
Nov
and Micronesia
Source: Conservation International
FDA announces gene therapy rules
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and
Drug Administration is preparing to force bet
ter patient safety monitoring in the nation’s 350
gene therapy experiments — conducting sur
prise inspections to make sure scientists follow
the rules.
The FDA’s move comes after an Arizona
teen-ager died as a result of a University of
Pennsylvania gene therapy experiment,
prompting growing criticism that this promis
ing but still-unproven field receives little feder
al oversight to ensure the research is safe.
Federal regulations already require that re
searchers establish a patient safety monitoring
system before testing experimental treatments.
But the FDA acknowledged Tuesday it has not
enforced those rules for gene therapists.
Indeed, in the Pennsylvania experiment, re
searchers didn’t even have a patient safety mon
itoring system, something the FDA uncovered
“The patient safety
monitoring is the
most important ele
ment that's been
missing in all of this/
— Abbey Meyers
President, National Organization of
Rare Disorders
only when it inspected the research after Jesse
Gelsinger, 18, died, FDA gene therapy chief Dr.
Kathryn Zoon said.
Under FDA’s new initiative, all gene thera
py researchers must appoint someone not di
rectly involved with their experiments to mon
itor patient safety.
The monitors could consist of contract re
search organizations or other scientists at a hos
pital or university.
These monitors are not truly independent
since the gene therapist hires them.
But the FDA pledged to ensure gene thera
py monitors are working and know that the law
requires them to report patient safety problems
to the government — and to conduct random,
surprise inspections to make sure. Experiments
that don’t comply can be halted.
“We believe these are important steps ... to
ensure patient safety,” Zoon said.
The initiative sparked mixed reaction.
“They were supposed t6 be doing that al
ready,” said well-known bioethicist George An
nas, a Boston University professor of health
law. “FDA has let this get out of hand.... They
don’t inspire a lot of confidence.”
But another critic welcomed the change.
“The patient safety monitoring is the most
important element that’s been missing in all of
this,” said Abbey Meyers, president of the Na
tional Organization for Rare Disorders and a
former National Institutes of Health gene ther
apy adviser.
Today, gene therapists can conduct experi
ments for years without anyone checking how
their patients fared, she explained. So FDA in
spections are vital, but the agency lacks the
money and people, she said.
“Congress has got to give them the money
to do this job right,” Meyers said.
The FDA employs between 150 and 200
clinical trial inspectors, but they never have
been asked to judge patient-safety monitoring
in early-stage experiments, or to focus on gene
therapy instead of the many other types of hu
man experiments now under way.
Gelsinger’s death is the only one so far
blamed directly on gene therapy, after experi
ments on some 5,000 patients in 10 years.
But this new field has not cured anyone yet.
And the NIH has discovered hundreds of ad
verse reactions patients suffered that re
searchers delayed reporting to government ex
perts who oversee the experiments’ safety.
Thus, some critics say gene experiments
should temporarily be halted until oversight is
better established.
“This is very impor
tant research. I don't
want to see it tar
nished in the pub
lic's view because it
was done wrong/'
— George Annas
Boston University bioethicist
Shell markets robot gas pumps
“We’re doing a lot of premature human ex
perimentation here that’s more trial-and-error
than hypothesis testing,” Annas said. “This is
very important research. 1 don’t want to see it
tarnished in the public’s view” because it was
done wrong.
Also Tuesday, the government announced it
will bring together the nation’s most experi
enced gene therapists to debate how best to en
sure patient safety.
WESTFIELD, Ind. (AP) —The first robotic-
gas pump that lets drivers serve themselves with
out leaving their cars is fueling a mix of excitement
and skepticism.
Its introduction, however, could hardly be more
ill-timed.
Shell Oil Co. is test-marketing the computer
ized pumps in this affluent Indianapolis suburb
starting this month — and plans to charge an extra
$1 per fill-up —just as gasoline prices hit new
highs, and the end of winter removes a big incen
tive for staying snugly behind the wheel.
Despite the obstacles, project manager Jerry
Buri said Wednesday that more than 1.000 cus
tomers have already signed up to use the pumps in
the handful of stations where they will be available.
“Obviously we’re looking at the system being
a more popular product in bad weather conditions
because people would be more inclined to want to
stay in their car then,” he said. “The other features
would still make it advantageous.”
For example, a mother would not have to leave
her children alone in the car while she pumped
gas. Patrons wouldn't be exposed to gas fumes or
risk spillage.
Shell Oil and HR Textron spent eight years de
veloping the SmartPump, which uses a combina
tion of cameras, sensors and robotics to guide the
fuel pump into a vehicle’s gas tank.
First a motorist places a coded computer chip
containing vehicle information on the windshield.
The car must also be equipped with a special,
spring-loaded gas cap, which costs $20.
As the driver approaches the SmartPump,
cameras read the computer chip and let the robot
ic arm know what type of car to fuel.
The motorist then drives up to the terminal,
which adjusts to the height of the driver’s window,
swipes a credit card and selects the preferred fill!
grade.
The robotic arm then gels to work. A soft, suction-
like device extends and opens the gas tank’s dooranJ
the pump enters the tank and begins fueling.
Some motorists remained wary Wednesday, c M ,
Rob Krakora, an electrical engineer who has theUniversi
worked with robots, docs not trust the SmartPum
to work properly.
“No way. i ain't gonna scratch this haby
cha
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‘No way. I ain't gonna
scratch this baby.
— Rob Krakora j
wary engineer, SUV owner i
Krakora said, patting his sport utility vehicle.
Shell’s Buri said the soft. Ilexible extensions!
on the robotic arm make scratches unlikely. Seven
al other companies, including Exxon Mobil, areex-
perimenting with different versions of rc
pumps.
Buri would not specify when the technology !
would be introduced in other cities.
Despite gasoline prices that now average bet- :
ter than $1.50 per gallon across the country,|e
doubted the extra dollar per fill-up would makeaj
difference.
Tom Osborne, spokesman for the Society!
Independent Gasoline Marketers of America,:
the concept could eventually become as popular]
as pay-at-pump systems that allow drivers to]
swipe a credit card.
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A sitcom with arias!
Have you ever wondered what would happen if your favorite FRIEND
suddenly broke out into song? No? Well believe us, it would be funny!
Th e Barber of Seville
New York City Opera National Company
To be performed in Italian and supplemented with English supertitles.
March 21 and 22 at 7:30 PM
Rudder Auditorium
Want to learn more?
Join us prior to the performance for a Patricia S. Peters Lagniappe Lecture in
the MSC Forsyth Center Galleries at 6:30 PM. Sponsored by the OPAS Guild.
ISr
Season Media Partners:
KBIX
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For tickets, order on-line at opas.tamu.edu. Or call 845-1234!
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