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lursday, March 30, 2000
THE BATTALION
Page 7
Back to the Big Bang
The new Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a massive atom smasher, should help researchers
simulate what the newborn universe may have looked like just after the Big Bang,
The RHIC complex
A look inside
the collider
Hoping to approximate
a 13 billion-year flash
back, scientists try to re
create the primordial
soup that existed before
the universe took form.
In the
RHIC, gold
ions flatten out
as they speed
toward each other
at almost 186,000
miles per second.
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Work on the RHIC complex
began in 1970, but the latest
addition, the 2.4-milo RHIC ring,
was recently completed.
Beam energy
increases
Protons are
polarized for the
accelerators.
A smaller particle
accelerator injects
beam into RHIC.
This junction splits beam
in two. sending naif
clockwise and half
counterclockwise
Beams race around this
2.4-mile “racetrack'' at
nearly the speed of light
They collide at six
intersections, generating
temperatures 10.000
times hotter than the sun.
As they collide and
pass through each
other.
If conditions are nght. th© protons
and neutrons “'molt” and briefly
liberate quarks and gluons, forms
of matter thought to have existed
ten-millionths of a second after the
Big Bang.
.. .they generate
intense heat and
new particles.
Beyond birth control
Women should consider therapy risks and benefits
AP/ N Davis, J. Jurgensen
Johnnyu Astronomers discover planets
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Astronomers searching for
planets orbiting distant stars
have found the smallest planets
vet beyond the solar system, an
important step toward being
able to detect Earth-sized
worlds that would have the best
chance of containing life.
More than 30 planets have
been found in orbit of stars out
side the solar system, but the
two planets announced
Wednesday are the first to be
smaller than Jupiter, as
tronomers said at a news con
ference.
“We have discovered the
first Saturn-sized planets out
side of the solar system,” said
Geoffrey W. Marcy of the Uni-
ersity of California, Berkeley.
The new planets are thought
to be hot, gaseous giants, rapid
ly orbiting their stars and are
probably devoid of life, he said.
“This is an important mile
post” in the search for Earth
sized planets that orbit stars
other than the sun, said R. Paul
Butler, a staff scientist at the
Carnegie Institute in Washing
ton. “This suggests there will
be many more small planets
out there.”
A team led by Marcy, Butler
and Steve Vogt of the Universi
ty of California, Santa Cruz,
found the new, smaller planets
in orbit of stars more than 100
light years away.
Both of the new planets are
slightly smaller than Saturn, a
gas giant that is the second
largest planet in the solar sys
tem after Jupiter, with 95 times
the mass of Earth.
All previously discovered
extrasolar planets, including 20
others found by the Marcy
team, have been as big or big
ger than Jupiter, which is 318
times more massive than Earth.
Butler said a new instru
ment attached to the Keck Tele
scope in Hawaii enabled the
team to detect the smaller plan-
ets.The team is five years into a
survey of about 2,000 stars and
Marcy said there are six to 10
other star systems that “look
promising” for planets.
“The discovery of Saturn-
sized object is an extremely
critical step toward finding ter
restrial-sized planets orbiting
other stars,” said Heidi B.
Hammel, a scientist at the
Space Science Institute in
Boulder, Colo. The terrestrial
planets are Earth, Venus, Mars
and Mercury.
The Marcy team finds ex
trasolar planets by observing
and measuring the gravitation
al wobble that orbiting planets
impart to the host star.
BY NONI SR1DHARA
The Battalion
A freshman, who came to Texas A&M in the
fall, was frequently consumed by intense lower
abdominal pains and thought she had appen
dicitis. Doctors’ tests showed that she had en
dometriosis, a disease common to many women
in America, which could be treated with hor
mone therapy through birth control pills. The
pills helped to stabilize her menstrual cycle,
which was causing her abdominal pains.
The replacement of lost hormones — estro
gen and progesterone — for women in their 40s
and 50s is a common medical practice. People
often mistake hormone replacement as a thera
py only for women going through menopause.
However, doctors often prescribe its use to
younger women and say that both generations
need to know the risks and benefits.
Dr. John Green, a visiting cardiovascular
physiologist in the Department of Health and Ki
nesiology, helped dispel myths and offer insight
into the the role of reproductive hormones and
hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in female
physiology in the final lecture of the Healthy
Living Lecture series Wednesday at the Student
Recreation Center.
In his lecture, Green covered the risks and
benefits of hormone replacement for women of
all ages.
The first type of HRT Green discussed was
the birth control pill, which regulates leutinizing
hormone, the hormone that causes ovulation.
Without the hormone, no ovulation will occur.
The benefits of birth control as a means of
hormone replacement are decreased risk of ovar
ian cancer, endometrial cancer and ovarian cysts,
the decreased risk of pelvic inflammatory dis
ease and lighter or more regular periods.
“This is considered by many to be the most
socially significant medical advance in history,”
Green said.
Dr. Ann Reed, associate director of clinical
services at A.P. Beutel Health Center agreed with
Green on the positive aspects of HRT.
“Although the risks are slightly increased for
certain cancers such as cancers that affect the lin
ing of the uterus, overall the benefits outweigh
the risks,” Reed said.
Green said there were many concerns with the
birth control pill in the ‘60s because of increased
risk of blood clotting, heart attack and stroke. But
he said this risk is minimal in today’s pill and
where it does exist, it is linked to smoking.
Other risks from the pill include a slight in
crease in risk of breast and cervical cancer and a
small increase in the risk of coronary artery dis
ease in women over the age of 40.
Regarding menopause, Green said there is a
common misconception among older women
that menopause happens
overnight. It is actually a pro
longed process.
The World Health Organi
zation defines menopause as
the permanent cessation of
menstruation resulting from
loss of ovarian function. The
average age that menopause
strikes most women is 51.4
years, according to Green.
Green said cardiovascular
risks in menopause include
increased LDL cholesterol,
decreased HDL cholesterol,
increase in triglycerides, in
crease in vascular wall dys
function and arterial stiffness.
He said honnone replace
ment of a low dose of estro
gen, along with progesterone,
reduces the risk of cardiovas
cular disease by half.
“One thing people should
be warned about, however, is
that this ‘magic’ form of HRT
is not so magical for people
who already have cardiovas
cular disease,” he said.
Green said exercise, in ad
dition to HRT, further helps to
fight the symptoms and health
risks associated with
menopause.
“Women who exercise and take hormone re
placement increase their blood flow and loose their
arterial resistance,” Green said. “The combination of
HRT and exercise offer the ‘bang for the buck’ in re
ducing disease risk.”
Green said he urges women to take responsibili
ty' for knowing the information of their condition
when deciding whether or not to take HRT before
consulting their doctors.
“In times of managed health care, it is very im
portant that you go in [to your doctor] anned with the
information about the pros and cons of HRT, and then
make the final decision in consultation with your
physician,” he said. ,
USING BIRTH CONTROL PILLS AS A
HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY
Benefits ^
• Decreased risk of ovarian cancer,
endrometrial cancer and ovarian cysts
• Decreased risk of pelvic inflammatory
disease
• Decreased heavy or irregular periods
Risks
• Slight increase in risk of breast and
cervical cancer
• Small increase in the risk of coronary
artery disease in women over the age
of 40
JEFFREY SMITH/Thk Battalion
• 1600 em]
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