7A Thursday, October 30, 2003 HEAT Continued from page 6A air flows from the Galveston Bay to land, it has an extraordi nary pattern that causes many air currents to converge in the Houston area. When the sea breeze and coastline airflows meet, they rise, forming clouds and thunderstorms. During the summer of 2005, the HEAT researchers and many A&M students will run a contin uous experiment, recording the lightning patterns in Houston. “It’s going to be roughly 90 days of non-stop observations, using aircraft, radars and the lightning network,” Orville said. “There are going to be a lot of students involved in this too because there’s a lot of equip ment to operate and the students will get field experience.” The results of the HEAT Project will help scientists understand how humans affect the climate and what pollution’s role is in producing storms over industrious cities, Orville said. “The problem is a lot bigger then Houston,” Nielsen- Gammon said. “Overall, across the globe, because of (human) activities, the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere is increasing, and that has a direct affect on the earth’s climate. So this will mean a lot for the entire earth, not just Houston.” Cats, ferrets vulnerable to SARS By Chris Kahn THE ASSOCIATED PRESS House cats and ferrets can get the SARS virus and pass it to other animals, a new study shows, raising the obvious ques tion: Can they give it to people? “You might want to quaran tine the pets as well as the peo ple,” suggested Dr. Robert Shope, an expert on emerging diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “If it’s been shown that the virus can transmit from cat to cat, it doesn’t take much of a leap of faith that it will transmit to humans.” Other scientists who have studied SARS say pet owners shouldn’t overreact, however. “These animals in all likeli hood did not play a significant role in spread of (SARS) to humans,” said Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization’s chief SARS scientist. Besides, said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, the former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “we still don’t know if they can pass the virus to people.” Researchers discovered the vulnerability of cats and ferrets to SARS while searching for animals to test potential vac cines. Their study, which will appear in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature, also notes a sep arate report that cats were found infected with the virus in a Hong Kong apartment complex where residents contracted SARS last year. Cats and ferrets are the first pets included on an exotic list of animals scientists think may be able to harbor the virus. However, the virus seems to be so versatile that it could have jumped to humans from a vari ety of animals, co-author Albert D.M.E. Osterhaus said. “Cats and ferrets are only distantly related,” he said. “So this demonstrates the promiscu ous nature of the virus.” The origin of the virus that killed 774 people remains unknown. Scientists believe people may have gotten the virus from animals that were infected by another source. In China, where SARS fes tered for months before it grew into a worldwide menace this year, exotic raccoon-dogs, ferret badgers and civets imported into markets have been found har boring a germ that’s almost identical to the SARS virus. The exotic animals were taken off the market for several months, but some markets have begun selling them again, said Dr. Henk Bekedam, the WHO’s representative in Beijing. Radio news from the newsroom of THE BATTALION 1:57 p.m. Monday through Friday on KAMU-FM 90.9 College Station/Bryan LIVE MUSIC on THURSDAY NIGHTS r ( ' v ? / 2 \ r \ ? % \ f, | i j i @ • De\\ "imipiiiiiiiiii -mt ar wtbc* • Cafe aHEL • BakeryJHPAKER • Pizzeria Baking It Great! Best blue: Costume: Contest .Judging at *7 P M on Halloween $