Study: Marijuana may increase psychosis risk
Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous. The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40%...
Associated Press story in USA Today (dated July 26, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends October 18, 2007 (ST/MO)
Russian nuclear store 'a powder keg'
Scientists have identified a risk of an "uncontrolled chain reaction" at one of the world's largest radioactive waste stores in northern Russia. According to environmentalists, this could trigger a disaster worse than the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in 1986. But the probability of such a disaster is regarded as very small by regulatory authorities… Andreeva Bay, on the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia, is home to 21,000 spent uranium fuel assemblies from nuclear submarines and ice-breakers…
From NewScientist.com news service (dated June 4, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (EU/ST)
Scientists allowed to create hybrid embryos
Scientists will be allowed to create hybrid animal-human embryos for stem cell research after the Government dropped its opposition to the procedure. In what is seen by many as a U-turn, the Government published a draft bill that effectively sweeps away last year's ban…
From The Telegraph (London) (dated May 19, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends June 8, 2007 (BR/ST/MO)
Cassini Images Bizarre Hexagon on Saturn
An odd, six-sided, honeycomb-shaped feature circling the entire north pole of Saturn has captured the interest of scientists with NASA's Cassini mission. NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft imaged the feature over two decades ago. The fact that it has appeared in Cassini images indicates that it is a long-lived feature. A second hexagon, significantly darker than the brighter historical feature, is also visible in the Cassini pictures…"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is"…
From Jet Propulsion Laboratory News Release (dated March 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends April 2, 2007 (GI/ST)
HPV infections seen in over quarter of U.S. women
More than a quarter of U.S. girls and women ages 14 to 59 are infected with the sexually transmitted human wart virus, which causes most cases of cervical cancer, U.S. health officials estimated on Tuesday. That means human papillomavirus or HPV infection is more common than previously thought, particularly among younger age groups, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers said. Its prevalence was highest among those 20 to 24, with 44.8 percent infected, and nearly a quarter of teenagers aged 14 to 19…
From Reuters (dated February 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (US/ST/MO)
Scientists triumph in battle over ban on hybrid embryos
Plans to outlaw the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for potentially life-saving stem cell research are to be dropped after a revolt by scientists. The proposed government ban on fusing human DNA with animal eggs, which promises insights into incurable conditions such as Alzheimer’s and motor neuron disease, will be abandoned because of concerns among senior ministers that it will damage British science. While ministers will not endorse the research in full yet, they are no longer seeking legislation to prohibit it…
From The Times (London) (dated February 27, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (BR/ST/MO)
Studies: Circumcision Reduces HIV Risk
Scientists say conclusive data shows there is no question circumcision reduces men's chances of catching HIV by up to 60 percent - a finding experts are hailing as a major breakthrough in the fight against AIDS. Now, the question is how to put that fact to work to combat AIDS across Africa…
Associated Press story at My Way News (dated February 22, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends March 1, 2007 (AF/ST)
Pandemic flu may be only two mutations away
The difference between a flu virus that kills millions, and one that kills only a few comes down to just two amino acid changes, researchers say…
From NewScientist.com news service (dated January 1, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (ST/ND)
A Star Wars Sequel? China throws down gauntlet with missile test
On Jan. 11…the Chinese military launched a ballistic missile into space and blasted a decrepit [Chinese] weather satellite the size of a refrigerator about 540 miles up. It was a technologically astonishing act – strategic analyst Richard Fisher told The Wall Street Journal that the missile shot shows that China's anti-satellite capabilities have now leapfrogged over our own – and a diplomatically audacious one. Only the U.S. and Russia had ever done anything like this, and not since 1985. This was clearly a shot across America's bow from a rising and aggressive world power. Despite its official stance against the militarization of space, Chinese military planners have for some time viewed space as a potential weak link in America's defensive capabilities. This is partly because of heavy U.S. dependency on satellites to gain and transmit information. An influential 1999 book by Chinese military writers revealed a key to that nation's strategic thinking when it observed, "To cripple or destroy the enemy's information system would drastically degrade the enemy's combat capabilities by making it blind, deaf or paralyzed." Though U.S.-China relations are good, this anti-satellite test belies Beijing's stated policy of pursuing peaceful relations…
From The Dallas Morning News (dated January 29, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends February 5, 2007 (AP/ST/WT)
Confusing Sun: Will Solar Cycle 24 Be Most Intense On Record?
David Hathaway, Ph. D., Solar Physics Team Leader, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama [said]... Geomagnetic disturbances in the last two or three years tell us that the next cycle [of sunspots and solar flares—2007 to 2012—] ought to be a big cycle - one of the largest on record…[He stated that] this could be the strongest solar maximum in 400 years of record keeping…
From Linda Howe at Earthfiles (dated January 13, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 18, 2007 (GI/ND/ST)
Tehran pollution kills 3,600 in a month
Air pollution has killed 3,600 people in just a month in the Iranian capital Tehran, an official said Tuesday, describing the city’s environmental situation as a “collective suicide”…He said that the deaths were caused by heart attacks brought on by the air pollution and that the smog was responsible for 80 percent of the fatal heart problems that month in Tehran, one of the world's most polluted cities… The new figures showed a sharp rise in pollution-related deaths in Iran, where 9,900 people died of pollution in the previous Iranian year (March 2005 to March 2006). Carbon monoxide from car exhausts is blamed for the majority of deaths by creating respiratory and cardiac problems in Tehran, which has 1.3 million ageing cars with poor fuel efficiency, spewing lethal gases into citizens' lungs…
Agence France-Presse story at TerraDaily (dated January 9, 2007)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (ME/ST)
Pot linked strongly to mental illness
The use of cannabis, particularly among young people, substantially increases the risk of mental illness and worsens existing mental health conditions, a major report has found…
Australian Associated Press story at News.com.au (dated December 13, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (ST/MO)
Study Finds New Evidence that Childhood Family Factors Influence Sexual Orientation
A major study published last month in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior, provides striking new evidence for the influence of childhood family factors on sexual-orientation development…
NARTH (National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality) story at LifeSiteNews.com (dated November 29, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends January 10, 2007 (ST/MO)
Why the Dead Sea is dying
Officials hope that the two-year feasibility study and environmental and social assessment will recommend a multibillion-dollar project to link the Dead Sea with the Red Sea, which lies 200km (125 miles) to the south, using a pipeline or canal to suck 1,900 million cubic metres (2.1 million cubic yards) of water annually from the Gulf of Aqaba. However, many people — including environmentalists and Israeli scientists living in the worst-affected areas — say that it is a costly extravaganza that fails to address the root cause and could ruin the very sea that they are trying to save…
From The Times (London) (dated December 9, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (ME/ST)
Study says malaria helps spread HIV
Malaria is fueling the spread of AIDS in Africa by boosting the HIV in people's bodies for weeks at a time, says a study that pins down the deadly interplay between the dual scourges. It's a vicious cycle as people weakened by HIV are, in turn, more vulnerable to malaria…
Associated Press story at Yahoo News (dated December 7, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (AF/ST/ND)
AIDS to be 3rd leading cause of death
Within the next 25 years, AIDS is set to join heart disease and stroke as the top three causes of death worldwide, according to a study…
Associated Press story at Yahoo News (dated November 27, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends December 12, 2006 (GI/ST/ND)
New Evidence Found for Childhood Family Factors Influencing Sexual Orientation
A major study is being published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Archives of Sexual Behavior, which provides striking new evidence for the influence of childhood family factors on sexual-orientation development…
From the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuals (dated October 27, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends November 17, 2006 (ST/MO)
Six Arab states join rush to go nuclear
Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, UAE and Saudi Arabia seek atom technology…
From The Times (London) (dated November 4, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends November 8, 2006 (ME/ST/WT)
Thirty new countries could acquire nuclear weapon: IAEA chief
Up to 30 new countries could have the capability to build a nuclear weapon, on top of the nine current nuclear powers, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned…
Agence France-Presse story at Yahoo News (dated October 16, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends November 8, 2006 (GI/ST/WT)
Seizures of radioactive materials fuel 'dirty bomb' fears
Seizures of smuggled radioactive material capable of making a terrorist “dirty bomb” have doubled in the past four years, according to official figures seen by The Times. Smugglers have been caught trying to traffick dangerous radioactive material more than 300 times since 2002, statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show. Most of the incidents are understood to have occurred in Europe. The disclosures come as al-Qaeda is known to be intensfiying its efforts to obtain a radoactive device. Last year, Western security services…thwarted 16 attempts to smuggle plutonium or uranium. On two occasions small quantities of highly enriched uranium were reported missing. All were feared to have been destined for terror groups. Scientists responsible for analysing the seizures have given warning that traffickers are turning to hospital X-ray equipment and laboratory supplies as an illicit source of radioactive material…
From The Times (London) (dated October 6, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends November 8, 2006 (GI/ST/WT)
Beijing secretly fires lasers to disable US satellites
China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance devices…The hitherto unreported attacks have been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran…
From The Telegraph (London) (dated September 26, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends November 8, 2006 (AP/ST/WT)
Stem cells two ways
The vagueness of the term "stem cell research" is one of the biggest problems in the ongoing stem cell debate. Writers, debaters, scientists, public figures and politicians should differentiate between "embryonic stem cell research" and "nonembryonic stem cell research" in order to keep the meanings clear. What is the truth behind the claims of embryonic versus nonembryonic stem cells?...
From Grove City College Center for Vision and Values fellow for medical ethics Durwood Ray in The Washington Times (dated November 8, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends November 8, 2006 (ST/MO)
Space Supremacy: It's the goal of America's new space policy
Space supremacy is now the official policy of the United States government. Among the principles set forth in the new document is that the United States "rejects any limitations on the fundamental right of the United States to operate in and acquire data from space;" furthermore, "the United States will view purposeful interference with its space systems as an infringement on its rights." It goes on to assert that the United States will "preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space . . . and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests." In an outright rejection of the sovereignty of the international community in space, the new policy also states that the United States "will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space." This was big news in the foreign press, where headlines characterized the policy as a new imperialism…
From Weekly Standard deputy online editor Michael Goldfarb (dated November 2, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends November 8, 2006 (US/ST/WT)
Diarrhoea epidemic spreading in Ethiopia
A diarrhoea outbreak in Ethiopia has infected at least 15,000 people and killed 148 so far, the United Nations announced on Tuesday. Heavy flooding in the region is partly responsible for the epidemic, and the outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea could spread even further, aid agencies fear…
From NewScientist.com news service (dated September 6, 2006)
Posted to Current World News & Trends September 6, 2006 (AF/ST/ND)
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