To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - New satellite eyes looming U.S. drought
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 07:54:50 -0500

New satellite eyes looming U.S. drought

By Paul Hoversten, space.com <http://space.com> . 04.03.00

Creeping disaster Scientists call drought a "creeping
disaster" because, unlike a flood or hurricane, it arrives
slowly and spreads gradually. But its effects can be
enormous.

With nearly half the United States in the grip of a
worsening drought, scientists this weekend begin scrambling
to develop the first drought map ever produced by an Earth-
orbiting satellite.

NASA's new $1.3 billion Terra satellite already has turned
in an early engineering image of the lower Mississippi
River basin. That's one of the areas where scientists are
seeing near-record-low stream flows. "This is the time of
year where stream flow conditions should be about normal
but...we're anywhere but that," said Charles Groat,
director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which
monitors more than 7,000 streams and rivers nationwide.
"When our dry summer hits, we may not have enough in
[groundwater] savings to get through without problems," he
said.

MORE...
http://explorezone.com/archives/00_04/03_drought.htm

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - £15 card will store DNA details
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 07:58:02 -0500

£15 card will store DNA details

April 17 2000 BRITAIN
http://www.the-times.co.uk/ and use index...

BY HELEN RUMBELOW, MEDICAL REPORTER

DO-IT-YOURSELF DNA kits are to be marketed to British
adoption agencies and funeral parlours, it was revealed
last night. Since their launch in America three months ago
the £15 kits have been used mainly by adoption agencies to
give the child a record of their parents' DNA before they
are separated. Florrye Cleveland, the founder of the
Alabama-based company, said that this prevented children
feeling compelled to trace their biological parents to
discover their medical history and if they are genetically
vulnerable to illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and
Alzheimer's. The kits consist of a swab which is brushed
around the mouth, and touched onto a special storage card
which can permanently retain the user's DNA. Ms Cleveland
created the product after her mother died of Alzheimer's,
leaving her unsure whether she would inherit the disease.
She believes DNA cards will soon be as commonplace as other
forms of identification like birth certificates and
passports. The DNA cards can also be included with wills
to ensure only rightful heirs inherit the estate and to
identify the person if they are killed. Police may use
them if someone had been abducted and traces such as hairs
are found at a crime scene.

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Eternal youth? It's all in the genes
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 19:24:03 -0400

Eternal youth? It's all in the genes

By DAMIEN BRODERICK
Wednesday 19 April 2000

IN LATE February, Dr Ron DePinho and other scientists at the Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute of Harvard Medical School and Albert Einstein College of
Medicine reported that they had rejuvenated elderly mice. Using gene
therapy techniques, they replaced a deleted gene in prematurely aged mice,
which bounced back to youthful health.

Would it be wrong to use such techniques to change aspects of our own
genetic inheritance? Such anxiety is misplaced. Our cells are lashed by
stray high-speed particles and disruptive chemicals, many from the natural
foods we eat. To do better than nature, which kills us all at 120 or much
earlier, we need an improved repair and maintenance system.

DePinho's efforts are among the first successes in compiling a repair kit.
The end result, expected by optimists to pay off within decades, should be a
gradual extension of healthy lifespan. We won't fall sick as easily, and we'll
recover from illness and accident more swiftly. Tissues won't deteriorate
steadily just because years pass. Is it wicked or misguided to seek such a
scientific cure to routine ageing?

Human cells, tissues and organs lack a full maintenance program. Other
animals are more fortunate. Lobsters and trout are protected against ageing
by an enzyme, telomerase - although not against hungry fishermen.
DePinho's genetically engineered mice entirely lack the gene for that same
repair enzyme, and so are prey to various age-related illnesses, including
chronic liver disease.

The full human genome, our own genetic "recipe", has now been mapped.
Within a few years, we'll learn exactly how it is expressed in proteins, and
how those building blocks work alone and together. Then, inevitably, we'll
start selectively rewriting the genetic coding of our bodies, repairing and even
improving our legacy. Maybe we'll choose to import one or more artificial
chromosomes loaded with useful upgrades. This is not far-fetched - such
contrived strings of genes have already been inserted into experimental cells,
with no harmful effects.

Fresh information is arriving with breathtaking speed. The private US
research effort, Celera, finished mapping the complete genome code months
earlier than expected, and years before the huge Human Genome Project's
own announced date. IBM is building a computer, Blue Gene, able to
process 1000 trillion calculations a second, so it can model precisely how
the proteins ordained by our DNA code fold up and interact. By 2005, we'll
know a lot more about specific risks of inherited diseases.

Will we use that knowledge to change our individual codes? Not in the
immediate future. Too risky, too scary to people who get spooked by
genetically modified food (which is actually pretty safe and offers
important benefits). But we'll surely see very early scanning of pregnancies for
a host of potential disorders, allowing parents to seek early termination and
try again.

Sounds like eugenics? Not in the vicious sense. Most Down syndrome
foetuses, with a damaging three copies of chromosome 21, are aborted after
early screening. Ethicist Nicholas Tonti-Filippini has warned on this page
(March 23) that this approach might not be acceptable, creating a society
intolerant of diversity. But should we prefer more retarded babies, more
suffering people afflicted with spina bifida or cystic fibrosis?

Won't clones be stored and rifled for spare parts? No. That's just a Hollywood
horror story. Your clone is your twin. Would you callously demand your
twin's heart or right hand? Would anyone let you have it? Instead, we'll use
cloning technology to grow tissues or organs.

Your own stem cells will be modified to form hearts, lungs - or teeth,
replacing any lost through decay and wear. Adults may grow new teeth. Or
teeth could be grown in a culture medium, perhaps at an accelerated rate
and then implanted, using recently discovered angiogenesis factors to
stimulate new blood vessels, and other growth factors that boost nerve
connections. The key gene coding for a protein that grows local blood
supply, sox18, has just been identified by researchers at the University of
Queensland. Switching such genes off, by contrast, will starve cancers,
allowing the immune system to deal with them.

Babies born 30 years hence may grow up with such perfect cellular
maintenance that they need never age, dying only by accident or choice.
Will we get the benefits of these discoveries? Maybe not - we might be,
sadly, the last mortal generation. But who knows - if we can keep ourselves
alive and healthy, maybe some of these treatments will be retrofitted into our
ailing bodies and make us new again, like DePinho's mice.

Won't drastic life-extension methods be too costly for us ordinary folks,
and instead be hoarded by the rich and renovated? At first, treatments may
be very expensive. But not necessarily all. Today, antibiotics are
inexpensive. Fresh water, sewerage, immunisation and antibiotics allow us to
live longer and better. While these services cost a huge amount to install,
everyone benefits, and the cost per person is fairly low. It could be the same
with superlongevity treatments.

If you're lucky you may see the year 3000, or even live indefinitely. We
need to discuss, well ahead of time, whether that would be desirable. Me,
I'm voting for life over death.

Dr Damien Broderick's books include The Spike and The Last Mortal
Generation.

E-mail: d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au

The Age,
http://theage.com.au/news/20000419/A12020-2000Apr18.html

via: isml@onelist.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - April 19, 2000 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 20:07:39 -0400

8:00 PM Eastern

 A&E - BIOGRAPHY - "David Koresh: Preacher of Fire" -
   David Koresh and many of his followers die when their
          compound burns.(CC)(TVPG)

 DISC - ATTACK AND CAPTURE: THE STORY OF U-BOAT 505 - The
   U.S. Navy captures the powerhouse of the German fleet in
          World War II.(CC)(TVG)

 HIST - EXODUS: DESPERATE VOYAGE - A ship filled with Jewish
   refugees tries to break the British blockade of
          Palestine.(CC)(TVG)

9:00

 A&E - INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS - "Who Is Timothy
   McVeigh?" - Profile of Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy
          McVeigh.(CC)

10:00

 TLC - SUPER STRUCTURES OF THE WORLD - "NORAD: Cheyenne
   Mountain" - NORAD is a nuclear attack watch post carved out
          of the Rocky Mountains.(CC)(TVG)

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