Comet Crash !

For a week in July 1994, the collisions of about 20 fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into the planet Jupiter captured the attention of stargazers around the world. Comet watchers marveled, since the display turned out to be, as one astronomer put it, “the celestial drama of the century.” Why did this event far exceed expectations?

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Those Awesome Baby Brains

They are awesome from their beginning. Three weeks after conception, they start out with 125,000 cells and thereafter increase in spurts of 250,000 cells a minute. Each little brain continues its explosive growth until at birth its cells number some 100,000,000,000—as many as there are stars in the Milky Way!

But months before that, while still in the womb, baby’s brain has gone into operation. It is registering perceptions from its watery environment. It hears, tastes, senses light, reacts to touch, learns, and remembers. The mother’s emotions can affect it. Gentle words or soft music calms it. Angry speech or rock music agitates it. The mother’s rhythmic heartbeat soothes it. But if fear sets her heart racing, soon baby’s heart beats twice as fast. A distressed mother transmits anxiety to the babe in her womb. A tranquil mother carries a peaceful baby. A joyful mother may make the babe in her womb jump for joy. All of this and more keeps baby’s brain busy. Even in the womb it is awesome.

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The Power of Spider Silk

It is lighter than cotton, yet ounce for ounce it is stronger than steel. For decades scientists have studied the silk produced by orb-weaving spiders. Dragline silk—the strongest of the seven silks these spiders can spin—has attracted the most attention. It is tougher and more waterproof than silkworm strands, which are commonly used in clothing.

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Smoking Deaths Helpful to the Economy?

“Philip Morris Cos. officials in the Czech Republic have been distributing an economic analysis concluding that . . . smokers’ early deaths help offset medical expenses,” says The Wall Street Journal. “The report, commissioned by the cigarette maker . . . , totes up smoking’s ‘positive effects’ on national finances, including revenue from excise and other taxes on cigarettes and ‘health-care cost savings due to early mortality.’” The article adds: “Weighing the costs and benefits, the report concludes that in 1999 the government had a net gain of 5.82 billion koruna ($147.1 million) from smoking.”

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Surveying the Red Planet

The orbiter Mars Global Surveyor arrived at Mars in 1997. It discovered that Mars once had a strong magnetic field. The orbiter also accurately mapped the topography of Mars, revealing, among other things, that the distance from the lowest spot on the surface of the planet to the highest exceeds 18 miles [29 km], compared with just over 12 miles [19 km] for the earth.

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Will Science Cure the World?

WILL modern science cure the world? In view of the many accomplishments in health care, some feel that this is not a far-fetched notion.

Governments and private benefactors are now working together with the United Nations in an unprecedented campaign against disease. One concerted effort focuses on the immunization of children in developing countries. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, if countries achieve their goals, “by 2015, more than 70 million children who live in the world’s poorest countries will receive each year life-saving vaccines against the following diseases: tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, rubella, yellow fever, haemophilus influenzae type B, hepatitis B, polio, rotavirus, pneumococcus, meningococcus, and Japanese encephalitis.” Measures are also being taken to provide basic health necessities, such as adequate access to clean water, better nutrition, and hygiene education.

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