Watching the World
UPDATE ON CHERNOBYL
Three and a half years after the nuclear accident in Chernobyl, U.S.S.R., local residents, “especially children, are afflicted with swollen thyroid glands, sluggishness, cataracts and a rise in the cancer rate,” according to the Manchester Guardian Weekly. In one area, medical experts predict that tens of thousands are yet to die from cancer caused by the radiation. Farm directors report an increasing rate of birth defects among farm animals: “calves without heads, limbs, ribs or eyes; pigs with abnormal skulls.” It is reported that radiation readings are 30 times higher than normal in the area. Zoya Tkachova, a hospital director in the Mogilev region of Belorussia, stated: “We cannot give any guarantees of a healthy life to the population of the contaminated areas.”
“WORLD’S LAST GREAT WILDERNESS”
As available supplies of natural resources continue to dwindle, the continent making up almost a tenth of the earth’s land area, Antarctica, is being considered a potential new source. The ice-clad continent has been under the protection of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and a voluntary moratorium on mining. However, a new agreement has been proposed that would open it up to oil exploration and mining. The International Herald Tribune reports that two of the treaty’s member nations, Australia and France, are refusing to sign the agreement. Citing the oil spills in Alaska and Antarctica as grim reminders of the environmental dangers of mineral exploration, Australia’s prime minister, Bob Hawke, called for “stronger protection for what remains the world’s last great wilderness.”
WHILE THE SUN SHINES
An architect in the Federal Republic of Germany has designed and built a remarkably efficient, if odd-looking, solar-powered car. According to the newspaper Die Zeit, in the architect’s hometown, the car elicits whoops of joy from children, while adults discuss whether it looks more like a Ping-Pong table or a flounder. But looks aside, the car is a success. It has won world championships for solar-powered vehicles and has even reached speeds of 80 miles per hour [130 km/hr]. But that is with its batteries fully charged. When running directly on sunlight, the car cannot exceed 20 miles per hour [30 km/hr]—and that only while the sun shines.
[Picture Credit Line on page 28]
From a photo by Trykowski/Dürschner
THE POWER OF SCENTS
Japanese firms are experimenting with behavior-altering scents. According to one Japanese expert, such scents, delivered through air-conditioning ducts, have “been found to calm restless nursing-home patients and to enhance efficiency and lower stress among factory and office workers.” Thirteen keypunch operators were monitored for 30 days, and the experiments showed that the average number of errors per hour dropped by 54 percent when office air was scented with lemon fragrance. The magazine Discover reports that now a psychologist “has been hired to come up with an aroma that could be sprayed in New York City’s subways to reduce commuter aggression and increase friendliness.”
EMPTY CHURCHES
According to a recent survey in the Federal Republic of Germany, 70 percent of Germans believe in God, and only 13 percent admitted being atheists, reports the Schweinfurter Tagblatt, a German newspaper. However, the results of a poll by the Allensbach Opinion Research Institute indicate that only 5 percent of Lutherans and 25 percent of Catholics in the Federal Republic of Germany attend church services regularly. Of these, 50 percent are over 60 years old.
BAT AND MAN
In Europe, rabid bats pose an increasing danger to humans, reports the Manchester Guardian Weekly. Hundreds of cases of infection from bat bites have been recorded in Europe in recent years. The problem is not unique to Europe. Reportedly, since 1983 two persons have died in the Soviet Union and one in Finland as a result of being bitten by infected bats. “In South and Central America, there is currently an epidemic of rabies among blood-sucking vampire bats,” states the Weekly. In addition, recent bat attacks on humans in France have led to the discovery of a new type of virus affecting bats. The new virus, similar to that of rabies, is called the European bat virus.
POOR CHILDREN
The United States is a nation known for its prosperity and plenty, yet studies conducted by government agencies have found millions of unhealthy and uneducated children in that country. According to the Census Bureau survey, 1 in every 5 children in the United States—12.6 million under 18 years of age—live below the poverty line. Economist D. Lee Bawden blames the increase in poverty among children, in part, on the rising number of one-parent families. It is estimated that more than 17 million children in the United States live with one parent only.
MALARIA THAT TRAVELS
Several cases of malaria have reportedly been contracted near airports or on airport grounds in Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. After stating that some of the people who contracted the disease had not traveled abroad for a year, the magazine Machine Design added that such circumstances suggest that “the malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes arriving at the airport on a long-distance flight.”
YOUNG RAPISTS
A recent study revealed that among 1.5 million sexual assaults and attempted rapes in the United States, nearly half involved an adolescent rapist, according to the magazine Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality. In another U.S. study, researchers found that “72% of adolescent rapists reported using a drug or drugs on the day of the episode; 54% had used alcohol, 44% marijuana, and 25% another drug . . . Forty-three percent were intoxicated during the rape.” According to this magazine report, alcohol use may often contribute to assaults in which the rapists use extreme violence or force.
BOGUS BEE
In 1945 zoologist Karl von Frisch showed that the dance of the forager bee is really a complex code, giving fellow bees directions to a newfound source of nectar. He later received a Nobel prize for his discovery. Since then, scientists have tried to make a robot bee that could do the same. But the results have been discouraging. The impostors, for all their frantic dancing, went largely ignored by real bees. But according to the German newspaper Hannoversche Allgemeine, scientists have built a robot bee with tiny wings mounted on diamond bearings. The wings produce a unique sound vital to the dance. Tested in Denmark, this robot got the attention of the other bees. They set upon it and tried to sting it to death. Bees in a different town accepted the bogus dance, though, and set off to look for the nectar.
SUICIDES ON THE INCREASE
◻ The 1980’s produced the highest suicide rates among older men in Canada’s history, reports The Toronto Star. Statistics show that 80 percent of the suicide victims are men. The acting head of psychiatry at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Dr. David Conn, listed as possible causes the combination of physical illness, latent alcoholism, and isolation after retirement or family deaths. “Adding the mixture of depression and drinking can plant suicidal thoughts,” reports the Star. What are some other warning signals? Barbara Debuk, a mental health consultant for Health and Welfare Canada, said that they are: stockpiling medication, planning funeral, changing a will, arranging for body to be donated to medicine, and showing a general preoccupation with death.
◻ The Saturday Star, a newspaper of Johannesburg, South Africa, listed, among other things, “the fact that churches paint the hereafter as attractive” as a possible factor contributing to the incidence of suicide in that country. It noted that “a fascination with the mystery of life after death” has led to self-destruction. The newspaper cited as an example the case of a 16-year-old boy who committed suicide. In a note, he “told his family he had decided to end his life for one reason only—to find out about life after death,” reports the newspaper.
ABUSE VERSUS DISCIPLINE
A study of 237 prison inmates in the United States examined what makes children grow up to be violent adults. It found that “87 percent of the inmates who said their parents kicked and punched them as children were violent criminals,” reports the January 1990 issue of Science Digest. Seeing one parent beat the other had a similar effect on children. But spanking children in itself did not seem to cause them to become violent adults.