Watching the World

Cancer-Cure Update

Is a cure for cancer closer than we think? South African Digest reports that a team of South African scientists has produced a unique antibody that is designed to “carry cancer-killing drugs directly to malignant tumours.” How? By programming these artificial antibodies to search through the body until they locate a specific cancer. Once the antibody has found its prey, it will destroy the tumor by “dumping” the lethal drug it is carrying. Like a “trained sniffer dog,” the antibody will not stop with the found tumor. It will continue its search to include any cancer that remains undiagnosed and penetrate it with more of the lifesaving drug.

Lifesaving Reflex

Is it possible to survive a prolonged drowning? Yes, thanks to a lifesaving reflex known as the “mammalian diving reflex,” reports the New York Daily News. Dr. Martin Nemiroff, a researcher with the University of Michigan, has discovered that humans have the same “mechanism” that enables seals to survive prolonged periods under water. Previously, it was believed that the brain died if without oxygen for more than four minutes. However, if a person is submerged under water that is less than 70 degrees Fahrenheit, this reflex is set off, slowing the flow of blood to all parts of the body except the brain. This explains why a three-year-old girl recently survived a 40-minute drowning. If resuscitation is administered immediately after a victim is pulled from the water, the brain and the body can be brought back to life. The reflex is said to work better on children than on adults.

Mexico’s Dog Dilemma

Traffic, smog, and overcrowding are not the only problems in Mexico City. According to Dr. Angellini de la Garza, an official with the Department of Public Health Administration, there are more than a million dogs in Mexico City, and the canine population is increasing at the rate of 20 percent each year! An additional 200,000 homeless dogs roam the city streets and are considered potential carriers of rabies and other diseases. An average of 12,000 dogs are eliminated from the city annually in an effort to decrease their population. But dogcatchers are often the target of attacks by those who oppose the animal’s removal, experiencing assaults that range from insults to being attacked with stones, sticks, or even firearms.

“Normal Reaction”?

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “forcible rape” increased by 4 percent in the United States during 1985. New York City recorded the largest number of such rapes with 3,880 incidents reported, followed by Los Angeles with 2,318. Although authorities cite many factors as the cause, some experts maintain that “by their seductive behavior in dress, bodily movement and suggestive remarks, some women invite rape.” (The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Canada) One man charged with raping a 16-year-old girl was sentenced by a Wisconsin judge to probation. Why? The judge concluded that the rape occurred as a “normal reaction” to suggestive clothing.

Malpractice Hot Lines

With the fear of malpractice suits escalating among medical professionals, a new service is helping doctors in the United States determine whether a “prospective patient has ever filed a malpractice suit” or not. Changing Times reports on a telephone hot line, known as Physician’s Alert, that will screen prospective patients for a yearly fee of $150 plus $10 for each individual named. However, in response to this provision for doctors, a hot line has also been set up to assist patients who wish to know whether a doctor has ever been involved in a malpractice suit. The fee is $5. Neither service will reveal the outcome of a particular court case.

Smart Babies

Do babies have IQs? Independent studies reveal that they do. By testing their attention spans, researchers say they can measure the IQs of infants as young as six months, reports The Detroit News. These scores are said to match closely their scores on standardized IQ tests taken at four or five years of age. New York University researcher Marc Bornstein noted that infants whose parents consistently stimulate learning capacity score higher on IQ tests than do infants who are stimulated less often.

Teenage Abortions

The United States has the “highest pregnancy rate among unmarried teenagers of any industrialized nation,” notes an article in Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality. Approximately two thirds of these girls give birth. The remaining third terminate their pregnancy by abortion. Of the 450,000 abortions performed on teenagers, an estimated 15,000 are performed on girls under the age of 15. Repeated abortions are chosen by many of these young girls as a form of contraception, says the article. Statistics indicate that teenagers account for 28 percent of all abortions performed in the United States.

Books Are Better!

A study conducted by Dortmund University of Germany, involving 1,050 girls and boys aged 13 to 16, suggests that good pupils spend less time in front of a computer and the television. Why? Because they prefer “more contact with the western culture through the written word,” often holding a more reserved and skeptical view of modern technology and computers. In contrast, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that “computer addicts” spend up to eight hours a day in front of a viewing screen. Some three to four hours of this time is spent with the computer while the rest is spent watching TV or video.

Pupil Violence Grows

Slashed car tires, smashed windscreens (windshields), arson, knifings, and shootings all figure in a survey taken among 4,000 of Britain’s schoolteachers reporting increased “pupil violence.” School authorities report that pupils are stabbing one another, youngsters have been thrown over balconies and even through plate-glass windows. The survey notes that one out of every 4 teachers has been the object of threats, one in 10 claims to have been the target of physical attack, and one out of every 25 has suffered assault. The violence has been aimed at both men and women with several female teachers reporting sexual harassment. School violence is “so serious,” reports The Times of London, “that in some areas there is almost open gang warfare.”

Troubled Translators

Each day, computers are becoming more capable of translating documents (technical material without literary adornment) from one language to another. Peter De Mauro, director of the translating section of the Xerox Corporation says they now produce “50,000 pages annually of English text translated to Spanish, French, Italian, German and Portuguese with just a push of a button.” One such system, called Eurotra, costs 30 million dollars. However, “the intelligent machines are still having difficulty with seldom used words or words that carry a double meaning,” reports El Universal, a Mexican newspaper. For example, the term “anti-fire security” may mistakenly be translated to set the security on fire!

Sea Level Rising

Over the next century, coastline communities throughout the world may be facing a real threat, claim two geologists in a recent report published in the British journal Nature. According to their findings, carbon dioxide, released into the atmosphere through the increased burning of fuels, has caused a significant rise in the global sea level. Since this carbon dioxide prevents earth’s heat from escaping, the result is a “hothouse” condition or climatic warming that is believed to cause heat-induced swelling of the seas as well as the melting of mid-latitude glaciers. Although human intervention has, to some extent, slowed the annual rise in the global sea level, the geologists note: “Sea level rise joins ‘death and taxes’ as the inexorable fate of mankind.”

Still a Booming Business

During the past year, South Africa saw the collapse of more than 6,000 businesses, an average of 16 per day. While 1985 thus proved to be a bad year for many businesses, one form of business continues to thrive​—dealers in African medicine (muti). One such shop owner in Johannesburg, Dr. Naidoo, said: “My store is like a supermarket where I get people of all races and all ages coming here to purchase some remedy.” Customers are in hopes of finding a love potion, a remedy to solve domestic problems, something that will dispel evil spirits or foretell the future. He stocks animal skins and bones, baboon parts (which many believe are a protection against evil spirits), and herbs. He burns one herb known as Mpepo every four hours to protect the shop’s stock from evil spirits!

English Anyone?

Londoners have been shocked to learn that Bengali is now the second most common language spoken in their schools and is spoken by no less than 12,000 youngsters. At one school, 45 different tongues are spoken while 161 different languages are spoken by schoolchildren throughout the city. English, however, remains the common language, even at home, for the great majority.

In the United States, Japanese has become the fastest-growing language in colleges during the 1980’s​—increasing more than 40 percent at the university level. Similar interest in the language has also been shown at the precollege level. In comparison to the number enrolled five years ago, the Japan Society in New York City reports that students of Japanese have increased threefold! Why the rush to learn Japanese? National interest in the language appears to be centered on the “expanding economic and technological relationship between Japan and the United States.”