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Show Based upon a study of 94-million-year- D 100 years. a researcher December meeti physical Uni per day with §5 to 10 of these large spe- e. University of This is the family tree for a Midwestern family severely afte cted by Alzheimer's di: Washingtonscientists disease and a defec’ contributing to the dis t g 2 link between the | ws tf Women with Alzheimer s Men with Alzheimer's Womenwith Alzheimer's, deceased Men with Alzheimer's, deceased 54 ” NEW COLD VIRUS Some parts ofthe country have been hit this season with 4 particularly powerful espiratory syncytial RS old vir ee ays Dr. Naney Arden. Centers for Disease Control Prevention. who adds hat RSV can causeserious illness in ir and young children Erle G. Kauffman. a visiting profes- sor of geology at Pennsylvania Sta ALTERNATIVE JOURNAL 5 versity, told the gathering. “This rate of biodiversity loss equals or exceeds past grandparents Grea stage of a biodiversity crisis and we will shortly reach mass extinction levels. If this extinction behaveslike others in the geo- logical record, we won't experience eco- system recoveryfor 1 to 10 million years fale Parents 48171 39 49°58 47 “56 48°54 57 55 53 49 46 46 SOOO > ChildrenDer) 5 504846 man blood is the goal of several research ultrasound wavesat a water solution con- | The Journal of Alternative and Comple- digm, ventary Medicine: Research on Para s Lab tests ofthe blood substitute are en- couraging. Suslick said, but tests in ani- mals arestill to be done DISEASE GENE . Scientists have found what may be a piece of a long-sought gene for a musclewasting diseasethat generally kills its vietimsby age 2 The DNAfragment was missing in 17 out of 29 patients with type 1 spinal-muscle atrophy. That suggests it is part of a gene that causes the disease when incomplete or otherwise flawed, or at least that the fragment lies veryclose to the gene, researcherssaid pe About 1 in 20,000 babies born have 1. The disease also comes in twoless-s vere forms, for a total frequency of aout 1 in 10,000births The three forms maybe caused by dif- ferent defects in the samegene, said John and Policy debuts this perceived gap betweenholistic ase medicine and scientific rigor. To do so. it has gathered an editorial boardof respect - POLO ed physiologists, botanists, epidemiolo gists and medical historians — including former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. The journal's editor-in-chief, Mare S { ® ® ® Micozzi. is a medical doctor and anthropologist who heads the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Bethesda, Md. The inaugural issue includes a guest commen. These ultrasound waves create a froth in the solution and generate heat. The end result is tiny bubbles made from hemoglo- Kenn samevolume of whole blood, said 8. Suslick, a Universityof Illinois chemist Practice monthas the nation’s first peer-reviewed the protein pigment bin molecules. These microbubbles are about half the size of red blood cells and carry spout ore eee ee ee a Nowinvestigators in homeopathy, herb- al medicine and other nonconventional | at the University ofIllinois ampaign bring a novel approach to this task. They fire beams of studies because they're unimpressed with the quality of the work or don’t like mixing psychology. sociology and medicine. journal devotedto alternative medicine. — — -_— + But most major medical The quarterly journal's challenge is to ave Alzh tid groups around the world, because a dis——— S564 “Publishit in a peer-re wed journal’ healing arts have an outlet of their own | Findinganartificial substitute for huease-free. inexpensive product with a long shelf life would find a welcome market \47 49 ative medicine: journals are reluctant to publish such | | & & \ & 4 yt A especially in the tropics BLOOD SUBSTITUTE ners who claim results withalter- | es ee Fe aloe eal one - a3 Sreanaens 54 we arein an early andhighly accelerated — ———_————- 5 We can see from thefossil record that have a favorite response to | ——_— - tropical ecosystems are the first to go. {7 47 mass extinctions and. just as in the past taining hemoglobin, of red blood cells Ci HEALTH UPDATES The Genetic ee One Family’ s Case History MASS EXTINCTION old fossils. Earth is headed for a mass ex- cies,” 5. 1995 yoreak SCIENCE& SCIENCE UPDATES f THURSDAY The Salt Lake Cribune MOVIES * COMICS « T\ tary by Sen. Tom Harkin, a major force U. of Washington Researchers Try To Uncover Cause her memory and judgment are ona downward spiral, while her personality and behavior also change. Before they die, most patients eitioe basic abilities suchas speaking. walking and bladdercontrol By Warren King But Sedenquist also is one of the hundreds of patients who are contributing to a better understanding of the life, strolling into the dining room ina soft blue sweater, her gray hair curled. Then shebegins to chat. trying desperately to remember, trying so- search effort Working with registries of more than 1,000 patients — many from Group Health Cooperative —the UW SEATTLE TIMES SEATTLE — She looks so full of disease through participation in a ma- jor University cial graces she thinks she remembers of Washington re- Bird, a key member of the UWre search team andchiefof neurology at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center : in Seattle Bird has been most responsible for recruiting and screening hundreds o: Alzheimer’s patients and their families for the morethan10yearsof ge netics studies by the UW behind the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health go NEW DIABETES DRUG The Food and Drug Administrationap proved a new diabetes drug Tuesday. The drug, Metformin, will be used to treat the noninsulin dependent Type-two form of the disease. But the FDA warnsthat some other patients who take the drug could suffer largest research sample in the nation Morethan 640 families having two or more members with thedisease have been interviewed; a core of 87 fam oflactic acid in the blood. as a side effect It will be sold under the brand name Glucophage Collaborating with several universities, the UW team has the jactic acidosis, a life-threatening buildup Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center ilies is studied most intensively DRUG REACTIONSCANKILL Sedenquist, unable to say when she movedtoherson's Seattle house. The backs of the dishes on the wall will tell, she says quite confidently ar causesof the disease. They to understand, for instance, why brains of virtually all Alzheimer's paprotein debilitating with tients end up call the Alzheimer’s Centerto volunteer as research subjects. “They seea loved one go through theillness and have such a helplessfeeling,” said El- drugs send upto 2 million people to the hospital and kill 140,000 eachyear. A report in the current issue of U.S. News and tions aretoo difficult now. Most days years ago that adefect on one chromo- howthey deal with it enmonths. Most days she must be per- easein relatively young people Alzheimer’s. s Edith It gets away from you Sedenquist, 76. smiles and suddenly directs conversation to the model house on the windowseat. Most ques. she doesn't recognize her home ofsev is analyzing a widevariety ofpossible plagues and nerve-fiber tangles s a national leader in geThe L netic research, having discovered two somecontributes to Alzheimer’s dis Many nonaffected family members len Nemens, the UWresearch nurse whointerviewsall the families ‘They want to do something. This is Edith Sedenquist’s mother also had Now shestruggles with Side effects or reactions to prescription World Report says concern within the FDAover side effects prompted officials to place morethan 30drugs on close moni- toring. Many of them are commonlydrugs to treat heart disease and asthma Many of the drugs on the monitoringlist Wasmuth. a professor of biological chemistry at the University of California, Ir- suaded to do the basics: to eat, bathe. dress. UWscientists also are exploring possible environmental influences the samerelentless decline that eventually killed her mother are commonly prescribed. One drug, Ampicillin, for infections, may cause lesions, finding in the Januaryissueof the journal Nature Genetics. million Americans in the throes of Alzheimer’s disease. the most com. down or prevent the disease’s progression and developing animal test eight to 10 years, but it can last as long An extensive examination as 20 years. son syndrome. Another drug, Oxaprozin or Daypro, for arthritis, can cause inflam- an autopsy at death is the only way to Se eee also can causeinflamma tion of the pancreas. The fragment mayhelp with prenatal diagnosis of the type 1 disease. Wasmuth said — Combined news services Sedenquist is oneof an estimated 4 mon cause of dementia Like former President Ronald Rea. gan. whodisclosed in November that he has the disease, Sedenquist finds working on drugs that could slow models Inthelast 10 years, a huge amount of information has surfaced. There are many leads to pursue,” Thecourseof the diseaseis usually can diagnose about 90% of cases. but said Tom including potentially fatal Stevens-John- mation of the pancreas. Tacrine, for Alz- — Combined new: services @ See ALZHEIMER'S, C-4 ‘hat is the world’s newestisland nation? he tiny Pacific island of Palau the only remaining United Nations trust territory establishedafter World War If achievedfull independence Oct. | 1994. becoming the world’s newest country. the 190th. Until its change ofstatus to the Republic of Palau,theisland group had been underthejurisdictionof the United States, which capturedthis old Japanese stronghold in savage fighting during the war. An agreement nowgives the U.S. military access to athe islands for 50 years in exchange for millionsin aid. Palau’s recent struggle for sovereignty involved bitter political battles that Ted fo the assassination. ofthe territory’s first president and the * suicide of his successor. A nation of only 15,000 people, Palau has survived because the majority ofits work foreé holds U.S.financed governmentjobs. The archipelago is renowned for —Y inderwater wonders — 625species of ‘coral, more than 1,400 kinds of fish — that provide someof the best diving andsnorkeling on Earth. ‘Janitor’ Gobbles Up Orbiting Junk, But Will NASA Buy It? By Arthur H. Rotstein THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TUCSON, Ariz. — Spent satel- lites, burned-out rocket boosters and bits of other junk create a mine field that could destroy a space shuttle or satellite. But what if there werea satellite designedto scour the mosttraveled areas around the Earth for dangerous space flotsam? Kumar Ramohalli, a University of Arizona professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering, says his invention — Space Janitor — couldclear the space lanes of the most dangerous debris, if only he could get NASA interested The Autonomous Space Pro- cessor for Orbilal Debris would automaticallycatch errant satel- lites or bits of space junk with robot arms, cut off reusable into the atmosphere and burn ed the device and built a one- It's a janitor that eats the third-scale prototype, finds him- diet that's on the floor.” Ramohalli said. “A janitor with an appetite for crumbs and junk Ramohalli, formerly of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. developed his invention since 1988 with the help of students and a $17,500 annual grant that So Ramohalli, who has patent- self with no market for his product — unless he can interest private entrepreneurs. NASA andthe military haveused radar to catalog about 7,000 objects in ovbit that are softball-size or larger. There are many times more objects too endedthis year from the Univer- small to detect Thedebris, flotsam from hun- tion Advanced Design Program Orbiting trash is no joke for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Officials have estimated there’s a l-in-5 chance the dreds of satellite launchings since 1957, ranges from spent spacecraft to booster rockets, abandoned fuel tanks. pieces of sities Space Research Associa- plannedspacestation would be hit by junk if it were launched Satellites have beenhit by debris. Space shuttles have been hit many times by smaller bits. and shuttles Discovery and At- lantis have had to steer around larger pieces. It's not a minor issueasfar as the space station is concerned,” said Donald J ssler, senior parts like solar panels with a so. scientist for orbital-debris re- lar-poweredtorch and dumpthe search at NASA’s Johnson rest in a hopper. When it filled Space Center in Houston up, the satellite wouldeitherbe But NASA officials aren't ready, he said, to turn to Ramo- emptied bya spaceshuttle, dive halli’s approach up, or splash down in the ocean for recovery eG vine. He andother scientists report the rockets or satellites that have exploded, even minute paint chips Even a small bit of orbiting junk can causedisaster because of the tremendous speed of the flotsam and the spacecraft, said Leslie Tennen, a Phoenix attor- who practices international governing space ‘They don't have to be very large when they're coming at you at 15,000 mph-plus,”” nen said Ten- The National Academyof En- gineering, White House and De@ See JANITOR, C-4 |
