RESEARCH QUESTIONS AGE ON FOSSIL REMAINS
Fossil remains of an ancestral human species in South Africa could be older than expected, say Purdue researchers. Purdue's Darryl Granger and Marc Caffee determined the age of a fossilized skeleton believed to be an Australopithecus -- an African hominid from which modern man is thought to have developed -- by measuring the radioactivity of cave sediments in which the skeleton was buried millions of years ago. This technique of aluminum and beryllium for radiometric dating generally is used to estimate the age of geological formations such as glaciated valleys and river terraces. The fossil was pegged at a minimum 2 million years old but this technique places it at between 3.5 million and 4.5 million years old.
CHEAP COFFEE BAD FOR TIGER HEALTH
Cheap coffee -- the inexpensive, common variety used in instant coffee and sold in large cans -- could contribute to the loss of tigers, elephants and rhinos in Indonesia. A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and published in the journal Science says increased production of this robusta coffee is leading to deforestation of lowland forests in Indonesia, home to that country's last remaining populations of wild tigers and other species. Falling coffee prices worldwide has led to the need for more production, which in turn has resulted in more forest being cleared, even in national parks. The society says the United States can help by supporting certification programs to make coffee more wildlife-friendly.
LOS ALAMOS CREATES NUKE PIT
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have made the first nuclear weapons pit in 14 years that meets specifications for use in the U.S. stockpile. This plutonium processing facility restores the nation's ability to make nuclear weapons, which was lost when the Rocky Flats Plant near Boulder, Colo., shut down in June 1989. A pit is the fissile core of a nuclear weapon's physics package. The new Qual-1 pit is for the W88 warhead, which is carried on the Trident II D5 Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile, a cornerstone of the U.S. nuclear deterrent. Los Alamos will make a half-dozen pits a year from now until 2007.
BIPOLAR TRACED TO OVERLAPPING GENES
Increased risk for bipolar disorder has been linked to two overlapping genes on the long arm of chromosome 13. University of Chicago researchers say earlier work showed the same gene complex increases risk for schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder or manic-depressive illness is a brain disorder that causes profound shifts in a person's mood. It is caused by multiple genes, researchers say, each contributing a small part. The newly implicated genes, G30 and G72, were discovered through positional cloning, an approach that relies on small differences among family members who have a disease and those who do not to track down the genes that increase risk. The authors say these two genes are rather odd, expressed only in primates and have no known function. They are located in a sort of "gene desert" near the end of the chromosome.
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(EDITORS: For more information about FOSSIL, Contact Darryl E. Granger, (765) 494-0043 or e-mail [email protected]. For COFFEE TIGERS, Stephen Sautner, (718) 220-3682 or [email protected], for WEAPONS PIT, Jim Danneskiold, [email protected], and for BIPOLAR, John Easton, (773) 702-6241 or [email protected].)
