In The News

Health Officials Seek Help from U.S. to Control Virus

Lawrence Altman April 23, 2003
Responding to studies which show that the SARS virus can survive for up to 24 hours on objects and recently infected health care workers in two Toronto hospitals, Dr. James Young, the Ontario commissioner of public safety, invited a Center for Disease Control (CDC) team from Atlanta to discuss and help strengthen infection control measures. The US and Canada have been working together and...

Kedah to Boost Fish Exports Via Genetics Project

Leslie Lau April 8, 2003
The world's fish market is huge, and Malaysia aims to take a piece of the profit pie. Working together with the World Fish Centre, the government in Kuala Lumpur is closely controlling breeding practices to boost its commercial production of the tilapia fish. The Malaysian project might match the 85% size increase recently achieved in the Philippines, but it will need to emphasize taste to...

Iraq, Testing Ground for US Hi-tech Weapons

March 29, 2003
Some analysts believe that the United States is using Iraq to test newly developed hi-tech weapons – some of which have never been tested in a real battle in the country.

Globalization and Science: A Speeded-Up Virtuous Cycle

Ramamurti Shankar March 28, 2003
In many academic disciplines, books, journals, and letters have long been the preferred ways of communicating over long distances. Thanks to the 'information revolution' facilitated by the internet, though, today the spread of knowledge around the world can happen almost instantaneously. In Physics and other branches of science, researchers and scholars are enjoying tremendous...

Mainland Professor Who Died in Hong Kong Spread Mysterious Form of Pneumonia

Helen Luk March 20, 2003
A mysterious pneumonia-like disease, which has now infected and killed hundreds of people in several countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, and Canada, has been traced back to a medical professor from mainland China who carried the disease with him when he stayed at a Hong Kong hotel. Among those he infected were foreign guests suspected of then carrying the disease to the other countries....

Chinese Astronauts to Compete for Final Frontier

Joan Johnson-Freese March 14, 2003
A chain reaction of space activity, begun by Soviet-U.S competition in the 1960’s, has been duly catalyzed by China’s own manned space effort. The Middle Kingdom began its ventures into space in 1999, but soon it hopes to be only the third nation to have achieved human spaceflight. If this does happen, China’s position vis-à-vis the world - and particularly vis-à-vis the US - is bound to change...

Study of Antarctic Points to Rising Sea Levels

Andrew Revkin March 7, 2003
Glaciers on the coast of Antarctica are breaking up, presumably in response to global warming, although temperatures in rest of Antarctica have remained stable. This break up is occurring after centuries of stability in the glacial structure. If this trend continues, it could have disastrous results for coastlines as water levels rise and for cities as salt water flows into fresh water sources...