Diamonds may be a girl`s best friend, but they are also pretty popular with Cornell University scientists whose interests run more to squeezing molecules and metals than blonds. By using two flawless diamonds working in a chamber one-tenth the diameter of a human hair, Cornell researchers report achieving static pressures greater than those believed to exist at the Earth`s center. The apparatus for obtaining these pressures, which are also described as 4,000 times greater than the pressure found at the deepest part of an ocean, is called a diamond anvil. The scientists hope that this device will aid their understanding of chemical bonds, how electrons behave in solids and even the inner structure of the Earth and other planets. Among the tasks ahead for the Cornell diamond anvil is an effort to squeeze hydrogen and nitrogen so much that they`ll take on the electrical properties of metals. The pressure achieved by the scientists is listed as 4.16 megabars. By contrast, the Earth`s center is believed to be under about 3.6 megabars of pressure. A megabar is about 980,000 times atmospheric pressure at sea level.
Birth defects
Vietnam veterans are more likely to father infants with major birth defects than non-Vietnam veterans, a Boston University School of Public Health study has found. A study of 1,964 pregnancies showed that the infants of veterans had a 1.7-fold risk of having a major birth defect, though they had no increased risk for stillbirths, neonatal deaths or minor malformations, said Ann Aschengrau. Fathers who served the longest in Vietnam and who saw combat had the highest risk of having a baby with a birth defect, she reported in the American Journal of Public Health. No cause for the increased risk was ascertained, but Agent Orange, the controversial chemical defoliant, must still be viewed with suspicion, she said.
Stay misty for us
Misting green vegetables as they sit in supermarket bins has nutritional as well as aesthetic merit, University of Illinois researchers report. Tests with misted and unmisted broccoli found that produce that had tiny beads of water sprayed over it periodically lost about 25 percent of its vitamin C content over three days while unmisted broccoli lost about 43 percent of its vitamin C. ”Misting can extend shelf life by a couple of days, and the broccoli looks fresher longer,” said Meg M. Barth, a researcher who conducted the studies. ”We think this is true for all green, leafy vegetables and even some that are not green, like carrots and cauliflower.” The study, presented in the Journal of Food Science, was funded in part by Corrigan Corp., which makes misting equipment for sale to supermarkets.
Fooling bacteria
A new technique for synthesizing penicillin and other antibiotics may give scientists an advantage in their continuing fight to get ahead of microbes that keep developing antibiotic resistance. Richard Day, a University of Cincinnati chemist, has developed a four-step method of synthesizing antibiotics that can make mirror images of penicillin and some others. While natural penicillin molecules come in a ”right-handed” version, Day`s molecules include some ”left-handed” types. This switch may make the synthetic penicillin effective against bacteria that have acquired resistance to right-handed penicillin molecules, but not lefties. While all this sounds more like strategy for using the pitching staff in a baseball game than a medical therapy, Day has found in early lab tests that his synthetic antibiotics appear to be more effective than are natural antibiotics. Whether this advantage will hold up in actual medical practice remains to be seen, the researcher cautioned.
Not Andreas` fault
The World Series earthquake that shook the San Francisco area a year ago was widely believed to have been caused by shifting of the San Andreas fault, which underlies the region, but now at least a few geophysicists have their doubts. Paul Segall, associate professor of geophysics at Stanford University, has compared ground displacement caused by the recent quake with a computer study of the area`s 1906 quake and says the evidence points to another fault that runs alongside the San Andreas. In an article co-authored by Michael Lisowski of the U.S. Geological Survey appearing in the journal Science, Segall noted that the Loma Prieta mountain, the highest in the Santa Cruz chain, moved in a different direction in 1906 than it did in the 1989 quake, one of several signs pointing to a different source of the temblor. If this theory is correct, Segall said, it could mean that pressure on the San Andreas fault wasn`t greatly relieved as many thought and that the area could be in for another, bigger quake at any time.
Tanning pill alert
Skin doctors, who advise against sunbathing, find no good purpose whatever in tanning parlors, and warn that some ”tanning” pills sold through commercial tanning parlors may cause serious medical problems. A report by doctors from Vanderbilt University published in the Journal of the American Medical Association recounts a patient who became ill after taking tanning pills. ”The patient reported her skin turned orange after she ingested the pills,” said Dr. Renata Bluhm of Vanderbilt. ”She then experienced malaise, headaches, increased fatigue and weight loss over a four-month period. She was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a condition causing a decrease in the production of blood cells in the bone marrow. We believe her condition was a reaction to canthaxanthin,” an ingredient found in tanning pills. The woman, who refused blood transfusion therapy for religious reasons, later died from her disorder. The federal Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings about canthaxanthin and tanning pills aren`t approved as a drug, but sale of the product continues, Bluhm said.
Male infertility
Doctors report encouraging results with a non-surgical treatment for the leading cause of male infertility, varicose veins of the testicles. ”No one understands exactly why, but varicoceles are generally accepted as a leading cause of male infertility,” said Dr. David Hunter, a University of Minnesota radiologist who spoke at the recent meeting in Chicago of the Radiological Society of North America. To treat the problem, Hunter and his colleagues insert a thin, flexible tube into a patient`s jugular vein and use imaging technology to place the tube, called a catheter, into the afflicted vein. Then they squirt a contrast liquid heated to temperatures above that of boiling water to scald the wall of the vein and shut it down. The Minnesota physicians have used this technique on 180 infertile men. So far, 75 percent have produced an increased sperm count and more than half have impregnated their wives, Hunter reported.
