A Tragic But Telling Legacy
September 27, 1999, Newsweek, U.S. EDITION
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; Pg. 53, 304 words, John Davenport
You couldn't design a grimmer experiment. A Nazi blockade of the western Netherlands in September 1944 and an early winter triggered a famine that lasted until the spring of 1945. By January, daily rations in the cities were down to 750 calories, half of what they had been earlier in the war; they would eventually fall below 500 calories. City dwellers were forced into the country to scavenge for food, including tulip bulbs. The "Hunger Winter" had killed...
A Deadly Strain of Staph
August 30, 1999, Newsweek, U.S. EDITION
SOCIETY; Bacteria; Pg. 57, 390 words, By Claudia Kalb; With John Davenport
Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium known by its nickname "staph," has been the bane of medical experts for decades. Not just because it can trigger nasty blood, bone and skin infections, but because the stubborn microbe has a striking ability to mutate and thwart antibiotic drugs. Until recently, such resistant strains appeared to be confined to hospital settings and nursing homes--where infections can spread rapidly--and were of little concern to the public. But last...
Schools on the Alert
August 23, 1999, Newsweek, U.S. EDITION
SOCIETY; Pg. 42, 1426 words, By Claudia Kalb; With John Davenport, Donna Foote in Los Angeles, Beth Dickey in Melbourne, Fla., Sarah Downey and Steve Rhodes in Chicago, Sherry Keene-Osborn in Littleton and Jeff Green in Detroit
It has been only a few months, but life has changed radically at Permian High in Odessa, Texas. Last May, when the dismissal bell rang out the old academic year, students were Jane and John Anonymous, and the closest thing to surveillance was a couple of security guards passing through the hallways. Last week, when students returned for the new year, they stepped into the new age of high-tech school safety. Every student is now required to wear a computer-coded ID badge. Seventeen surveillance...
The Big Bang Is Back
August 16, 1999,Newsweek, U.S. Edition
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; Pg. 56, 1025 words, By Adam Rogers; With Erika Check and John Davenport
A high-powered physics experiment promises to turn back the clock to a
microsecond after the birth of the universe
A Protein That Senses Sun Damage
August 16, 1999, Newsweek, U.S. EDITION
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; Skin Cancer; Pg. 59, 185 words, John Davenport
That peeling after a nasty sunburn is actually your body's way of getting rid of cells damaged by the sun. Now researchers in Texas have identified a key protein in sunburned cells that helps the body fight off cancer-causing mutations. In the current issue of the journal Science, a team at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reports that a protein called FasL triggers severely damaged skin cells to commit suicide. In the study, mice with normal FasL killed off UV-damaged cells more...
A Wall of Black Water
August 09, 1999, Newsweek, U.S. EDITION
SOCIETY; Pg. 60, 1338 words, By Mark Dennis and John Leland; With Peter Annin and John Davenport
From the picturesque Swiss town of Interlaken, the craggy thrust of Jungfrau peak looms almost 12,000 feet overhead. Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 27, Heinz Loosli looked up toward the peak at a formation of clouds gathering. For Loosli, 36, this was a bad sign. His company, Alpin Raft, one of a handful of adventure-sports outfits that have made this Alpine hamlet a mecca for adrenaline junkies, had contracted to take a group of young travelers into nearby Saxeten River Gorge, a steep, narrow...
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