Under the Sun The article by Stacie Zoe Berg1 raises the interesting possibility that exposure to solar UV-B radiation could induce autoimmune diseases. This certainly sounds plausible. We know that prolonged exposure to UV-B causes basal-cell and squamous-cell cancers in susceptible individuals, particularly fair-skinned people. [Melanoma appears to be caused by both UV-B and the much stronger UV-A radiation.] But the report states that autoimmune incidence decreases towards lower latitu

The U.S. government's environmental regulatory apparatus is about to be challenged in a fundamental way by a novel technology that can--for the first time--measure whether there is cancer risk from minute quantities of chemicals and nuclear radiation. A newly developed supersensitive method--up to 100,000 times more sensitive than any now available--can establish whether genetic material in human cells has been damaged, an initial step that can lead to cancer. Scientific advances inevitably ca

I cannot agree that, "Science's pivotal role is to...convince both Congress and the public to reduce CO2 emissions. . . ." (P. Smaglik, The Scientist, 12[1]:1, Jan. 5, 1998). The role of science should be to research the global warming problem and lay out all of the relevant facts. The article fails to mention: That the warming of the past 100 years occurred before 1940, well before the bulk of the greenhouse gases had been emitted; That it was followed by a cooling in both hemispheres lasti

That Ozone Politics Played A Role Date: March 4, 1996 (The Scientist, Vol:10, #5, pg.9 & 12, March 4, 1996) (Copyright ©, The Scientist, Inc.) In awarding the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry to the originators of the stratospheric ozone depletion hypothesis, the Swedish Academy of Sciences has chosen to make a political statement. Quoting from the citation: "The three researchers have contributed to our salvation from a global environmental problem that could have catastrophic consequences