Notebook

Adam and Eve Online Wanted: Words Buoying Water Research Chemistry on Camera Bargains In Bone Prized Dermatology Natural Education Damage Control pp. 4 After 2 1/2 years of looking, the Visible Human Project at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in Bethesda, Md., settled recently on the cadavers of a 38-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman to represent the online human body. Using digitized photography, computerized tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging in 1 mm sections of the cadavers, the project will build a 42-gigabyte, three-dimensional image database of the two for distribution over the Internet. Project planners hope to combine the imaging data with other types of information--journal articles, for example--using interlinked information structures. According to project officer Michael J. Ackerman at NLM, investigators had some difficulty finding the "average" man and woman between the ages of 20 and 60 that they needed: two individuals who were healthy but had died suddenly without physical trauma. It seems that far more men than women die in this way, usually from drug overdoses, he says. The pair, who will, in a sense, represent the first human beings in cyberspace, are called "Adam" and "Eve" by project workers. Oxford University Press is soliciting contributions from scientists for a comprehensive revision of its massive Oxford English Dictionary, scheduled to be published in 2005. According to the publisher, such information may include the coinages of particular scientific words, factual errors in existing definitions, scientific words and meanings not in the dictionary, and earlier referenced examples of words and meanings already treated in the dictionary (as well as later examples of those described as obsolete). To contribute, contact the Chief Science Editor, Oxford English Dictionary, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, U.K. E-mail: oed3@oup.co.uk. The fourth Stockholm Water Symposium will take place August 9-13. The event is a series of water policy meetings that seeks to address key environmental topics and provide viable scientific solutions to current and future water-supply problems. The 1994 symposium is centered on the theme of "integrated land and water management," and will feature an international cast of speakers as well as workshop sessions on such topics as the "greening of industry" and hazardous waste cleanups. The symposium is part of the Stockholm Water Festival. Profits from the festival support the $150,000 Stockholm Water Prize, given to an individual or organization that has played a role in protecting the world's water resources. For information, contact the Stockholm Water Festival, Amiralitetshuset, Skeppsholmen, S-III 49 Stockholm, Sweden; (46)-8-614-3400. Fax: (46)-8-679-6465. The American Chemical Society (ACS) has a new 15-minute videotape describing the importance of chemistry in everyday life. The video, "People Who Took Chemistry, That's Who," intended for middle and high school audiences, features male and female chemists from different ethnic backgrounds talking about their work. It also showcases the chemistry involved in recycling plastics, analyzing pollution, and producing high-technology products. A 52-page user's guide accompanies the video. For information, call ACS at (202) 452-2113. "Own a Piece of the Rex" is a University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology drive to raise money for preparing, shipping, and erecting a life-size cast of Tyrannosaurus rex. Piecemeal prices for donations range from $20 each for chevrons-- part of the tail--to $5,000 for the skull and jaws. (Teeth are not included in the skull-and-jaws pricetag; they're $25 each.) The 40-foot-long dinosaur will be housed in a three-story atrium in Berkeley's newly renovated Valley Life Sciences Building. According to museum officials, assembled skeletons can cost as much as $75,000. Casts of the T. rex bones for this exhibit were prepared by the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University in Bozeman from a 1991 dig in the state's Hell Creek Formation. For more information, call Mark Goodwin, a vertebrate paleontologist at Berkeley, at (510) 643-9745. The Dermatology Foundation is accepting nominations for its 1994- 95 Clark W. Finnerud Award and 1994-95 Practitioner of the Year Award. The Finnerud honor is awarded to an individual "who has devoted extraordinary time and talent as a part-time teacher and clinician" in dermatology, according to the foundation. The practitioner award is given for "exemplary service as a practitioner of dermatology." Letters of nomination should include background information on the nominee. A curriculum vitae is also requested. The deadline for nominations and supporting letters is July 15. Nominations should be submitted to Finnerud/Practitioner Award, Dermatology Foundation, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, Ill. 60201. The National Consortium for Environmental Education and Training (NCEET), based at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, has produced a 132-page, illustrated guide to help K-12 teachers of all subjects incorporate environmental themes into their lessons. Getting Started includes 35 examples of teachers--many of whom have had little or no environmental education--who have initiated successful ecology and conservation projects in their classes and schools. For example, seventh-grade students in Polson, Mont., are mapping bald eagle sightings in their area and analyzing data to determine migration patterns and habitat preferences as part of learning about ratios, percentages, and other math concepts. The guide also contains a sampling of environmental education resources, funding opportunities, and listings of state and regional environmental organizations. For information on obtaining the guide, call (313) 998-6726. A Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist says the risks to life on Earth from asteroids, meteorites, and comets is substantial but that deflecting these Near Earth Objects (NEOs) is both feasible and affordable. "Asteroid impacts have the potential of wiping out life on Earth," says Greg Canavan. Astronomers say that small, rocky asteroids strike the Earth once every 100 years or so, and an encounter with a mile-wide asteroid might take place once every million years. Canavan says that such an object, known as the K-T Impactor, which struck near the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago, may have caused global climate shocks that wiped out the last dinosaurs. He suggests going through with Spaceguard, a $50 million system of sensors and telescopes discussed in a recent National Aeronautics and Space Administration study, which might pinpoint most of the larger NEOs threatening Earth.

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