Word: antarctica
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...bacterium that is virtually indestructible. It's called Deinococcus radiodurans ("terrible berry that survives radiation"). This bug can live in a blast of gamma rays that is the equivalent of thousands of lethal human doses--radiation so strong it cracks glass. Scientists have found "dead" radiodurans spores in Antarctica that have baked in UV light for 100 years. Yet when placed in a nutrient bath, the bug's DNA reassembles itself and proliferates. If radiodurans genes could be put into anthrax, they might produce an anthrax that's virtually impossible to kill. From a bioweaponeer's point of view...
...probably be the subject of one of those hokey made-for-TV movies. Not that Dr. Jerri Nielsen, the sole physician at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, is likely to cooperate with the network bigwigs. Nielsen, trapped at the station by the fierce Antarctic winter, has become famous for reportedly having found a lump in her breast and for treating herself with chemotherapy drugs dropped to the isolated settlement in a daring air mission. She's also made it clear that she's not keen on having every detail of her plight made public - specifics...
...Nielsen is due to be flown back to the U.S. for further diagnosis and treatment. Then she - and maybe we - will learn her prognosis. Why the intense interest in this story? Blame it all on Mother Nature. These days, with technology allowing man almost complete coverage of the globe, Antarctica in winter provides one of the few remaining impenetrable frontiers. Just like the public fascination with the polar exploits of Scott and Amundsen at the turn of the century, the frozen continent continues to find ways to grip the imagination...
...this case the extreme sailing required to go around the world solo in the toughest of all sailboat races, the Vendee Globe. Aboard wide-beamed, thin-hulled, 60-ft. racing machines--surfboards for maniacs, once they get to the 50-ft. waves of the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica--the Vendee Globe competitors are bound by brutally simple rules. They stipulate one boat, one person, no help, no stops, first home wins. The 27,000-mile course starts in November in the Bay of Biscay on the coast of France; points south through the horse latitudes and doldrums, past Africa...
...found himself spending weeks in Antarctica "talking to scientists and building igloos...