Word: detectable
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...donated organs and tissues are routinely screened for the AIDS virus. Still, there is no way to remove all threat from these procedures. One problem is that there is a lag of up to six months from the time a person is infected with HIV until blood tests can detect antibodies. Since blood banks began screening for the virus in 1985, 15 people of the estimated 24 million who have had transfusions have been infected from blood that had passed all the tests. Some 3 million transplants have been performed during that time; only one patient has developed AIDS...
...probe the prostate gland manually, has not been very popular with patients or their doctors. In West Germany, where men over 40 can be tested for free, a recent study found that only 15% actually agreed to have it done. Physicians point out that the exams often fail to detect smaller cancers and those that originate on the front of the gland. The method is also subjective. One expert remarked that all he can tell his medical students is that the gland feels "like the soft skin at the base of the thumb" while a tumor feels "like a knuckle...
...number of anti-HIV antibodies. These Y-shaped bits of protein sought out the virus and targeted it for destruction. Once the antibody attack reached full scale in the seven test subjects, the level of HIV in the bloodstream dropped precipitously. In the majority of cases, the researchers could detect little or no virus two to three weeks later. "In other words, the normal immune system can shut down the AIDS virus," says Dr. Stephen Clark, who organized the study at the University of Alabama. Now researchers must figure out exactly how the body puts together this early effective defense...
...Stealth bomber. The material surrounding the exhaust outlets in the YF-23 can withstand a temperature of 540 degrees C (1000 degrees F), while the undersurface only a few inches away never gets hotter than 140 degrees C (280 degrees F), making the plane hard to detect by enemy infrared sensors. The slightly smaller Lockheed YF-22 may be more maneuverable, thanks, in part, to nozzles that direct the thrust of the engines' exhaust this way and that. "Thrust vectoring," as this is called, helps push the plane through sharp turns at very high and very low speeds and lets...
Star Wars. The Strategic Defense Initiative, designed to detect and intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles in outer space, was moribund until Iraq unleashed its Scud missiles. The Patriot changed all that, even though it is based on a technology that was developed long before SDI got to the drawing board. Still, SDI backers argue that the success of the Patriot teaches a significant lesson about the need to prepare against ICBMs. "All you'd have to do is watch the Scud missile battles over Tel Aviv and Riyadh," says Cheney, "to have a sense of the extent to which ballistic-missile...