Word: detective
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Patriotism should bring us together but not so close that we begin to look like sheep. One could detect the bleatings of the herd in a recent televised exchange between columnist Robert Novak and Congressman Joe Kennedy. Frustrated by the Congressman's failure to agree with him on a range of issues, Novak suddenly snapped, "Where's your American-flag lapel pin?" Never mind that young Kennedy has chosen to serve his nation on a full-time basis, he wasn't, in the conservative columnist's eyes, patriotically correct...
Unlike earthquakes, which often happen without warning, impending volcanic eruptions generally signal their arrival. Before a blowup, instruments can detect a series of tremors in the mountain, which indicate that molten rock, called magma, is coming up from deep inside the earth. The magma rises gradually, opening fissures that serve as its pipelines to the surface. What happens next depends on the composition of the magma. If it is fairly liquid, it generally produces a stately lava flow that poses more of a threat to property than to humans. Hawaiian volcanoes tend to follow this pattern...
...main tools of the volcanologist include seismometers, which record the swarms of tiny earthquakes that occur as the magma rises. Chemical sensors, mounted on airplanes, can detect increases in sulfur-dioxide emissions, indicating that magma has reached the surface. In addition, the physical swelling of mountain slopes, well documented at Mount St. Helens, is a sign of explosive potential. Laser-based devices can pick up minute bulges that are about the width of a nickel and still invisible to the naked eye. In Japan researchers have set up video cameras to monitor the shape and color of fumes...
After identifying the cause of the disease, Kalckar, working with Kurt Isselbacher, developed a test to detect the illness in the early development of infants. Their work provided a model that has led to the discovery and greater understanding of hundreds of genetic diseases...
...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...