Word: factor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Known as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, the drug boosted the victims' count of white blood cells, the body's primary defense against infection, after just ten days of treatment. The additional cells could help AIDS patients fight off bacteria, viruses and other life-threatening microbes. Groopman believes GM-CSF could one day be used to treat a variety of diseases. "This is the first time that anyone has been able to regulate the white- blood-cell count in man," he says. "There are implications for cancer patients and people with bone-marrow disorders...
...factor that has contributed to the big yacht boom is satellite communications. International Broker George Nicholson, whose British family has been constructing boats for crowned heads and deep pockets since 1782, explains, "Most of the men who own large yachts are workaholics, and they get very nervous if they are out of touch with their offices. They used to plan their cruises around ports with telephones." Now, thanks to satellite linkups, clear communication with the mainland is available from telephones, usually in every stateroom. Telex and facsimile machines transmit contracts and newspapers. "We can consummate a deal anywhere," says...
What was going on here? Well, it all seems to have started in the inventive head of Jose Arguelles, an erstwhile art historian who is a dedicated publicist for his book The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology (Bear Publishing; Santa Fe). To anyone who would listen, Arguelles argued that his studies of ancient Mayan calendars showed that the "materialistic" world would end on Aug. 16 -- when three planets lined up with the new moon -- unless 144,000 true believers gathered in various "sacred sites" around the world and "resonated" sufficiently to bring on a new age of peace and harmony...
...answers remain elusive. Perhaps the most promising approach grows out of the work of Black Sociologist William Julius Wilson of the University of Chicago, who popularized the concept of the underclass in his 1978 book The Declining Significance of Race. Wilson and his philosophical allies reject the simplistic single-factor theories of cause and effect, which range from the permissiveness of welfare to the pervasiveness of racism. Instead, they stress the ever widening social and economic gap between ghetto residents and the rest of American society, both white and black...
...offered any clear diagnosis of the highway madness. One factor is said to be the stresses of bumper-to-bumper competition, aggravated by the easy availability of guns. There is also the copycat syndrome. "Even the most mild-mannered among us has fantasies of blowing away the guy who cuts in front of him," observes Dr. Martin Brenner, an Orange County stress specialist. His advice: "Just be a wimp behind the wheel...