Word: methyl
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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PROPHECY at least has a social conscience, pretending to explore the white man's physical and moral pollution of Indian lands in Maine. Methyl mercury, used to soak lumber, gets into the fish, which is later consumed by animals and humans. The poison primarily affects the fetus, causing nasty mutations, one of which--a huge, snorting, blood-soaked pig (or something)--menaces federal health investigator Robert Foxworth, his pregnant wife, Talia Shire, and assorted noble Indians and opportunistic lumber executives...
That, alas, is precisely the problem. Now roughly a century after that flight of poetic fancy, clover and, indeed, a host of other crops have been laced with a chemical pesticide that may threaten the blissful honeybee with extinction. The culprit is methyl parathion, which has been used to combat pests like the boll weevil, scourge of the cotton fields. But methyl parathion is highly dangerous stuff. Only a dab will penetrate the skin, attack the nervous system and kill humans as well as insects...
...Science article is Wick's third report in a year on his research. Wick earlier demonstrated the toxicity of the more soluble methyl ester form of L-dopa on forms of mouse cancer...
Wick said in an interview last week that, "The next step is man." he added that he hopes to complete studies of the effects of L-dopa methyl ester on the human forms of some cancers, including leukemia, by the end of the summer...
...theory was based on an extremely simplified computer model that gives an inaccurate picture of the complicated chemical and meteorological processes of the upper atmosphere. He also maintained that most of the chlorine entering the atmosphere comes from such natural causes as volcanic eruptions and the release of methyl chloride from certain seaweeds. Scorer's views put him in opposition to many scientists, who consider the atmosphere a fragile entity. Scorer believes the atmosphere is "the most robust and dynamic element in the environment." And, he adds, "man's activities have very little impact...