Word: toxicants
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Scientists have begun to think of possible uses for adaptive, self- replicating machines -- cleaning up toxic wastes, perhaps, or exploring outer space. There is a danger, though, that such machines could multiply uncontrollably, like the viruses that have disrupted computer networks. Doyne Farmer, a physicist at the Los Alamos lab, points to a cautionary science- fiction tale by Stanislaw Lem. In Lem's Fiasco, space explorers discover a Saturn-like planet with a ring around it. On closer inspection, the ring turns out to be a swarm of attack satellites and killer robots, part of a "star wars" defense shield...
Baltz is currently working on a book aboutchildren of divorce, and says he is trying to finda way to make divorce "non-toxic" for children...
...would children resist their craving for Chicken McNuggets? In a word: polystyrene. Environmentally conscious youngsters are up in arms about the soft plastic used to make disposable soft-drink cups, hamburger boxes and other lightweight thermal containers. The material is nonbiodegradable and can give off toxic fumes when burned. The food industry uses more than 1 billion lbs. of the material every year to pack its products. McDonald's (1989 sales: $17 billion) is the world's largest single consumer. Each day 22 million customers buy food in 11,000 of its outlets in 52 countries. An estimated...
Eastern Europe's majestic waterways, fouled by sewage, toxic chemicals and acid rain, are in no better shape. Fish catches in the Baltic Sea, long a dumping ground for industrial wastes from Poland, East Germany and Lithuania, are declining dramatically, and summer bathing is in jeopardy. The Vistula River, which runs through Poland, is so laden with poisons and corrosive chemicals that stretches are considered unusable for factory coolant systems, much less for drinking water. The Danube is endangered at every turning by runoff from nitrogen-rich agricultural fertilizers and by the industrial plants that discharge along its banks, from...
...acre) pile of imported rubbish threatens to poison the groundwater. In January, after the city's angry citizens discovered the source of the heap, they held a protest with banners proclaiming EAST GERMANY IS NOT TO BECOME EUROPE'S TOILET. After the demonstration, East Germany's Environment Minister banned toxic-waste imports to Ketzin...