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Is there an undiscovered tenth planet circling the Sun, as
big as Earth? Many St. Petersburg astronomers believe so.
Their opinion is based on a complicated mathematical analysis
of the flight trajectory of a comet know in the astronomical
catalogues under the index number of 1862-3.
The comet's orbit seems to be distorted by a large unknown
gravitational center.
If, as they think, it is a planet, it would have a diameter
of 5,000 to 7,500 miles and a similar mass and volume as Earth.
It would be very much farther out, however-circling the Sun
at a distance of about 5,000 million miles, some 54 times
the distance of Earth from the Sun.
If the orbit coincides with the one calculated, it will be
certain proof of the existence of the unknown planet.
MYSTERY OF LAKE SOLVED
One of the mysteries of Lake Balkhash, in eastern Kazakhstan,
has been cleared up. This salt lake, as large as half a dozen
English counties, always stays at the same level, though it
stands in a desert which rarely gets any rain and is fed by
only a few surface rivers.
It has now been discovered that there are, however, huge
rivers underground.
The largest of them carries some 176,000 million gallons
a year.
Remains of an extinct hippopotamus have been discovered in
the Gobi desert by a party of paleontologists.
This is the first such discovery in the Gobi - hitherto such
fossils have been discovered only in North America. The Gobi
hippo lived about seven to ten million years ago. At that
time the Gobi desert was a hot marshy plain covered with rich
vegetation.
THE LEGEND
A legend has long been current that the town of Yangikent
in the Syr-Daiya delta in Central Asia was abandoned by its
inhabitants because of a plague of snakes.
The ruins of the town were first discovered by Russian travellers
in 1741, but there was no clue to why it had been abandoned.
There were no traces of conquest. The most recent tombstones
were dated 1362.
GRAVEYARD OF GIANTS
A rich grave, almost 5,000 years old, has been found inside
а hill in the Northern Caucasus.
It is made of slabs of volcanic rock, some of them weighing
over a ton.
It contained the bodies of a man and a woman, together with
household utensils and golden ornaments and jewellery, possibly
of Sarmatian and Hunnish origin.
One of the most interesting points was the height of the
man: over 7 ft 2 1/2 in.
He would have been a giant today, let alone 5,000 years ago,
when most researchers suggest that men and women were generally
very much shorter than at present.
ROBOT ZAAN SORTS OUT THE REJECTS
A robot recruit to British industry was shown to the public
in London. The creature's name is Zaan, and its talent is
for sorting out small objects by their colour. In particular,
for the food industry to pick out foreign bodies and sub-standard
candidates from rivers of beans or nuts or potato flakes.
It can separate rejects at the rate of 200 rejects a second.
This sort of work has been done in the past by four or five
men sitting alongside a conveyor belt picking out tiny or
bad fried potato flakes from satisfactory ones. Men can pick
out rejects at a rate of about one a second; it is tedious
work. It costs $ 50 a ton to sort dehydrated food flakes by
hand.
There are machines which can sort small objects by size and
shape, for instance rejecting a bean with a maggot hole which
is detected by intelligent needles. But Zaan Colour Sorter
inspects the small particles with photo-electric eyes and
casts out any which are the wrong colour or the wrong brightness.
Unlike human sorters, the machine is unaffected by emotional
problems, fatigue, eye-strain, the tea-break, or the conversational
next door. The inventors claim that it is cheaper, more hygienic,
and more accurate than traditional methods of sorting.
The mechanism by which by which spreads from one place in
the body to many, has been the subject of intensive research
у scientists for many years. What may be an answer to that
question - and a suggestion as to how metastasis might be
inhibited - came from the Institute for Cancer Research.
Speculation on haw cancer spreads throughout the body has
included the possibilities that it does so through the migration
of whole malignant cells from the primary tumour mass, or
through viruses that are released from dying cancer cells.
The report in the journal Science suggests a third possibility.
This is that cancer cells or viruses leak their genes - in
the form of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA - into the bloodstream,
and the DNA then travels to places where it invades normal
cells and transforms them to malignant ones.
To test this hypothesis scientists injected mice with DNA
from polyoma cancer virus and from a pneumococcal bacterium
and compared the results.
They found that DNA from tumor viruses was much more resistant
body defences than the bacterial DNA. The reason for this,
they said, may have had something to do with the closed-ring
form of the tumor-type DNA molecules. They said results indicated
that this DNA could still produce its cancerous effects.
Thus, the report said that "tumor-inducing DNA can be
transported in biologically active form from one part of the
body to another."
From The New York Times
MANIPULATING THE BRAIN
Some persons were disturbed last week over a report of experiments
in which the behaviour of animals and people was influenced
by electrical stimulated of selected regions of their brains.
According to the report, weak currents made to flow through
electrodes implanted in the brains of monkeys and cats enabled
scientists to "play" the animals like little electronic
toys. They yawned, climbed, ran, turned, slept, mated and
changed their emotional states from passivity to rage an vice
versa, all on electrical command.
In one of the most spectacular experiments, a Spanish fighting
bull was stopped in fall charge by a stimulus radioed to an
electrode implanted in its brain, which inhibited aggressiveness.
People, too, have undergone such stimulation's in the course
of diagnosis and therapy for severe cases of epilepsy. Electrical
stimulation's of certain regions of their brains have produced
feelings of intense pleasure and of severe anxiety, a loss
of ability to think or express themselves a sudden increase
in word output and profound feelings of friendliness.
The scientists who reported these findings was Dr. Jose Delgado
of Yale University's School of Medicine. In a lecture, Dr.
Delgado discussed some aspects of this work that might worry
persons outside this field of research.
He emphasized, first, that the implantation of electrodes
in the brain ah the passage of weak currents through them
neither hurts (brain tissue is insensitive) nor causes any
functional damage.
Such studies, Dr. Delgado believes, may enable scientists
to discover the "cerebral basis of anxiety, pleasure,
aggression and other mental functions, which we could influence
in their development and manifestation through electrical
stimulation's, drugs, surgery and especially by means of more
scientifically programmed education".
Dr. Delgado believes that control of human behaviour on a
large scale would not work because the effect of a stimulus
can be changed or even overridden by the subject's own desires,
emotions, etc. This has been shown in experiments on both
animals and people. For example, monkeys in which aggressive
behaviour was electrically stimulated did not just attack
any other member of the colony, but made "intelligent"
attacks only on rivals, sparing their "friends".
Dr. Delgado thinks it will be necessary to develop new theories
and concepts to explain the biological bases of social and
anti-social behaviour. These, he said, "for the first
time in history can be explored in the conscious brain".
from The New York Times
A special kind of fishing expedition was organized in Ohio.
Its goal was to collect specimens, most of them known as placoderms,
that lived some 300 million years ago.
What had brought about the project was the cutting of a highway
into Cleveland. Giant earth-moving machines would cut through
a formation of worldwide fame, the Cleveland shale. For more
than a century it had been known as a rich source of fossil
fish from the Devonian period. Specimens, collected where
rivers had cut through the shale, were prized possessions
of the British in New York and other centres.
Cleveland's Museum of Natural History conducted the new hunt
which, it was hoped, would provide the first complete with
movable jaws. Some of these species had been partially reconstructed
into creatures of frightening appearan-ce.
From The New York Times
TRAINS HALTED BY PROTEST
Eastern region rail services were halted last night after
drivers stopped work in sympathy with a driver who was dismissed.
The driver, who is based in Leeds, was acting in line with
a decision by Eastern Region staff not to implement changes
in working schedules arising from British Rail's economy measures.
After refusing to take out a train in accordance with a new
schedule, he was sent home, and 400 drivers at the Leeds Holbeck
depot decided to stop work until be was allowed to start work
again. The action was supported by drivers in the London area.
On the Southern Region, the National Union of Railwaymen
is recommending members to stop work for part of Thursday
afternoon to coincide with the funeral of a guard 0 who was
stabbed to death.
TIDAL WAVE EXPERTS WORKING TOGETHER
Experts from Russia, the United States and Japan have left
Vladivostok aboard the research vessel Pegasus to study tsunami
- the devastating tidal waves produced by undersea earthquakes
in the Pacific.
There is regular exchange of information between the tsunami
study centers in Sakhalin and Honolulu. Sakhalin transmits
data from observers in Kamchatka and the Kuril islands. These
lie in a zone where four-fifths of all earthquakes in the
world occur. These earthquakes sometimes originate only 100-125
miles from Russian shores, a distance a tidal wave can cover
in 20-30 minutes. But Russian stations give warning of possible
danger within seconds of the quake.
NORTH SEA OIL IS POLLUTING THE BALTIC
The oily waters of the North Sea are polluting the Baltic.
This is the verdict of studies conducted by expeditions aboard
the research ship Oceanograph. The waters of the North Sea
now contain far greater amounts of harmful substances, particularly
oil and oil products.
In the past the picture was quite the reserve. The currents
passing through the Skagerrak and Kattegat brought oxygen
into the Baltic and served as a ventilator for its waters
at great depths.
The pollution of the North Sea has been caused by the rapid
increase in oil extraction there. Large quantities of oil
have escaped on to the northern European, particularly Scandinavian,
continental shelf.
Urgent and efficient measures are needed to decrease the
quantities of harmful waste thrown into the sea. All the states
of northern Europe would agree with that, of course, but many
aspects of the problem remain unsolved.
So far as the Baltic is concerned, the states along its shores
have worked out a convention to prevent its pollution.
At the Institute of Gerontology in Kiev scientists are waging
an offensive against old age.
We begin to age far earlier than we think. The process of
"descending development" begins in the early thirties.
As a biological species, man ought to live 100-120 years,
but for various reasons we lose the last 30 or 40.
We can now, however, to some extent, lengthen life. In experiments
on animals, we have learned to prolong it by a third or more.
One aspect of the institute's work is the discovery and testing
of substances which will produce a physiological effect -
combinations of vitamins which the aging body needs and preparations
with microelements and amino-acids. Some of these are giving
promising results.
Old age is a contradictory process. On the one hand, the
body adapts itself in some ways, while, on the other, certain
faculties atrophy and die.
It appears that our brains and muscles tend to stay young
the more actively and regularly we use them.
A correctly chosen profession, doing as much work as we are
fit for, sensible meals and purposeful, not passive, leisure
are all things that help the body adapt.
It has long been remarked that there are in the world some
places where people live longer, are less frequently ill,
and are able to work almost to the end of their days.
The Kiev Institute of Gerontology has examined some 40,000
people aged 80 and over.
They questioned centenarians (that is, people over 100 years
old) about themselves, and also about their forebears and
the way they lived, what they ate, what work they did, and
so on.
The laboratory of social gerontology has summed up the work
done by over a thousand doctors.
They found, for instance, that as a rule centenarians live
in rural areas, and that more than half of them are engaged
in farming. Only one in twelve of them are vegetarians, but
half never smoke or drink anything alcoholic. It is interesting
that very few of them have been divorced.
The Kiev institute is engaged in joint undertakings with
doctors in other countries.
The more joint study there is, the more exchange of information,
and the more exchange of personnel, the sooner will problems
that affect so many millions be solved.
Two lorry drivers working on a new road being cut through
the Siberian forests were found recently after being lost
in the taiga for nearly a month. The two, Anatoly Laptev and
Vladislav Inshin, had gone hunting with no more than 20 cartridges
between them.
After firing off all their cartridges, they met two bears.
Fortunately these local residents appeared to have dined well
and did not attack them.
Another encounter proved lucky. It was the half-buried carcass
of a huge elk, recently killed by a bear and stored for future
meals.
Meanwhile their comrades were looking for them. A helicopter
and an AN-2 plane circled over the forest from morning to
night.
The two men saw the helicopter, but had no way of signalling
it. Their matches had run out as well, and rubbing two sticks
together only blistered their fingers.
At the beginning of the fourth week, they found a hunter's
winter hut, with stores of dry bread, matches and salt.
After bringing in wood, Laptev left his comrade, who had
sprained an ankle, and went on, looking for help. He finally
emerged near the Educhanka, a river falling into the Angara
some 60 miles below the village from which their hunting expedition
had started.
Even them it took another two days to find the hut, which
could not be seen from the air.
NAPOLEON'S SWORD
Among the many weapons in the State History Museum in Moscow
is Napoleon's sword. It has its own history.
Manufactured by the best armories of Versailles, it has a
Damascus steel blade on which is inscribed: "To Napoleon
Bonaparte, the First Consul of the French Republic".
The hilt is inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and has bronze and
filigree work as ornamentation. At the end of the hilt is
a lion's head and a ring. The scabbard is of black leather,
ornamented in bronze. The signature of Bouttle - the armorer
-is engraved on the scabbard. The only time Napoleon ever
parted with his sword was under the following circumstances.
When the French army was routed and the allied troops entered
Paris, on March 31, 1814, the high command decided to exile
Napoleon to the Island of Elba. Among the three allied commissars
who were to accompany him was Count Pavel Shuvalov, aide-de-camp
of Alexander I. When he learned that an attempt was to be
made on Napoleon's life at one of the pots through which they
would pass, Count Shuvalov offered to change clothes with
Napoleon, and gave him his army greatcoat. As a token of gratitude
Napoleon presented him with his sword.
In 1912 the sword was shown at an exhibition for the centenary
of the Patriotic War of 1812. After the exhibition it was
returned to Countess Vorontsova-Dashkova, nee Shuvalova, and
was preserved for a long time at her estate in the Ukraine.
In 1926, a Red Army officer, whose name is not known, presented
Napoleon's sword to the Museum of the Red Army as the weapon
he used in the war. A little later one of the museum's staff
discovered the inscription and the sword was given to the
State History Museum.
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARA
By W.Somerset Maugham
Death speaks: "There was a merchant in Baghdad who sent
his servant to market to buy provisions, and in a little while
the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, "Master,
just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a
woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that
jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture;
now lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city
and avoid my fate. I will go to Samara and there Death will
not find me". The merchant lent him his horse, and the
servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and
as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant
went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the
crowd and he came to me and said, "Why did you make a
threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?"
"That was not a threatening gesture", I said, "it
was a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad,
for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samara".
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