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New statistical analyses show that taller people, on average, tend to live longer lives than shorter people. Scientists wonder if this has always been true.

To answer that question, British researchers analyzed 490 sets of adult skeletal remains from an excavation site at a church in northeastern England. Researchers at the University of Bristol, led by David Gunnell, compared the estimated age of the deceased to the length of their long bones, such as the femur (leg) and humerus (arm). ?The longer the bones, the more likely the person was taller,? says Gunnell, who published a paper on his research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
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A 2,300 mph rail link from Britain across the Atlantic to the U.S. could be built by 2030. The undersea link would take just half an hour to get from New York or Boston to Liverpool or Bristol.

Engineers say the technology already exists to build such a supersonic rail link and prototypes are already being built in Japan. Frank Davidson, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it could replace air travel. Davidson was involved in the Channel Tunnel project that connects England and France, known as the ?Chunnel.?
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Researchers at the University of Illinois in Champaign are planning for global warming by raising soybeans in the kind of atmospheric conditions forecast for the year 2050. By that time, carbon dioxide levels are expected to be about 1.5 times greater than the current 370 parts per million, while daytime ozone levels during the growing season could peak on average at 80 parts per billion (they are now 60 parts per billion).

One unknown effect of global warming is how well food crops will grow in a CO2-rich atmosphere. The conversion of sunlight through the green pigment chlorophyll in plants uses carbon dioxide and water and releases oxygen.
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Israeli generals are planning for a possible massive invasion of Palestinian territories if the current Mideast cease-fire fails. A report published by the Jane?s Information Group in London says the goal would be to destroy Palestinian armed forces and the Palestinian Authority, forcing Chairman Yasser Arafat back into exile, where he spent 12 years after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The invasion plan would be launched after another suicide bomb attack resulting in a large number of deaths, like the one at a Tel Aviv disco last month.
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