A common infection could be the cause of the mysterious brain and lymphatic cancers that kill young children. Scientists have discovered that childhood cancer cases cluster together in a way that suggests that this is the origin. And how do adults who survived childhood cancer feel about their lives today?
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People see monsters all over the world. William Dranginis of Virginia became obsessed with Bigfoot when he spotted one in 1995. People in Canada have seen a strange little creature that could be an alien?except it likes to eat chickens. And the Irish claim to have their own version of Nessie.
Donnie Johnston writes in fredericksburg.com that was walking through a forest with two friends when he came face to face Bigfoot. He now spends one weekend every month trying to track him down again. Between expeditions, he designs surveillance cameras and listening devices that will help him track his quarry.
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With so many probes heading for Mars and other planets, the question of whether they could bring back new diseases has become important. SARS, Mad Cow Disease and HIV are only three of the diseases that have crossed the species barrier, so infectious pathogens from Martian rock samples probably could too.
Leslie Mullen writes in Astrobiology Magazine that the International Committee Against Martian Sample Return is worried about this. Not all pathogens cross the species barrier?our dogs and cats get diseases that don’t affect us. Chicken and sheep farmers are untouched by diseases that wipe out their flocks and herds. A Martian microbe could enter the human body, but be harmless because it’s incompatible with human physiology.
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Since 1991, Marc Abrahams has been giving out the Ig Nobel Prizes to the researchers who have conducted the most ridiculous scientific experiments during the year. The next awards will be given out on October 2nd at MIT. Recently, he awarded a prize to a study about why teenagers pick their noses.
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