今年的“厄尔尼诺”有可能成为世纪之最

近6个月来,太平洋的热带水域一直在扩散,从国际日期变更线蔓延到了南美洲沿海。气象学家对此一直非常关注,密切跟踪着它的变化,因为这就是能够在大气和海洋中翻云覆雨的"厄尔尼诺"现象。而且,有迹象表明,眼下的"厄尔尼诺"现象正在积蓄力量,有可能在未来的几个月内给世界天气带来巨大的变化。热带风暴频频造访墨西哥、智利和秘鲁,使之大雨不断,澳大利亚和印度尼西亚干旱少雨......科学家认为,种种迹象表明,强大的"厄尔尼诺"已经左右了世界天气。本年度的"厄尔尼诺"很可能使本世纪所有的"厄尔尼诺"相形见细。它对热带洋面的影响范…     

Anthropologist fired: Stanford plays its China card

The ethical obligations of Western anthropologists working in the People's Republic of China became an issue recently when Stanford University's anthropology department unanimously decided to dismiss doctoral candidate Steven Mosher because of his conduct while in an unnamed Chinese village. Mosher maintains that the dismissal was in retaliation for his publishing an article in a Taiwanese weekly about the practices of forced third trimester abortion and infanticide in the village. Neither Stanford nor Mosher has revealed the specific reasons for the dismissal.     

Expected change: U.S. recombinant DNA guidelines

Continuing the trend towards relaxing controls on recombinant DNA research, the National Institutes of Health published revised guidelines in the Federal Register of 21 April 1982. Although the existing system of mandatory controls and institutional biosafety committees is retained, no class of experiments will be totally prohibited, and the guidelines dealing with containment levels have been greatly simplified.