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How Will New Genes Behave–Like Microbial Poodles Or Gypsy Moths?Yvonne BaskinLeading the way into the back room of his Cornell University laboratory, insect ecologist David Pimentel taps at the plexiglas walls of a chamber the size of a dishwasher. Inside this giant terrarium. Sucking obliviously at the stems of cowpeas are crowds of aphids, which are plant lice the size of pinheads.The government of Indonesia has asked Pimentel to find natural predators to combat two aphids plaguing the islands’ soybean crops. But the Indonesians want to be fairly certain they are not swapping one pest for-another.
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QuotasDavid BurnhamAbout a year ago, a middle level official in the Internal Revenue Service named Wilbur E. McKean sent a pointed one page memorandum to the six group managers under his immediate command.McKean, the man in charge of the Baltimore District’s Field Branch II, was not happy with his managers. "I am sure each of You has analyzed and evaluated the January report for your group," he wrote. "Personally, for a five week period, it is a sorry report. Not one manager has come forward to explain the poor performance statistical indicators."
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The Price of FundamentalismMichael D’AntonioNew York–During her five-year journey through fundamentalism Laurie Hausman became a born again Christian, joined a strict church, married a youth leader in the congregation, worked as a missionary and had a child. For most of that time her new religion filled her deep need for community and spiritual certainty. She followed her pastor’s rules, giving up her writing, music and old friends, dressing modestly, attending services and accepting the subservience the church required of women. Immersed in her faith she found new friends, work and an entire way of life.
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Kahane’s CommandosRobert I. FriedmanOn a fog-shrouded road between Jerusalem and Ramallah on the Israeli occupied West Bank, two young American supporters of Rabbi Meir Kahane put on their prayer shawls to daven (pray), then pulled ski masks over their faces, slipped into black leather gloves and loaded a U. S.-made, M-16 automatic rifle.
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"The Greatest Health Protection In Cigarette History!"Myron LevinWheeler spent his last months tethered to an oxygen tank, taking an hour and a half to totter to the bathroom and back to his hospital bed."He stared at the bathroom, thinking about how he was going to get in there, and wouldn’t let anyone help him get in there, and that’s how he lived his life," his oldest son Garry recalled.
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Living Can Be Hazardous To Your HealthCristine RussellATLANTA–Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter may be getting older but a computer recently told them they are far younger than their actual ages.They are among the first to undergo a new computerized health risk appraisal developed here at the Carter Center of Emory University in collaboration with the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and 20 other public and private health groups. The sophisticated quiz is an innovative effort to tie personal health habits to the latest scientific evidence of a person’s chances of dying.
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