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This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm BobDoughty.
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And I'm Faith Lapidus. On our program this week: Some localleaders in Nigeria continue to resist the fight against polio ...
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Indian lawmakers call for stronger safety rules for food anddrink.
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And, chemistry students may get two more elements to learn.
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Last week, the World HealthOrganization led a three-day campaign against the spread of polio inAfrica. The goal was to vaccinate sixty-three-million children inten countries in west and central Africa. The World HealthOrganization is trying to end the spread of polio anywhere in theworld this year. Recently, however, there have been more cases inNigeria and India.
In Nigeria, Islamic leaders in several northern states havebanned the vaccine that prevents polio. Leaders in Kano and theother states say the vaccine is unsafe. They say the medicinecontains chemicals that give people AIDS or prevent females fromhaving babies. They say it is part of an American plot.
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The World Health Organization and the Nigerian government havedone tests. Health officials say the vaccine is completely safe.They also asked Islamic leaders to help test the vaccine.
Recently the Nigerian government appointed a committee to gatherthe facts. Last week the chairman said the committee was stillwaiting for the results of a test performed in India. He said thecommittee does not expect to release its final report to the publicuntil early March.
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The ten countries in the vaccination campaign last week includedBenin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad and Cameroon.The others were Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger, Togo and Nigeria.
Also last week, the W-H-O reported a case of polio in IvoryCoast. The agency said Ivory Coast could be the eighth polio-freecountry re-infected because of the spreading virus from northernNigeria.
The disease causes paralysis. Victims lose the use of their armsor legs. The "Kick Polio Out of Africa" campaign began innineteen-ninety-six. The W-H-O says two-hundred-five children eachday were becoming paralyzed. By last year, however, justthree-hundred-eighty-eight cases of polio were reported in Africa.That was almost half of all the new cases of polio in the world.
The international goal is to defeat polio by the end of thisyear. Health officials say that may be impossible if the bans on thevaccine continue in northern Nigeria.
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Indian lawmakers have confirmed that Coca-Cola and Pepsi drinksmade in India contain pesticides. These poisons are used to killinsects on farms and in homes, but they can enter water supplies.The investigation showed that the pesticides came from thegroundwater used in the drinks. The lawmakers said the problem isthat India's food safety rules do not prevent this kind ofsituation.
The committee reported tests on twelve kinds of soda drinks madeby the Coca-Cola and Pepsi companies. The report said the testsfound high levels of four pesticides.
The companies say the drinks they make in India are safe andfollow internationally accepted methods of production. Coke andPepsi products are reported to control about eighty percent of theIndian soda market. Coca-Cola says it had twenty-two percent growthin India last year.
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The lawmakers began to investigate after an Indian publicinterest group reported about the pesticides. The Center for Scienceand Environment carried out the first tests. Its researchers usedthree bottles of each of the twelve kinds of sodas. They bought thedrinks from different stores around New Delhi.
The group says its laboratory workers tested all the drinks forsixteen kinds of pesticides. The researchers said they found onepesticide, lindane, in all the drinks tested. Lindane can be highlydangerous to humans.
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The researchers say most of the tested drinks also contained DDT.This pesticide is banned in the United States and some othercountries. It can affect the central nervous system and causeproblems during pregnancy. The United States EnvironmentalProtection Agency says DDT is also believed to cause cancer.However, DDT remains popular in India to kill mosquitoes.
The researchers said PepsiCo and Coca-Cola need better technologyto remove poisons from the groundwater they use. However, theparliamentary investigators noted that neither company violated anyIndian laws. The lawmakers say it is the laws that have to change.
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All matter in the world is made of elements. Oxygen, for example,is the most common element on Earth. Elements are substances thatcannot be separated into simpler substances by chemical methods.However, scientists can use nuclear reactions or radioactive decayto produce new elements. The goal is to find new materials and newways to do chemistry.
Russian and American scientists recently announced the discoveryof two new chemical elements. Their findings appear in the magazinePhysical Review C.
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Each element has a different number of protons in its nucleus.Protons are particles with a positive electrical charge. How manyprotons an element has establishes its place on the periodic table.This is the list of all the elements.
Hydrogen, for example, is element number one. It has only oneproton. It is the lightest gas known. Uranium is the heaviestelement in nature. It has ninety-two protons. Elements with morethan ninety-two protons are called superheavy elements.
The two new elements are to appear as numbersone-hundred-thirteen and one-hundred-fifteen on the periodic table.
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The Russian scientists are from the Joint Institute for NuclearResearch in Dubna. They worked with researchers at the LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory in California.
The two teams shot electrically charged protons of calcium at atarget. This target was enriched americium. Americium is aradioactive metal. Very small amounts are commonly used in smokedetector devices.
The scientists reported that a series of reactions created fouratoms found in element one-hundred-fifteen. They say the atomsexisted for ninety milliseconds. A millisecond is one-thousandth ofa second. Then the atoms decayed into the other new element, withone-hundred-thirteen protons. The scientists say it remained thisway for more than a second. Then it changed into known elements.
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The length of time that a nucleus can exist is very important. Itis a measure of stability. Atoms that are forced together usuallybreak apart quickly if the combined nucleus has more than ninety-twoprotons.
For years researchers have been looking for what they call an"island of stability" on the periodic table. They believe that anucleus with about one-hundred-fourteen protons may be able to existfor a long time.
The two new elements have been named ununtrium and ununpentium.These are temporary names. The scientists will be able to chooseothers.
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But first the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistrymust confirm their discovery. Two years ago, a scientist in theUnited States provided false evidence about the discovery of elementone-hundred-eighteen.
Other laboratories must be able to reproduce findings of newelements. There are also rules about names. An element can be namedafter a mythological idea, a mineral, a place or country, aproperty, or a scientist.
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It appears that insects existed on Earth twenty-million yearsearlier than thought. In fact, a new finding suggests that insectswere among the first creatures on land.
Two scientists from the United States have reported the discoveryof a four-hundred-million-year-old insect. It was found in Scotlandalmost eighty years ago. But there was little interest until the twoscientists rediscovered the fossil in a London museum. Next week, wewill have more details about their findings.
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SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Karen Leggett, Jill Moss andCaty Weaver. Our producer was Cynthia Kirk. This is Faith Lapidus.
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And this is Bob Doughty. Listen next week for more news aboutscience, in Special English, on the Voice of America.