"The Toxins of Cyanobacteria" Wayne W. Carmichael, in Scientific American (Jan. 1994), 415 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017-1111.
To scientists, the blue-green microorganisms are known as cyanobacteria; non-scientists more often call them by a different name: pond scum. By any name, tlie many forms of cyanobacteria tliat are toxic may be posing an increasing 11az- ard to humans, warns Cannicliael, a professor of aquatic biology and toxicology at Wriglit State University, in Dayton,...
toxic cyanobacteria. Also, Spindi~ia'spopularity has led to the marketing of other types of cyanobacteria, Anabaei~aand Aphanizotneizon, which have highly poisonous strains. Without "sophisticated biochemical tests," he warns, "the safety of these items is questionable."
Trading Organs For Dollars?
"Indecent Proposals?" Margaret Davidson, in Tlie New Physician (Oct. 1993),American Medical Student Assn., 1890 Preston White Dr., Reston, Va. 22091.
Each year, kidneys, he...
JohnCrewdson,in Niemnn Reports (Winter 1993),Nieman Foundation, Harvard Univ., One Francis Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02138.
vends on thisyear's discoveries." When there are no important discoveries,"non-discoveriesand marginal discoveriesand problematic discover-ies are spiffed up and published in iournals like
In 1989 the Philadelphia-based Wistar Institute
Science and Nature, which [distribute]them to the
reported in Science magazine that multiple scle-...
JohnCrewdson,in Niemnn Reports (Winter 1993),Nieman Foundation, Harvard Univ., One Francis Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02138.
vends on thisyear's discoveries." When there are no important discoveries,"non-discoveriesand marginal discoveriesand problematic discover-ies are spiffed up and published in iournals like
In 1989 the Philadelphia-based Wistar Institute
Science and Nature, which [distribute]them to the
reported in Science magazine that multiple scle-...
1934, writes Clark, who has a doctorate in the history of technology from the University of Delaware, "magnetic recording had become a practical method for sound reproduction, one which had a number of potential commercial applications." A prototype telephone-answering machine built that year, although large and com- plicated, "met all reasonable engineering re- quirements for performance," Clark says. Simi- lar equipment was used successfully in field tests. Yet AT&T did...
"Edith Wliarton's Abuser" Kenneth S. Lynn, in The American Spectator (Dec. 1993),2020 N. 14th St., Ste. 750, Arlington, Va. 22216.
R. W. B. Lewis's Edith Wharton: A Biography (1975) won the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize and is the work upon which other com- mentators on the author of Ethan Frame (1911), The Age of Innocence (1920), and other famous novels now rely. Lynn, a literary biographer and erstwhile professor, charges that the Yale Uni- versity professor's work is a scandal-ridden...
page 105 of the 532-page text), Lewis manufactures psychodramas "out of swift manipulations of scanty facts, omissions of lengthier contradictory facts, pumped-up rhetoric, and bluff," Lynn asserts. For example, Lewis strongly implies that what Wharton de- scribed as a "choking agony of terror" she suf- fered in childhood "was rooted in the traumatic scoldings, humiliations, and other abuses visited upon her a Gothic ogress of a mother." He ignores, Lynn points out,...
A Survey of Recent Articles
The collapse of the Berlin Wall in Novem- ber 1989 suddenly made German unifi- cation a live issue, and West German chancellor Helmut Kold embraced it as lus own. With firm and crucial support from the United States, Kohl skillfully brought about the Vereinigung (unification) the next October. But in that election year of 1990, he "did not say that the pat11 to unity would be expensive, arduous, and long," Heinrich August Winkler, a historian at Humboldt-Universitat...
the Bundestag.) To hold conservative voters, Kohl "is taking a strong law-and-order stance and refusing to identify himself with
Revisiting the Korean War
'New Findings on the Korean War" Kathryn Weathersby, in Cold War International History Project Bulletin (Fall 1993), Woodrow Wilson Center, 1000 Jefferson Dr. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20560.
On June 25,1950, North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea, starting the Korean War. While most scholars have said th...
adds, the Soviet docu- ment also shows that the assumption-made President Harry Truman's administration and by many scholars-that the initiative for the at- tack came from Stalin is false. "This was Kim I1 Sling's war; he gained Stalin's reluctant approval only after persistent appeals (48 telegrams!)."
The question of who called for war is crucial, in Weathersby's view. By the spring of 1950, she says, "the Truman administration had con-cluded that South Korea was not of sufficient...