.... technological ability to cause wholesale extermination of species, genera or even entire families of living creatures. This process is accelerating. Wildlife management efforts initiated during this century have been unsuccessful in stemming the tide. Most public attention given to endangered species has focused on mammals, birds, and a few varieties of trees. Ecologists recognize a far greater threat to the much larger number of species of reptiles, fish, invertebrates, and plants that are being wiped out by human activity. In the past few decades, vast areas in several re .....

.... bodies are incrementally damaged by each new exposure to the sun, and this damage can later be seen in the form of wrinkles, blotchy skin and even skin cancer. Sunscreens have evolved a goodly amount over the years. Christopher Columbus noticed in 1492 that the natives of Hispaniola would protect themselves with red paint, as to avoid sun damage. The ancient Greeks, who trained for the Olympics in the nude would rub themselves with a mixture of sand and oil, which provided an opaque protection from the sun, and were sweat resistant. These notions resemble those of earlier m .....

.... 1940, at the University of California at Berkeley, he bombarded a sample of Uranium with deuterons, the nuclei in atoms of deuterium, transmuting it into plutonium. Shortly after, Seaborg was able to isolate plutonium 239, an isotope used in atomic bombs. Plutonium is a highly dangerous and poisonous element because it rapidly gives off radiation in the form of alpha particles. Alpha particles, which are identical to the nucleus of a helium atom, consist of two protons and two neutrons tightly bound together. Although the particles can only travel about five centimeters in .....

.... are genetically identical and genetic identity has given cloning an additional more technical meaning: namely the procedures used to create a new organism whose genetic constitution is a replica of another existing individual. Such a feat can be achieved by substituting the nucleus, which contains the genes, from one of the cells making up that individual's body, for the nucleus of a fertilised egg. Since our genes dictate to a large extent what we look like, how we behave and what we can and cannot do, having identical genes, as identical twins do, ensures something .....

.... its miraculous powers and immediately placed tea on his list of medicinal herbs. John Blofeld, in Chinese Art of Tea, writes that ¡§it can be confidently stated that tea was known in the three kingdoms epoch (AD 222-277).¡¨ More importantly, however, ¡§tea [was] originally drunk for its medicinal properties.¡¨ (Blofeld 4) Evans links the early popularity of tea to Taoist religious practices during the Qin Dynasty (201 ¡V 207 B.C.). ¡§Taoists in particular became obsessed by long life and an Elixir of Life became a Taoist ideal. For Taoists the Elixir of Life was believed to b .....

.... that as many as 60% of their machines may not work properly when the date rolls over. Local testing has identified the ultrasound machines and central monitors which have exhibited year 2000 failures. There could be significant threats to personal safety, for example if an ultrasound wrongly calculated the size of a faetus or administered radiation therapy incorrectly. Also people with heart pace makers could face the possibility of them failing. Bank accounts could be wiped off the records and ATM's could swallow cards thought to be expired. Computers controlling home loans .....

.... second, our neighbor planet. Unfortunately, our actual technology slightly provides strong, useful information about the red planet because of the vast distance between us. While people such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas try to convince us with hundred million dollar movies that we are not alone, engineers and geologists like from the NASA-Stanford University team pursue, based on true evidence, the idea of possible life on Mars. However, the burden of proof is sometimes too heavy even based on real evidence. The tough debate started on August 1996, when scientists f .....

.... rise to hippo ivory trade. "European and African activists are petitioning advocacy groups, including last week's annual Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Florida, for a ban on hippo poaching. But they say they're a long way from putting an end to the slaughter." (Howard & Koehl) The hippopotamus is an enormous amphibious animal with smooth, hairless skin. Hippos can be found in Liberia, the Ivory Coast, and a few can also be found in Sierra Leone and Guinea. Hippos used to be found anywhere south of the Sahara Desert where they could find enough .....