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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1998
> February
> February 20, 1998:
Hour One: Upcoming Total Solar Eclipse / Anthrax Threat
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Scientists and tourists alike are already
flocking to the Caribbean for next Thursday's total
eclipse of the sun. Some are going just for the
experience of seeing a beautiful, rare light show
as the moon blocks out all but a narrow sliver of
light from the sun. Others are voyaging to points
south to conduct scientific experiments on the
sun's corona, the wispy outer layer of gases at the
edge of the sun that become visible when the rest
of the blazing disk is obscured.
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October, 1995 eclipse, as seen
from Dundlod, India.
Photograph © 1995 by Fred
Espenak
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Though most people won't be lucky enough to be
on the "center line" where the eclipse is total,
many people across the country may have the
opportunity to see at least a partial eclipse next
week. On this segment of Science Friday, join us to
find out where, when, and how to look for the
eclipse - and hear about what science stands to
learn from this skygazer's delight.
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When and where to see it?
Click on the map to find out.
(map reprinted from Total Solar
Eclipse of
1998 Feb 26, Espenak and Anderson, 1996)
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October, 1995 eclipse, viewed from India.
(photo Jay Pasachoff)
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Astronomers using the SOHO satellite
simulate eclipses to view the
sun's corona.
(NASA-SOHO/LASCO consortium
coronagraph)
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The shadow of the July 11, 1991 eclipse creeps
across
the Earth, viewed by the GOES-7 satellite.
(photo © Association of
Universities for Research
in Astronomy Inc (AURA), all rights
reserved.)
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Plus...Yesterday, two men were arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada
and charged with possessing what authorities believe to be samples
of anthrax bacteria, a potentially deadly biological agent. The
men claimed that the samples were actually vaccines that they
had been developing to protect against a potential foreign threat.
Authorities, however, were concerned that the men had more sinister
plans for the material, saying that last summer one of the men
had told others of plans to attack the subway system of New York
with biological weapons.
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In 1997, one of the men, Larry Wayne Harris, pled guilty to one count
of mail fraud after ordering three vials of bubonic plague through the
mail. Harris, who obtained the samples of the plague from the American
Type Culture Collection in Rockville, Maryland by falsifying a lab order
code, was sentenced to eighteen months probation.
Anthrax usually occurs in animals like sheep and cattle. When it affects
people, it is usually from occupational exposure to infected animals
- in fact, infection from anthrax has been called "wool-sorter's disease."
However, if samples of the bacteria are gathered and cultured properly,
anthrax can become a potentially deadly biological weapon. A few milligrams
of anthrax, hardly enough to see, contains hundreds of millions of anthrax
spores, enough to infect thousands if dispersed properly. Symptoms from
an infection due to inhaling the spores generally appear within seven
days. They typically resemble the symptoms of the common cold -- fever,
fatigue, and cough -- but can lead to death one to two days after the
onset of the acute symptoms. While antibiotics like penicillin can be
used to treat anthrax infection, the infection can be fatal if not treated
soon enough.
Anthrax can live in two forms - a rod-shaped bacteria, and a spherical,
hard-shelled spore. In its spore form, anthrax can keep from drying
out, resist extremes of temperature, and remain biologically active
for years. Harris claimed in a 1997 interview that he had obtained the
anthrax by taking samples from a twenty-year-old burial site for cattle
that had died of the disease.
On this segment of Science Friday - how easy is it to make or obtain
biological weapons - and is there anything we can do about it?
Guests:
Jay Pasachoff
Author,
"Peterson's Field Guide to the Stars and Planets" (Houghton Mifflin)
Field Memorial Professor, Astronomy
Director, Hopkins Observatory
Williams College
Williamstown, MA
Joe Rao
Meteorologist, News 12
Columnist, New York Times "Skywatch"
Lecturer, American Museum-Hayden Planetarium
New York, NY
David Huxsoll
Dean, School of Veterinary Medicine
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Check out the live
eclipse webcast from the Exploratorium
SDAC Eclipse Information
Eclipse info
from Williams College and the IAU
SKY Online's
Eclipse Page
National Solar Observatory
SOHO: The Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory
Solar Data Analysis Center
CDC Anthrax Information
American Type Culture Collection
Chemical
and Biological Defense Information Analysis Center
Pacific Northwest
National Labs Pathogen Detection
Medical Nuclear, Biological, Chemical
Information Server
Biological Warfare
Defense
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