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Science
Friday > Archives
> 2001
> April
> April 6, 2001:
Hour Two: Dark Energy / The Threat
of Bioterrorism
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This week, researchers on using the Hubble Space Telescope announced
that they have found more evidence to support the controversial
idea of a mysterious "dark energy" permeating the universe.
The energy, proposed (but later recanted) by Einstein, has been
said to counteract the inward pull of gravity on the universe,
which would otherwise be slowing down the expansion of the universe.
The evidence came in the form of data from the most distant supernova
yet found, SN1997ff. The exploding star, discovered in images
taken from the Hubble Deep Field experiment, appears brighter
than it should if the universe had been expanding at a steady
rate. From this, the researchers deduce that the expansion of
the universe may once have been slowed down by gravity -- but
later started speeding up its expansion outwards. We'll try to
wrap our minds around this concept, and talk with one of the researchers
responsible for the find.
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The orange-colored spot near the center
of this image is the home galaxy of the
most distant supernova yet seen.
NASA / Adam Riess (StSci) image.
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Then, we'll turn our attention back down to Earth. Much of Europe has
been affected by measures designed to block the further spread of foot
and mouth disease, an illness affecting livestock animals. Travel has
been restricted, decontamination checkpoints wait at the entrance to
some areas, and agricultural commerce has been greatly disrupted.
Now, imagine that the disease outbreaks weren't agricultural in nature
-- but targeted humans instead. And that instead of foot and mouth disease,
the authorities were dealing with outbreaks of smallpox, anthrax, or
hemorrhagic fevers. Such scenarios are part of the terror that the threat
of biological warfare can bring. We'll talk with two scientists about
the risks of bioterrorism, and what can and should be done to help make
our nation safer.
Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255, and share
your opinions online in our Listeners'
Lounge (registration
required)
Guests:
Adam Riess
Astrophysicist
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Steven Block
Professor of Applied Physics and Biological Sciences
Stanford University
Stanford, California
Michael Osterholm
Chair and CEO, ICAN, Inc.
Co-Author, "Living
Terrors: What America Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bioterrorist
Catastrophe"
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
- HubbleSite
- Farthest Supernova Ever Seen Sheds Light on Dark Universe
NY
Times: Photo Gives Weight to Einstein's Thesis of Negative Gravity
Time
Innovators - Adam Riess
SciFri:
March 1998: Adam Riess, Alan Guth on cosmology and 'dark energy'
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- Office
of Technology Assessment, 1993: "Proliferation of Weapons of Mass
Destruction: Assessing the Risks"
- Biological
warfare emerges as 21st-century threat : 1/01
- Centers
for Disease Control & Prevention - Bioterrorism Preparedness and
Response
- New
Scientist | Bioterrorism Special Report
- CB
Arms Control Program
- USAMRIID
- US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases
- Medical
NBC Online
- Emerging
Infectious Diseases - Volume 4 Number 3 July -September 1998
- Potomac
Institute: Projects - Countering Biological Terrorism
This segment produced by: Charles
Bergquist
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