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Science Friday > Archives > 2003 > April
> April 4, 2003:
Hour Two: Effects
of Oil Spills & Fires / Smallpox Vaccination Update / Cannibalistic
Dinosaur
The federal government's plan to vaccinate troops and certain health
care providers against smallpox as part of a bioterrorism response
program is moving slowly. Existing concerns regarding the vaccines
among some potential recipients, combined with the news that several
recipients of the vaccine have suffered heart attacks, have caused
some states to put parts of the plan on hold. The CDC said that the
events were not necessarily caused by the vaccine, and could be coincidental.
However, they are investigating the situation. We'll find out more.
Then, we'll turn our attentions to one of the lasting environmental
effects of the first Gulf War. During that conflict, fierce fires
and oil spilled on the desert sands combined to form a strange, impenetrable
substance known as tarcrete. We'll find out about the environmental
damage it has caused.
| We'll also find out about a new find in paleontology
-- scientists report this week in the journal Nature that they
have found evidence that one dinosaur may have been a cannibal.
The creature, named Majungatholus atopus, lived in what
is now Madagascar over 65 million years ago. Markings on fossilized
teeth led scientists to the conclusion that the beast dined on
its own kind. We'll find out more. |
Skull of Majungatholus atopus.
Photo courtesy Greg Helgeson, Macalester College.
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Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255, and share
your opinions online in our Listeners' Lounge (registration required).
Guests:
Raymond Rogers
Associate Professor, Department of Geology
Macalester College
St. Paul, Minnesota
Farouk El-Baz
Director, Center for Remote
Sensing
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
Brian Strom
Chairman, Committee on Smallpox Vaccination Program Implementation
Institute of Medicine
George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Chair and Professor of Biostatistics & Epidemiology
Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pharmacology
Director of the Center for
Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics
University of Pennsylvania School
of Medicine
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
BBC
NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Cannibal' dinosaur unearthed
Scientists
find cannibal dinosaur / Meat-eater's bones show telltale bite marks
Dinosaur
Cannibal: Fossil Evidence Found in Africa
Conflict
with Iraq: Oil well fires could be environmental disaster
TheStar.com
- Precious environment is another casualty of war
Top
Story - 1991 KUWAIT OIL FIRES - March 21, 2003
Living
on Earth Transcript: January 12, 1996
CDC:
Smallpox Vaccine and Heart Problems
Second worker dies of heart attack after smallpox vaccination
Compensation
Plan for Smallpox Program Advances in Senate
CDC
Smallpox Response Plan & Guidelines
CDC
Smallpox Q&A: Smallpox Vaccination Program Implementation (Info
to support Public Health & Clinical Personnel Planning for Smallpox
Vaccination) MEDLINEplus:
Smallpox
This segment produced by Karin
Vergoth and Adrian MacDonald
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