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Watching the World

Rescued Books

Many millions of books suffer from age, damage, or pollution. In Germany alone, some 60 million affected volumes have had to be withdrawn from use, notes the newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung. Manual restoration is a painstakingly long process. “In the time it takes to restore one book by hand, four or five others decay,” says Dr. W. Wächter, technical director of the Center for Book Conservation, in Leipzig. The center has concentrated on developing machines that can preserve books on a large scale. One is a deacidifier that can handle 100,000 books a year in single-shift operation. There is also a paper-splitting machine that strengthens the individual pages by separating the front side from the back and inserting a very thin high-strength paper in between. It can stabilize 2,000 sheets a day, compared with 100 to 200 sheets a day by manual operation—and at a 94-percent saving per page. Not only libraries and archives but also private individuals bring their books to the center for treatment.

Tunics for Pilgrims

Tourists visiting Catholic holy places in Italy are often turned away because they appear, especially during hot summer months, dressed in T-shirts and shorts. Now in some places they can enter if they use the “Pilgrims’ Tunic,” a knee-length, beige-colored robe. The unisex tunic, available in a single size, is already on sale in Venice and Rome. In Rome it has the added feature of the papal coat of arms and the phrase “Jubilee 2000.” But can these tunics be used in all Catholic churches? While they are acceptable to the Venetian Curia, some male tourists visiting St. Peter’s Basilica have been refused entry even though they bought and wore the tunic. “The personnel of the Holy See considered the garment suitable only for women,” explains the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “Men were turned away—bare legs were considered ‘indecent.’”

Relationships With Adopted Children

Parents planning to adopt a child sometimes idealize the relationship—thinking that the child will always be sweet and that difficulties will be easily overcome and understood. But that is not usually the case, reports the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. Says psychologist Heloísa Marton: “In general, parents are unprepared to deal with conflict situations.” Also in for a surprise are “couples who expect that the child will be eternally grateful,” notes Professor Miriam Debieux Rosa, of São Paulo University. No one is happy all the time, she points out, adding: “Parents often attribute difficulties to the lack of blood relationship, which is not true.” Regarding the parents’ need to show the adopted child affection and love, she states: “A helpful or professional relationship is not enough.” An emotional relationship with the child is also needed.

Easy Fleece

How can fleece be obtained without the stress and cuts that accompany normal sheepshearing? In Australia this is done by injecting sheep with a protein that occurs naturally in the animals’ bloodstream. The increased level of protein lasts for 24 hours and weakens the link between the wool fibers and the skin. The fleece is then shed in one piece, and the wool starts to grow again. Each animal is fitted with a net to catch its fleece, which will be cast off within a week. This process improves the quality of the wool and makes a second cut unnecessary. It also helps to reduce lice and dermatitis, without the use of chemicals, and is less stressful to the sheep. Demand for this new method of fleece removal is running high in Australia, reports The Sunday Times of London, but it may be less useful in lands like Britain, where the weather must be considered when shearing. A sudden dip in temperature after the protein shot will leave a flock of very cold sheep when the wool drops off, said an industry spokesman.

Melting Glaciers Yield More Surprises

Alpine glaciers continue to yield surprises as they shrink because of progressively warmer temperatures. In 1991, on the Austro-Italian border, the melting of ancient ice revealed the mummified remains of a prehistoric hunter. During August 1998, to remove other finds—remains of soldiers and unexploded hand grenades and artillery shells—the authorities in northern Italy had to declare certain mountain areas off-limits. All the items date back to the first world war, when the area was the theater of fierce fighting between Italian and Austrian troops. During clearing operations, “all residents, and particularly tourists and hikers, were warned to be extremely careful” and to check routes with the authorities, said the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, because there is “always the risk of explosions.” Much of the material is highly dangerous and continues to kill or seriously injure people who find it.

Compacted Soil

Seventy million acres [30 million ha] of soil in Europe is “completely degraded by soil compaction,” reports the magazine New Scientist. Research undertaken by Germany’s Kiel University reveals that when heavy tractors, exerting a force of five tons at each wheel, passed six times over a field, the density of small invertebrates such as arachnids and worms was reduced by up to 80 percent at a depth of about three feet. These small creatures help to keep soil fertile, so when they are destroyed, crop yields diminish accordingly. Plant roots cannot penetrate compacted subsoil, and thus plants suffer in dry weather. Rain cannot seep down; instead, it runs off the surface, eroding the topsoil. Regular plowing actually makes the problem worse, allowing the pressure to be transmitted to lower levels. The German scientists claim that by using low tillage, breaking the topsoil to a depth of only three inches [8 cm], the damage to the soil could be cut by one third.

Message Overload

“Today’s technology-enabled communications tools are leading to a new workplace health hazard: message-induced stress,” says Computing Canada, an information-technology management newspaper. A recent survey on workplace communication, conducted by the Stamford, Connecticut-based Pitney Bowes Inc., discovered that the average office worker sends or receives “an estimated 190 messages a day in a variety of formats,” such as voice mail, telephone, fax, pager, beeper, and E-mail. “What that means,” says the paper, “is that work is now, to a certain extent, shaped by the need to respond to messages, leading to increasing feelings of stress and of being overwhelmed.” Most workers would like more live contact either face-to-face or on the phone, the study found. Researchers recommend that “all employees be provided a guideline on the acceptable use of their communications tools—and how to use them properly” and thus reduce the message overload.

More on the Folly of Smoking

A recent study in the Netherlands says that “smoking more than doubles the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,” reports the International Herald Tribune. The study of 6,870 persons over 55 years of age revealed that smokers are 2.3 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than lifelong abstainers. The risk for those who had quit smoking was only slightly higher than for individuals who had never smoked. Alzheimer’s disease, which involves the gradual destruction of brain cells, is “the most common form of dementia.”

Defying Deciphering

“A Nobel prize possibly awaits the person who can decipher what the Indus people wrote,” states the magazine India Today. “Along with the Etruscan of Italy, it is the last script of the Bronze Age that is yet to be deciphered.” One reason is that no bilingual artifact has yet been found that could help break the code. Egyptian hieroglyphics were deciphered after Napoleon’s men found the Rosetta Stone, with an inscription recorded in hieroglyphic, demotic Egyptian, and Greek. Sumer’s cuneiform script was cracked when Henry Rawlinson discovered the Behistun Inscription, which contained the clues he needed to decipher it. So far, little has been established about the writing of the Indus people except that they wrote from right to left—indicated by the strokes—and that the writing may be based on syllables. The script, composed mostly of glyphs, has about 419 signs.