Which Jefferson Was the Father?
Eliot MarshallThe claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child by his slave Sally Hemings got a big boost in credibility last November when scientists announced in Nature that they had found DNA sequences in the Y chromosome of the Jefferson family that matched DNA from the Hemings family. The finding set off a flood of news reports declaring that the third U.S. president had, as rumored, fathered an illegitimate child by Sally Hemings. But now the authors of the report say that the data establish only that Thomas Jefferson was one of several candidates for the paternity of Eston Hemings, Sally's fifth child.
Keeping a Wary Eye on Chornobyl's Unsettled Remains
Richard StoneCHORNOBYL, UKRAINE--How big is the threat posed by the tons of uranium fuel scattered through the damaged reactor building of the infamous Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant? New data presented at a recent conference suggest the odds of a second explosion are small. But researchers are continuing to monitor the situation: Western experts recently installed new devices for watching the scary chemistry.
Warm, Warm on the Range
Jerry M. MelilloGlobal warming is a very real phenomenon and most agree that human activities have contributed to an increase in the minimum daily temperature. In this issue, Alward et al . demonstrate that this increase in minimum temperature causes a distinct change in the mix of plants found in a prairie grassland in the Midwestern United States. In his Perspective, Mellilo describes other examples of warming's effect on ecological systems and explains how we can best study these changes.
Choosing to Favor Animals
A review by Adrian R. MorrisonThe Human Use of Animals Case Studies in Ethical Choices F. Barbara Orlans, Tom L. Beauchamp, Rebecca Dresser, David B. Morton, John P. Gluck Oxford University Press, New York, 1998. 342 pp. $55. ISBN 0-19-511907-X. Paper, $26. ISBN 0-19-511908-8.
This collection of papers is offered as an examination of how far it is ethically justifiable to harm animals in order to benefit humans. The reviewer finds the examination is not balanced, with many of the authors believing that such use of animals is morally wrong.
Beyond Sloth--Physical Activity and Weight Gain
Eric Ravussin and Elliot Danforth Jr.Why do some individuals gain weight in response to overeating, whereas others do not? A study in this week's issue by Levine et al. , discussed in the Perspective by Ravussin and Danforth, suggests that differences in fat gain can be accounted for by the energy expended in nonvoluntary physical activities such as fidgeting and maintenance of posture, termed nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). The underlying mechanism that allows humans to activate NEAT in response to overeating will require further study.
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