BYU professor is science hero
Time Inc.'s hunt for the "Heroes of Medicine" turned up a Utahn; BYU botany professor Paul Cox, who's spent 13 years investigating medicinal properties of plants in a Western Samoan rain forest.
The magazine's fall 1997 special issue focuses on "talented innovators" who share "endless curiosity, a huge capacity for work and a willingness to defy convention." It dedicates four pages to Cox, noting that he and colleagues have found 74 plants that may prove useful in combating disease. Cox also studies the traditional practices of native Samoan healers in Falealupo.
He is an honorary chief of the village, a title bestowed to note his work in helping the village preserve the rain forest - and thus its way of life. Cox and a Samoan chief were awarded one of six Goldman Environmental Prizes in 1997 for those efforts.
A vitamin is a vitamin
Is synthetic vitamin E as good as the real thing in preventing heart disease? A clinical trial at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas says yes.
Animal tests have indicated that natural alpha tocopherol, the active ingredient in vitamin E, is more potent than the synthetic version of the vitamin. So researchers compared the potency of the two in humans.
They found no significant difference in the amount of vitamin E absorbed by the good or low-density lipoproteins. Also, there was no difference in ability to inhibit oxidation of lipoproteins, the so-called "bad" cholesterol which is believed to play a role in hardening of the arteries.
The study, which also compared various dosages of vitamin E, found that a minimum dose of 400 IUs of vitamin E is necessary to produce an antioxidant effect.
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New ways to watch
U.S. electronics dealers have snapped up more than 200,000 DVD players since their market debut six months ago, which leads industry experts to believe the machines will have stronger initial sales than either the VCR or the CD player.
"Now that the number of movie and music titles has begun to proliferate, we expect to sell as many as 400,000 players this year and another one million during 1998," said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association.
The association expects dealers will sell 1.4 million DVD players by 1998.
It took two years for the VCR to surpass the 200,000-unit mark after it was introduced in 1975. Likewise, CD players were introduced in 1983 and surpassed the 200,000 mark two years later.
DVD players provide superior sound and images and more capacity than a CD-ROM or videotape cassette.
The brainy difference
The brains of some people who read poorly - especially people with dyslexia - differ physiologically from normal readers' brains, according to researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Using Positron Emission Tomography, they found differences in brain activity in the thalamus.
The thalamus is less active in poor readers, said John R. Absher, assistant professor of neurology. He reported his findings last week at a Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans.
Absher said the results agree with recent genetic research linking the thalamus with a form of poor reading known as developmental dyslexia.