;Article Updates:up199710.001 - Wed, Feb 4, 1998 at 17:14:02 - make_updates v8.0
Automobile racing|039160|up109707
Blindness|064580|up109708
Boxing|072960|up109717
Bush, George Herbert Walker|084360|up109715
Calcium|087400|up109711
Congo|129320|up109703
Element 104|177644|up109705
Element 105|177645|up109705
Element 106|177647|up109705
Element 107|177648|up109705
Element 108|177649|up109705
Element 109|177650|up109705
Element, chemical|177640|up109705
Gene|219740|up109708
Korea|304320|up109706
Mars|346000|up109709
Michener, James Albert|359420|up109710
Nobel Prizes|392700|up109712
Nutrition|397360|up109711
Roy Lichtenstein|322550|up109713
Satellite, Artificial|492220|up109702
Saturn|492440|up109702
Sickle cell anemia|359420|up109714
Smith, Dean|515255|up109704
Space exploration|522550|up109702
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty|535612|up109715
Transuranium element|564760|up109705
Turner, Ted|571190|up109716
United Nations|575780|up109716
Vitamin|587240|up109711
up109702|Saturn probe launched|<STRONG>Saturn probe launched</STRONG><P>The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched the Cassini probe to Saturn on Oct. 15, 1997. The satellite was scheduled to begin orbiting Saturn in July 2004.</P>
up109703|Coup topples government in the Congo Republic|<STRONG>Coup topples government in the Congo Republic</STRONG><P>Rebel forces under the command of former Marxist leader Denis Sassou- Nguesso ended the Congo Republic's four-month old civil war on Oct. 15, 1997, when they seized Brazzaville, the capital, and overthrew the government of President Pascal Lissouba. Sassou-Nguesso became the new leader of the country. </P>
up109704|Dean Smith resigns as North Carolina basketball coach|<STRONG>Dean Smith resigns as North Carolina basketball coach</STRONG><P>Dean Smith resigned as coach of the North Carolina men's basketball team on Oct. 9, 1997. His career record was 879 wins and 254 losses, making him the winningest coach in college basketball history. </P>
up109705|Elements 104-109 named|<STRONG>Elements 104-109 named</STRONG><P>The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) agreed in August 1997 to names for elements 104 through 109. Element 104 is Rutherfordium; element 105 is Dubnium; element 106 is Seaborgium; element 107 is Bohrium; element 108 is Hassium; and element 109 is Meitnerium. The American Chemical Society adopted the IUPAC names for the elements in September 1997. </P>
up109706|Kim Jong Il assumes top posts in North Korea|<STRONG>Kim Jong Il assumes top posts in North Korea</STRONG><P>Kim Jong Il assumed the posts of president and party general secretary of North Korea on Oct. 8, 1997, making him the country's top leader. Kim took over as North Korea's unofficial leader after the death of his father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994. The posts of president and party general secretary had been vacant since then. </P>
up109707|Land speed record set|<STRONG>Land speed record set</STRONG><P>A British team broke their own land speed record on Oct. 15, 1997, in a specially designed car that reached a speed of 763.035 miles (1,227.986 kilometers) per hour. The record-breaking speed was 14.924 miles (24.044 kilometers) per hour greater than the speed of sound. It was the first time that an official land speed record had surpassed the speed of sound.<P> The British team achieved the record in the Black Rock Desert about 125 miles (200 kilometers) north of Reno, Nevada. The team was led by Richard Noble. Andy North drove the team's Thrust SSC car, which was powered by two Rolls Royce jet engines. The British team broke its own record of 714.144 miles (1,149.303 kilometers) per hour set in September 1997 with the same car at the same location. </P>
up109708|Genetic cause of macular degeneration found|<STRONG>Genetic cause of macular degeneration found</STRONG><P>Researchers reported in September 1997 that they had found a gene responsible for a significant percentage of cases of macular degeneration. The researchers, led by molecular geneticist Michael Dean of the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, and ophthalmologist Richard Lewis of Baylor University in Houston, found that <I>mutations</I> (changes) in a gene called ABCR on chromosome 1 caused about 16 percent of cases of macular degeneration in older people. The same team discovered earlier in 1997 that mutations in the same gene can cause Stargardt's disease--a form of macular degeneration that causes blindness in young people. </P>
up109709|Magnetic field discovered on Mars|<STRONG>Magnetic field discovered on Mars</STRONG><P>Instruments on board the Mars Global Surveyor satellite in September 1997 detected a faint magnetic field surrounding Mars, according to the United States Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. Mars' magnetic field is about one eight-hundredth as strong as Earth's, according to the JPL. </P>
up109710|James Michener dies|<STRONG>James Michener dies</STRONG><P>James Michener died on Oct. 6, 1997, in Austin, Texas, of kidney failure. He was 90 years old.</P>
up109711|United States government revises Recommended Daily Allowances|<STRONG>United States government revises Recommended Daily Allowances</STRONG><P>A scientific advisory panel to the United States government on Aug. 13, 1997, revised the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) for calcium and Vitamin D. The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences recommended that most adults under age 50 receive 1,000 milligrams (15.4 grains) of calcium per day instead of 800 milligrams (12.3 grains). People over 50 were advised to increase their daily calcium intake from 800 milligrams to 1,200 milligrams (18.5 grains). The board recommended that children from 1 to 3 years of age receive 500 milligrams per day--down from the previous recommendation of 800 milligrams.</P><P>Recommended daily levels of vitamin D for those aged 50 to 70 were increased to 10 micrograms a day (.00015 grain) compared with 5 micrograms (.000075 grain) under the previous RDA. People older than 70 should receive 15 micrograms per day compared with 5 micrograms under the old RDA.</P><P>The board also recommended upper limits on the daily consumption of calcium and Vitamin D. The upper recommended daily limit for calcium is 2,500 milligrams (38.6 grains). The recommended daily limit for Vitamin D is 50 micrograms (.00075 grain). </P>
up109712|Nobel Prizes announced|<STRONG>Nobel Prizes announced</STRONG><P>The 1997 Nobel Prizes for work in physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, economics, peace, and literature were announced in October.</P><P>Neurologist Stanley B. Prusiner won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his discovery of prions--an entirely new genreof disease-causing agents. Prusiner was a professor of biochemistry at the University of California at San Francisco.</P><P>Physicists Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, and William D. Phillips won the Nobel Prize for physics for their work on methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. Chu was in the Physics Department at Stanford University in Stanford, California. Cohen-Tannoudji was in the Physics Department at the College de France and Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, and Phillips was with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. <P>Chemists Paul D. Boyer and John E. Walker won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for their work on synthesizing adenosine triphosphate--the universal carrier of chemical energy in cells. Jens C. Skou also shared the prize for discovering an ion-transporting enzyme that maintains the balance of sodium and potassium ions in living cells. Boyer was at the University of California at Los Angeles. Walker was with the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Skou was in the Chemistry Department at Aarhus University in Denmark.</P>Economists Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes won the Nobel Prize for economics for their discovery of a formula for determining risk in stock trading and other financial transactions. Merton was with the Business School at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Scholes was a Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Stanford, California. </P><P>The International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams of the United States, the campaign's coordinator, won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to ban and clear land mines around the world. </P><P>Italian dramatist Dario Fo won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The prize committe cited Fo for "scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden."</P>
up109713|Roy Lichtenstein dies|<STRONG>Roy Lichtenstein dies</STRONG><P>Roy Lichtenstein died on Sept. 29, 1997, in New York City. He was 73 years old. </P>
up109714|Blood transfusions cut strokes in young sickle cell patients|<STRONG>Blood transfusions cut strokes in young sickle cell patients</STRONG><P>The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) advised doctors in September 1997 that monthly blood transfusions can reduce the risk of strokes in young patients with severe sickle cell anemia by as much as 90 percent. The NIH noted that blood transfusions carry the risk of severe side effects requiring <I>chelation</I> (cleansing the blood of undesirable elements through drug infusions), however. </P>
up109715|United States-Russia delay START II|<STRONG>United States-Russia delay START II</STRONG><P>The United States and Russia agreed on Sept. 26, 1997, to postpone full implementation of the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty until the year 2007. </P>
up109716|Ted Turner gives $1 billion to United Nations|<STRONG>Ted Turner gives $1 billion to United Nations</STRONG><P>Ted Turner announced on Sept. 18, 1997, that he would donate $1 billion to the United Nations. He said he would donate the money over 10 years. </P>
up109717|Tyson gives up WBC heavyweight title|<STRONG>Tyson gives up WBC heavyweight title</STRONG><P>Mike Tyson gave up his WBC heavyweight title in September 1996 rather than fight British challenger Lennox Lewis. Lewis won the vacant tile in February 1997 with a victory over Oliver McCall. </P>
