Science Tuesday - TB, Salmonella, PCBs, Climate Change, and Jupiter.

Rise in TB Is Linked to Loans From I.M.F.
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, July 22, 2008

The rapid rise in tuberculosis cases in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is strongly associated with the receipt of loans from the International Monetary Fund, a new study has found.

Critics of the fund have suggested that its financial requirements lead governments to reduce spending on health care to qualify for loans. This, the authors say, helps explain the connection.
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Salmonella Strain in Jalapeños Is a Match
By BINA VENKATARAMAN, The New York Times, July 22, 2008

Federal food officials have matched a bacterial strain found on fresh jalapeños in a Texas distribution plant with the strain responsible for what has become the nation’s largest food-borne outbreak in the past decade.

The strain found on the jalapeños, Salmonella Saintpaul, was a genetic match to the strain found in lab tests of many of the 1,251 people who have become sick from salmonella poisoning over the past three months.
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Vital Signs: Risks: High PCB Levels, Fewer Births of Boys
By NICHOLAS BAKALAR, The New York Times, July 22, 2008

Women exposed to high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are significantly less likely to give birth to boys, according to a new study.

PCBs, which have been associated with various negative health effects, have been banned in the United States since 1977, but they persist in meats, eggs, dairy products and fish. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says everyone has detectable levels of the chemicals.
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Climate Film Draws a Rebuke
By ANDREW C. REVKIN, The New York Times, July 22, 2008

A controversial British documentary called “The Great Global Warming Swindle” unfairly portrays several scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Britain’s television watchdog agency ruled on Monday.
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Hubble images show that the Baby Red Spot on Jupiter, at left in first frame, has moved and seems to have been caught up in the Great Red Spot.

Observatory: On Jupiter, a Battle of the Red Spots, With the Baby Losing
By HENRY FOUNTAIN, The New York Times, July 22, 2008

Can a planet change its spots? Jupiter, where spots are really just large storms, seems to be in the process of doing so.

A small red spot that formed on the surface this year appears to have met its match in the Great Red Spot. Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on June 28 and July 8 show that the small spot, which has the misfortune to lie at the same latitude as the great one, has moved from the west side of the giant to the east side.
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