Our Times: June 2007

guns for games

Gun owners in Tepito, Mexico, can bring their guns to the local government and trade them for computer systems.High-calibre weapons are rewarded with a home PC.Smaller guns are traded for Xbox game consoles.

beef bites back

Men whose mothers ate more that seven serves of beef a week while pregnant are likely to be subfertile.US research reveals that these beef eaters' babies, affected by all the hormones fed to the cattle, grow up to have up to a 20 per cent lower sperm count than the average male.

anti-malarial mosquito

Malaria kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds.A genetically modified mosquito, resistant to the malaria parasite, is stronger than mosquitos carrying malaria. While they won't be ready to release in the wild for at least 10 years, when they are, they will gradually replace the weaker species.

hot ice screams

Warm water is being pushed under an Antartcic iceshelf by winds that have resulted from global warming. A Texas-sized sheet of ice is melting much faster than it would naturally. When fully melted, global sea level will rise by as much as six metres.

Sources : Scientific American, globalisationinstitute.org