Science and Medicine News

STAY TUNED FOR WEATHER ON MARS  After 10 years of preparation, electrical engineering Professor Len Tyler and his colleagues may get their chance this year to start issuing daily weather reports from Mars. Tyler leads the international radio science team for the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) satellite, which is designed to orbit Mars and send back data for at least one Martian year (687 Earth days). The team expects to obtain the most precise measurements ever made of the pressures and temperatures on the Red Planet using radio occultation, a technique invented at Stanford. They will acquire weather data about Mars ­ which is the most similar planet to ours ­ more accurate than any currently available about some parts of the atmosphere of Earth. 1

SURGERY VS. ANGIOPLASTY  A five-year study of 934 patients may offer some guidance to heart disease patients, their doctors and even insurance companies facing a choice between open heart surgery and balloon angioplasty. The verdict: "I would now tend to recommend bypass surgery for patients with three blocked vessels, and angioplasty for patients with one blocked vessel," says the study's lead author, Dr. Mark A. Hlatky, professor of health research and policy. In patients with two blocked vessels, who can be treated with either angioplasty or surgery, he added, "The medical results are so close that how the patient feels about the two options should be given the most weight in the decision." The chance of complete relief from chest pain caused by heart disease and improvement in physical capacity is somewhat better with bypass surgery, but it involves more initial discomfort, a longer hospital stay and longer recovery time, Hlatky said. Angioplasty is initially easier, but half the patients will need a second angioplasty. Both methods were comparable in terms of overall rates of death and subsequent heart attacks.

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