Wednesday, August 4, 197!6
TH IHIGAN DAILY
Page Seven
Wednsda, Auust4, 976 HE ICHIAN AIL
Weird Martian soil activity Strange illness still unidentified
probably not
PASADENA, Calif. (P)-Viking
biologists believe there is "al-
most zero" chance that strange
soil activity being detected by
the robot lander is due to Mar-
tian life, a scientist said yes-
terday.
Most Viking biologists are now
convinced that a chemical pro-
cess triggered by sunlight fall-
ing on the dusty soil of Mars is
producing results in Viking's
minilaboratory that mimic life
processes, said Dr. Frederick
Brown.
"THE DATA have almost zero
chance of being a message about
life," said Brown, a member of
the Viking biology flight team.
Viking officials have said in
recent days they simply don't
know whether the puzzling re-
sults sent back by the robot lab,
which is studying a Martian soil
sample, are due to life or not.
But Brown, Viking biologist
for TRW Systems, manufacturer
of the automated laboratory,
said the prevailing view among
the scientists is that life is not
the cause of .the experimental
results.
HE PREDICTED that this
view would be confirmed by an
organic analysis of a fresh soil
sample scooped up Tuesday by
Viking's mechanical arm.
Brown said the oxidizing effect
of the supposed chemical pro-
cess would constantly destroy
organic materials in the soil.
Thus the organic analysis should
find "almost no organics" in
the soil sample, said Brown.
That analysis will be completed
later this week.
If the chemical theory is true,
said Brown, "that says the
chances for life on Mars go
down," at least in the area
where Viking 1 is located. A
second Viking is to land Sept.
4 at a site farther north.
BROWN explained that the
suspected chemical process is
so strong that "carbon-based
life ought to be torn up very
quickly."
Viking scientists have been
hotly pursuing the puzzling clues
that turned up soon after the
Martian soil sample was dump-
ed into the lander's miniaturized
laboratories last week.
The experiments showed, first,
a surprisingly high amount of
oxygen in the soil, and second,
a rapid and immediate outpour-
ing of carbon gas from the soil
after a nutrient was added to it.
(Continued from Page 3)
another state health official said
bacteria could be the cause.
A virus enters a body cell
and attacks from the inside
while a bacteria attacks from
the outside.
Meanwhile, representatives of
the 41st International Eucharis-
tic Conference, a week-long
gathering of one million Catho-
lics from around the world,
said they planned no changes in
any activities. The White House
announced President Ford still
planned to attend the confer-
ence on Sunday.
THE 100 STATE and federal
researchers working nonstop
on the problem still don't know
what causes the flu-like dis-
ease. Its symptoms include
fever, congested lungs and
chest pains.
Bachman admitted that it still
isn't known how the disease
was transmitted, but he said
food or drink were not likely
possibilities. Researchers were
at a loss to explain why only
the people at the convention
contracted the disease. The
ages of the dead ranged from 39
to 82. .
Whatever the disease, Bach-
man said, the state is readying
the machinery for a mass in-
oculation program once the
agent is isolated. State officials
said last week they could be-
gin a swine flu inoculation pro-
gram on short notice.
"LET'S HOPE it's not some-
thing new," said Dr. Jay Satz,
head of the State Health De-
partment's immunology divi-
sion. If it is a new type of dis-
ease, it could take several
weeks to develop a serum, he
said.
Bachman said officials think
the disease was confined to the
estimated 10,000 persons who
attended the state American
Legion convention in Philadel-
phia July 21-24, but cautioned
that "it is too early to discount
the possibility" that conven-
tioneers who didn't get sick
may spread the disease.
There are no documented
cases of people getting the dis-
ease who did not attend the
convention, Bachman said.
MANY OF THE latest vic-
tims come from southeastern
Pennsylvania. Most of the ear-
lier cases were from central or
western Pennsylvania.
TONIGHT AT 8 P.M.
IN POWER CENTER
Palestinian camp evacuated
BEIRUT, Lebanon (P-Under
a shaky truce, the International
Red Cross evacuated 91 badly
wounded persons yesterday from
the besieged Palestinian refugee
camp at Tal Zaatar.
In Geneva, the International
Red Cross Committee said 150
more wounded will be evacuated
from the camp today.
AN ANNOUNCEMENT by the
Swiss-based humanitarian organ-
ization said the situation of the
camp was "dramatic."
"Some among them require
surgery, which was impossible
inside the camp, and have been
waiting for weeks for medical
treatment of their wounds," the
committee said.
A convoy of two ambulances
and nine trucks entered the
battered camp on Beirut's out-
skirts, loaded the wounded and
carried them back through the
Christian sector and across the
no man's land that divides Bei-
rut to a hospital in the Moslem-
controlled part of the city.
WHILE the convoy wound
through the narrow streets of
the Christian district, scores of
people gathered in the streets
and on balconies, mostly in si-
lence, to watch it pass. As it
crossed into the Moslem sector,
Palestinian guerrillas and other
Moslem soldiers cut loose with
a frenzied barrage of gunfire in
the air, celebrating the rescue
of the wounded.
The evacuees were the first
of some 4,000 wounded the Red
Cross hopes to take from the
camp, which has been under
siege by Christian rightist forces
for six weeks.
YESTERDAY'S operation took
nearly seven hours from start
to finish, with the Red Cross
convoy spending about 3% hours
actually inside Tal Zaatar.
During the period, there were
sporadic exchanges of gunfire
around edges of the camp. But
the Christian militia that had
prevented five previous evt-cua-
tion efforts generally abided by
the truce negotiated by the Red
Cross and the Arab League,
and signed by the leaders of all
Christian factions.
Christian officers refused, how-
ever, to let the Red Cross take
one truckload of medical sup-
plies and water into the camp.
A TENSE moment came just
after the convoy, with Red Cross
chief delegate Jean Hoefliger in
the lead car, left Tal Zaatar
and was waiting to pass a
checkpoint manned by troops of
several Christian factions.
A few of the soldiers got into
a heated argument apparently
about who was going to check
the trucks to verify that they
contained only wounded. Two of
them suddenly began firing their
automatic rifles wildly, sending
newsmen and other observers
diving for cover.
The convoy was delayed for
about an hour near the check-
point and a Red Cross source
said it was because the Chris-
tians, in checking the wounded,
found five who could walk and
forced them to get off the trucks.
But after a long discussion, they
allowed the five to board the
trucks again and leave with the
convoy.
Kathy E. Badgerow portrays the role of May Daniels,
one of three vaudevillians who head for Hollywood in the
Michigan Repertory's production of "ONCE IN A LIFE-
TIME." Tickets for this "delightful comedy" are avail-
able through the Power Center Box Office M-F 12:30-5
p.m. For more information call (313) 763-3333.
-TONIGHT--
VISIONS OF EIGHT (1973)
in honor of the 1976 Otympics in Montrea1, we're showing a
splenaid documentary of the 1972 games in Munich. VISIONS OF
EIGHT is so named because each of eight of the world's top
directors (Arthur Penn, KsonIchikawa, Claude Leloush, Mai
Zetterling, etc.) picked an event to itm. An exciting documen-
tary even if you don't like sports. The camera work is dazzling
-see how directors approach the events of their own cinematic
styles.
AND. A ANGELL HALL 7 & 9 P.M. $1.25
UW
-PLUS-
ST UD ET N IG H T
50c Admission With Student I.D
WEEKLY HOURS: 9 p.m.-2 a.m.
HOURS Fri. & Sat. 8 p.m.-2 a.m. U
516 E. LIBERTY 994-5350
evENDS TOMORROW te
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LAUREN
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