Monday, February 8, 1999
		Sick seas pose a threat Previously unknown bacteria and viruses blooming in the Earth’s warming oceans are killing some marine life and may threaten human health, according to studies presented at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in California in late January. UGA ecologist James Porter, who has long studied the coral reefs off the Florida keys, was among the presenters. “These are the cries and whispers beginning to confront us about the ecological dangers ahead,” Porter told ABC News. About 10 percent of the coral worldwide has died, says Porter, and if present trends and conditions continue, another 20 to 30 percent could be lost. “Corals are like the canary in the mine,” he says. “They are telling us that the water where they live is becoming suboptimal for their existence.” Predicting Y2K scenarios Reports of possible Year 2000 computer problems, once buried in the pages of trade publications, are now showing up on the front pages of major newspapers--raising awareness and sparking attempts to prepare for a variety of possible scenarios. What keeps bureaucrats awake at night, according to the Detroit News, is the spectre of Y2K panic. What if people are scared enough to cash in less-liquid assets like stocks or bonds? “If everyone wants to go liquid with all their wealth, that would have a depressing effect on asset prices,” responds Larry White, a UGA professor of economics, in the article. “In the limiting case, if nobody wants to own stocks, the value of stocks will go to zero. I suspect there will be some contrarians who will be waiting around for bargain prices.” Smokies census is tall order Even though 10 million people visit each year, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is so big that it still holds lots of surprises. In what could be the biggest ecological undertaking in American history, researchers hope to classify virtually all the flora and fauna that make the Smokies their home. A Philadelphia Inquirer report on the project quotes UGA insect ecologist John Pickering, one of the project’s two coordinators. “We’re equating this to walking on the moon or going to Mars, or to the space station or the human genome project. I mean, it’s a big project,” says Pickering. If successful, it will change “the way we look at the environment and the knowledge we get from it.” Judging the Peabody Awards Southern Living magazine takes a look at the process involved in selecting the annual winners of the Peabody Awards, the prestigious broadcasting and cable prize administered by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. An article in the February issue includes interviews with Peabody director Barry Sherman and members of the national advisory board, who meet at UGA for intensive deliberations each March. The article also makes note of the Peabody Collection, housed by the university libraries, that contains more than 42,000 programs submitted for award consideration since 1940. “Some are really priceless,” says Dean J. Thomas Russell. “It’s not just a journalistic archive. It’s a historical archive that happens to be on videotape.”
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