VACCINE TROUBLE
Three of the 350,000 Americans vaccinated so far against smallpox have died of heart attacks. Twelve others have had heart or pericardial inflammation, and three more have suffered other heart disorders. It is not known if the vaccine caused the problems, as those who died already had circulatory disorders. However, similar inflammation was sometimes seen with the European vaccine strain used in the 1970s. US health officials decided last week that people with heart disease should not be vaccinated. This will further slow the civilian vaccination drive, which has reached only 5 per cent of its target.
BLAZE OF GLORY
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A fireball nearly as bright as the Sun streaked across US skies last week, before shattering in mid-air and showering some of Chicago鈥檚 southern suburbs with dozens of meteorites. Such events only occur on Earth once every few years, and are even rarer in densely populated areas. The location of the shower has enabled scientists and collectors to obtain pieces of the fallen object unusually quickly.
Samples of the rock have already been sent out to various labs for testing, and initial results suggest the object was a fairly common type of meteorite called an LL6 chondrite. The rapid recovery of the samples will allow scientists to test the rock for isotopic signatures of cosmic ray impacts, which have usually decayed by the time a meteorite is found. These should help in determining the size and history of the impacting object.