Capsules

P: Two years ago the Chinese Communists, trying to curb an annual population growth of 15 million, revived the ancient Chinese myth that a dose of tadpoles after each meal is an effective oral contraceptive. Thousands of women promptly rushed to dirty lakes and rivers to scoop up tadpoles with rice bowls. One result: widespread schistosomiasis (infestation with blood flukes). Even worse, the government admitted ruefully last week, women who religiously swallow tadpoles get pregnant just the same.

P: "Spectatoritis is the nation's No. 1 fitness problem," said Shane MacCarthy, executive director of the President's Council on Youth Fitness. "I was at a recruiting station recently, and the doctors there told me they've detected a new ailment--heel fractures among soldiers learning to march. They haven't used their legs enough to be ready for the exercise they get in basic training. We do too much sitting and looking when we should be out doing."

P: Victims of radiation exposure should walk to the nearest shelter--never run --says Biologist Thomas J. Haley of the University of California. He exposed rats to an eventually fatal dose of radiation, found that one group, with light exercise, tired and died rapidly, while another group that stayed quiet took far longer to perish. If humans find themselves under some cover during an atomic blast, he feels that they should stay put. "You may experience radiation sickness, but you may at least live to recover."

P: The ancient fear of leprosy is fast disappearing--so much so that the late Father Damien's famed settlement for leprosy patients on the Hawaiian island of Molokai is being opened to tourists. From a peak of 1,180 active cases in 1890, the settlement today has only 75. Since some 150 recovered patients prefer to remain, officials hope to give them a livelihood as guides and taxi drivers by encouraging outside visitors.

P: Aldosterone is one of man's most potent hormones, regulating the amount of salt (and thus of water) in the body, but scientists studying its workings have been hampered by its extreme scarcity. Now the University of Wisconsin's Dr. William S. Johnson has found a new way to make aldosterone wholesale from common coal-tar products--first major step toward learning whether it can be used in treating disease.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.