Friday, June 25, 2004

Dust and Smoke off Africa   animations: small ( 6.7 MB Quicktime) large (22.3 MB Quicktime) Numerous times between January and mid-June 2004 the skies over the Atlantic Ocean were filled with a river of particles flowing from Africa (right) to South America (left). Both particle pollution from smoke (red, indicationg small particles) and dust (gold, indicating large particles) were regular trans-Atlantic travelers during the first half of the year. Light gray indicates areas of missing data over the Sahara and other deserts. This image shows the region on June 6, 2004. 7:48:16 PM    comment []

Cast, Crew Of Troy Begin Disastrous 10-Year Journey Back to Hollywood 7:45:44 PM    comment []

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BE CAREFUL OUT THERE: Net Virus May Be Aimed At Stealing Financial Data Associated Press June 25, 2004 4:54 p.m. NEW YORK -- A mysterious Internet virus being spread Friday by hundreds and possibly thousands of infected Web sites may be aimed at stealing credit card and other valuable information, security experts warned. The infection appears to take advantage of three separate flaws with Microsoft Corp. products. Microsoft said software updates to fix two of them had been released in April, but the third flaw was newly discovered and had no patch to fix it yet. VIRUSES: SPREADING TROUBLE • Guide: How to protect your computer.   • See more coverage and related information on computer viruses at wsj.com/virus.   Experts said the infection, detected by Microsoft on Thursday, was unusually broad but wasn't substantially interfering with Internet traffic. (Read Microsoft's security bulletin.) Security experts at Microsoft and elsewhere worked Friday to pin down how the infection spreads across Web sites. It appears to target at least one recent version of Microsoft software for operating Web sites -- called Internet Information Server. The infection makes subtle changes to the Web site so visitors get a piece of code that's designed to retrieve from a Russian Web site software that records a person's keystrokes and can send data back, experts say. Such software "Trojan horses" are routinely used to fish for credit-card numbers, bank accounts, passwords and the like. Now that the code is out, other hackers are likely to adapt it to distribute software for spamming and for launching broad Internet attacks against popular Web sites, said Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering at security company Symantec Corp. "Users should be aware that any Web site, even those that may be trusted by the user, may be affected by this activity and thus contain potentially malicious code," the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team warned in an Internet alert. Stephen Toulouse, a security program manager at Microsoft, recommended that computer owners obtain the latest security updates for Microsoft products and their antivirus and firewall programs. Because one flaw has yet to be fixed, he said, users should also turn up security settings on Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsers to the highest levels. Security experts noted that users can avoid the exploit by using alternative browsers such as Mozilla and Opera. Users could also turn off the "Javascript" feature on their Microsoft browsers, though doing so cripple functions on some sites. The infection doesn't affect Macintosh versions of Internet Explorer. How to Protect Yourself • Patch your system: Visit the Windows Update site at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and click "scan for updates" to download and install the latest patches. However, there is a patch available only for one of the two vulnerabilities this virus exploits.   • Increase security level: In Internet Explorer, click on Tools in the menu bar at the top of the screen, then click on Internet Options. Click on the Security tab and turn to security to High; this could make browsing certain sites difficult but, at least as a temporary measure, should help protect your system.   • Search for the virus: Click on the Start menu, then click on Search. Click "all files or folders." Under "all or part of the file name," enter the following text to search for both of these files: Kk32.dll and Surf.dat   • Destroy it: If you find one of these files on your system, download updates from antivirus vendors including those listed below. Run the antivirus software and eliminate the virus. Symantec http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/js.scob.trojan.html F-Secure http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/scob.shtml Cmputer Associates http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/virus.aspx?id=39438   • Consider unaffected browsers: To avoid reinfection, you could download and use alternative Web browsers like Mozilla and Opera, which seem to be unaffected. Or borrow a Macintosh; computers running the Apple Computer Inc. operating system are safe from the virus.   Sources: Microsoft, Dow Jones Newswires. More information about the attack is available at www.microsoft.com/security/incident/download_ject.mspx Copyright © 2004 Associated Press 7:41:02 PM    comment []

Biotechs Mine Bacteria for Industrial Use By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 25, 2004 Filed at 12:06 p.m. ET PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- The creatures are known as ``extremophiles,'' and they earn the name: They live in toxic Superfund cleanup sites, boiling deep-sea rift vents, volcanic craters and polar glaciers -- some of the planet's harshest environments. These single-celled creatures owe their hardiness to genes, and that has drawn the attention of a few biotech companies. The companies train the genes to mass produce industrial-strength enzymes for such products as better detergents, cleaner chemicals and more effective DNA fingerprints. Such ``bio-prospecting'' efforts have huge potential for good. They just might make hazardous waste cleanup more affordable, reduce pollution and make better medicines if the microbes' genetic durability can be exploited and controlled. But tough questions are being raised as well -- about the morality of allowing private companies to patent and profit from Mother Nature. The extremophile candidates are numerous. There's Deinoccus radiodurans, dubbed Conan the Bacterium by its legions of fans because it withstands 10,000 times the amount of radiation that would kill a human. Found on radiated food, it has a unique ability to repair broken DNA. In Chile's moonlike Atacama desert -- one of Earth's driest spots -- lives another extremophile scientists say could give them clues to what life might look like on Mars. And the Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is sponsoring experiments on genetically engineering extremophiles to extend the shelf life of blood-clotting platelets in extreme conditions. The idea is to help treat battlefield wounds. Objections to such work often come from activists who complain that Third World countries aren't properly compensated for microbes extracted from their deserts, mountains and sea shores. ``The concern with bio-prospecting is that the people who consider themselves to be the stewards of the biodioversity in a region often aren't consulted or are ignored,'' said Beth Burrows of the Edmonds Institute, a environmental nonprofit based in Edmonds, Wash. Native Hawaiians are angry over a deal between the University of Hawaii and a biotechnology company to share in potential profits gleaned from lava sludge. Now the Hawaiian Legislature is considering a moratorium on the transfer or sale of extremophiles found on public lands so environmental and profit-sharing issues can be worked out. Antarctica is governed by an international treaty that vows to keep the continent open and free to scientists dedicated to peaceful pursuits. But some 92 patents have been filed in the United States and another 62 in Europe that claim ownership of biological property found there. While such patent applications appear to be legal, ``some scientists active in Antarctica worry about whether outright commercial exploitation and patents are within the spirit of the treaty,'' said Sam Johnston, who co-wrote a report on the subject for the United Nations this year. The Edmonds Institute sued the National Park Service in 1997 after it gave San Diego-based Diversa Corp. commercial rights to prospect for extremophiles in the fabled hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. The prospecting, involving fees and royalties paid to the government, was ultimately approved by a judge on the condition that an extensive environmental review be completed. The park service has defended the deal -- which remains on hold pending the review -- as a way for it to profit on scientific research without disrupting the park's environment. Four decades ago, the park service wasn't so financially savvy when a University of Wisconsin researcher discovered the extremophile Thermus aquaticus in a Yellowstone hotspring. Today, that bacterium provides a key enzyme -- polymerase -- used for polymerase chain reaction, better known as PCR, a Noble Prize-winning DNA fingerprinting technique used widely by crime labs, hospitals and university researchers. Yellowstone doesn't receive any income from sales of the PCR enzyme, now a key tool in the $300 million-a-year DNA fingerprinting business. The companies involved say that without the ability to patent extremophiles, they can't make good on the many promises of this area of biotechnology. David Estell, a researcher at Genencor International Inc., said bio-prospecting requires the collecting of just a few samples, which hardly disturbs the environment. Genencor is one of the few profitable biotechnology companies in existence, earning $13 million in the first quarter of 2004 on $94 million in revenue. Genencor has the genetic material of 15,000 strains of microbes stored in deep-freeze in Palo Alto and the Netherlands. It already has 11 industrial products on the market, and is using living material -- enzymes and proteins, rather than fossil fuels -- to develop cleaner and cheaper ways of making industrial chemicals. For instance, Genencor takes a gene that gives a microbe alkaline resistance and uses it to create enzymes for laundry detergent. One enzyme is used in Tide detergent, another is used to give jeans a faded look. Both are produced by extremophiles found thriving in highly alkaline lakes in East Africa and Kenya. The extremophile genes responsible for making these enzymes are genetically engineered into commonplace bacteria, which are then coaxed to grow by the trillions in giant brewers' vats at Genencor's nine factories around the world. ``The goal,'' Estell said, ``is make proteins do something they've never done before.'' ^------ 7:38:19 PM    comment []

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