Gamma Rays

MARYLAND Physician oversight lacking Maryland's vow to safeguard patients has been undercut by breakdowns in the system established to oversee doctors, an investigation by The Sun has found. Regulators who once checked every malpractice claim now ignore most of them, and investigators may take years to evaluate a doctor. pg 1a Neither merry nor bright A dispute over utility poles has forced the isolated town of Lonaconing in the mountains of Western Maryland to abandon its 68-year holiday tradition of stringing colored bulbs across Main Street.

Tainted deli meat. Contaminated hamburger. Bacteria-laden cantaloupe. Consumers might have thought the onslaught of deadly food scares this year would have sparked sales for SureBeam Corp., the nation's largest irradiation company. But the company has been caught in a difficult waiting game - and the losses are piling up. The trouble for SureBeam is that it's depending on the federal government to approve wider use of its germ-zapping equipment by food processors and on retailers to embrace the controversial technology.

With a budget upwards of $150 million, The Hulk may be the most expensive art film ever made. Then again, with its monster-on-the-rampage action, you could also call it a Godzilla flick for eggheads. Either way, The Hulk is a fascinating, if flawed, extravaganza. Based on the Marvel comic book, the film tells of Bruce Banner, a scientist who, after being zapped with gamma rays, turns into a green-skinned behemoth whenever he gets angry. "We're gonna have to watch that temper of yours," says David Banner, Bruce's half-crazed dad, whose role in his son's uncontrollable transformations is anything but incidental.

GREENBELT -- Two NASA astronauts took an unscheduled 3 1/2 -hour walk in space yesterday, dramatically freeing a jammed communications antenna on the Gamma Ray Observatory and getting an early start on experiments for a planned space walk today."

Raymond Cheong, Josh Greene and Sabyasachi Guharay sound a lot like Nobel laureates when they talk about cancer-causing proteins, gamma rays and DNA sequences.But, in reality, they are students at Columbia high schools -- Cheong and Guharay at Wilde Lake, Greene at Oakland Mills -- and among 21 semifinalists from Maryland in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search.They will take part in a competition Jan. 27 among 300 semifinalists from across the country, including 21 from Maryland, in what is widely considered the nation's most prestigious high school science contest.

They are ghostly pinpricks of matter so elusive they can pass easily through miles of rock and metal.But Demosthenes Kazanas, a NASA astrophysicist, thinks these faint specks could become the foundation of a whole new branch of astronomy.They're high-energy neutrinos. And Dr. Kazanas, a 41-year-old Severna Park resident, wrote in a recent issue of the scientific journal Nature that telescopes designed to detect the decay products from these particles could give scientists CAT scan-style images of the Earth's core and provide a clearer picture of the star-swallowing black holes at the center of some galaxies.

Scientists say they have discovered two and possibly three planets orbiting a distant star, suggesting that other planetary systems can form under the most unfavorable conditions and probably are common throughout the universe.The discovery was presented today as part of a smorgasbord of astronomical discoveries that could change a number of theories about the universe.In a series of research papers in today's issue of the British science journal Nature, scientists also disclose that they have discovered mysterious bursts of powerful radiation from unknown objects that appear to be scattered around the universe.

The First LadyEditor: Barbara Bush has brought back dignity and warmth to the White House from whence they have been too long absent.Arthur W. Kralick.Severna Park.Punctu-What?Editor: With reference to the samples quoted of the new state report card tests accompanying the story in The Sun of Nov. 17 on changes in Maryland school testing, it was interesting to note under the reading test that students would be asked to "check carefully for correct grammar, spelling, punctualization and capitalization."

And now, from the people who brought you Chernobyl: Nukes in space.The University of Maryland College Park last week staged what physicist Roald Sagdeev, the former head of the Soviet space program now on the faculty at College Park, called "one of the most unusual meetings in the post-Cold War era."Russian scientists, Pentagon and NASA officials, satellite designers and astronomers gathered in a windowless classroom for a sometimes-emotional debate over Department of Defense plans to launch a nuclear reactor, built by the former Soviet government, into orbit.

You can skip this column. I'm sure you have more important things to do. You don't need to waste your valuable time reading about how MILLIONS OF PEOPLE, POSSIBLY INCLUDING YOU, RECENTLY WERE ALMOST KILLED BY A GIANT SPACE ROCK AND THERE ARE MORE COMING AND NOBODY IS DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Excuse me for going into CAPS LOCK mode, but I am a little upset here. In case you didn't hear about it, which you probably didn't: On Jan. 7, an asteroid 1,000 feet across -- nearly three times the current diameter of Marlon Brando -- barely missed the Earth, which is most likely your planet of residence.