The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 60

The season arrives How well do you know the basics of science? I for tropical storms 8. How long does it take fori the Earth to go around the sun: one day, one month, or one year? 9. Tell me, in your own words, whatisDNA? 10. Tell me, in your own words, what is a molecule? i ASSOCIATED PRESS The National Science Foundation recently reported that a survey it conducted found only about 25 percent of American adults got passing grades in what they know about basic science. Here is the basic science quiz given by foundation researchers.

1. The center of the Earth is very hot. (True or False) 2. The oxygen we breathe comes from plants. (True or False) 3.

Electrons are smaller than atoms. (True or False) 4. The continents on which we live have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move in the future. (True or False) 5. Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.

(True or False) 6. The earliest human beings lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. (True or False) 7. Which travels faster: light or sound? Knight-Ridder Tribune These boats were swept out of their marina and dumped on an island in South Carolina by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Here are the answers along with the percentage who had correct responses: 1.

True. 78 percent. 2. True. 85 percent.

3. True. 44 percent. 4. True.

79 percent. 5. True. 44 percent. 6.

False. 48 percent. 7. Light. 75 percent.

8. One year. 47 percent. 9. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a large molecule in the chromosomes that contains the genetic information for each cell.

21 percent. 10. Molecule is the smallest unit of a chemical compound capable of existing independently while retaining properties of the original sub-stance. 9 percent. Health Science Calendar HURRICANES from F1 service in State College, Pa.

The threat isn't from classic hurricane damage, but from flooding, recent weeks, periods of clouds and rain have tended to persist, as they did last week. So far that rain nas been a nuisance, dousing a picnic here and ruining a weekend there. But the presence of tropical moisture can transform a nuisance into a peril. Tropical storms and their remnants can turn loitering storms into flood hazards by injecting them with copious moisture, Abrams said. i Classic hurricane wind and storm-surge damage is less likely along the Northeast coast than the Gulf or Southeast coasts, but for hurricane forecasters the Northeast is more difficult, said Abrams.

Storms tend to hit the Gulf and Southeast coasts head-on. But if they don't make landfall on those coasts and head north, their paths can become more erratic as they interact with the curvature of the Gulf Stream. In addition, they speed up. Thus it becomes more difficult to pinpoint where they are going to make landfall. So in any given year, some unnecessary evacuations are all but inevitable along the East Coast, especially the Carolinas.

"People get all ticked off," said Abrams, "but that's better than being killed." The hurricane center, of course, wants to minimize wasted evacuations, which are costly. To that end, it has commissioned a new high-altitude reconnaissance plane to get a handle on the upper-air steering currents that govern hurricane paths. "Suppose you throw a ball into the stream and you want to know where it's going. You don't look at the ball, you look at the stream," said Jarrell. Unlike long-range forecaster Gray, Jarrell and his colleagues worry about the hurricane du jour and where it's heading next.

It leaves larger questions to Gray and others. Jarrell said that while he is an admirer of Gray's work, he worries about how the long-range forecasts are interpreted. "Our problem is that we're not sure that those forecasts have a lot of utility," said Jarrell. "We're concerned if he's forecasting a low season that perhaps people would not take the season as seriously. "A year when two storms hit the coast is a big year.

A year when 20 stay out to sea, that's not a big year." By any measure, 1995 was a big year, and its hurricanes were part of an extraordinary period of weather that has continued for months, punctuated by record heat, drought and snowfall. Some meteorologists see significance in the fact that the only busier tropical-storm season was 1933. At times, the weather of the last several months has paralleled the weather of six decades ago. "There were similarities during the spring and winter," noted Abrams. The similarities are not necessarily encouraging.

The 1930s remain a high-water (and low-water) mark for climatic upheaval in the United States. The weather in recent years has been some of the most extreme on record, according to an index computed by the National Climate Data Center, in Asheville, N.C. The variables included all-time temperature records and heavy-precipitation outbreaks. The only period that was more extreme? The 1930s. Climate researchers have found that abnormal seasons sometimes occur in clusters.

They suspect that these clusters, which may play out over several years, have something to do with slow changes in the oceans. Globally, some of the warmest years on record have occurred during the 1990s. In Philadelphia, for example, four of the last five summers have been the hottest on record. During the 1991-94 period, the sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific frequently were above normal over thousands of miles, a condition known as El Nino. This probably contributed to the worldwide warming, and it also had an effect on hurricanes, according to Gray.

The El Nino conditions generated strong upper-level winds from the west that traveled for thousands of miles and sheared off would-be hurricanes before they could mature. With the notable exception of Andrew in August 1992, the hurricane seasons were quiet. Last year, El Nino was replaced by its opposite La Nina, or cooler-than-normal temperatures in the tropical Pacific. What followed was drives the ocean circulation," he said. And Michael S.

McCartney, an oceanographer with the Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, pointed out that while the conveyor-belt model is tidy, it is a simplification. The transport of warm water is linked to what he calls a "set of gyre flows," more like airport luggage carousels than a conveyor belt. Aside from cosmic speculation, a more-prosaic factor argues for more hurricane destruction in the near future: the law of averages. From 1947 to 1961, 14 major land-falling hurricanes (defined as having sustained winds of at least 111 m.p.h.) hit the mainland United States. Since 1962, only six have.

Before 1961, much of the East Coast was little more than a gleam in a developer's eye. Today, more than $2 trillion worth of real estate lines the Gulf and Atlantic coastal counties, about $153 billion of that along the Jersey coast. Health Cholesterol, diabetes and blood pressure screenings. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

today, Fitzgerald Mercy Outpatient Center, 1500 Lansdowne Darby, and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Mercy tastwick Medical Building, 2801. Island Ave. 610-237-4584.

Science -J, a robust tropical-storm season. In his last forecast, Gray said Pacific water temperatures would continue to favor hurricanes. Gray said that above-normal sea-surface temperatures in the Atlantic also favored more storms. In addition, Gray and his research team look closely at rainfall in western Africa, near where hurricanes form. Drought in that region coincided with a long lull in hurricane activity, but those drought conditions have eased.

Gray believes that the African drought and hurricane frequency are tied to broad changes in oceanic circulation. He holds that the so-called Atlantic conveyor belt may be speeding up after a slowdown that lasted a generation. In the North Atlantic, the upper layers of the ocean carry unimaginable amounts of heat toward the northern latitudes. The water cools and becomes saltier, sinks to the bottom of the ocean and flows southward. Any significant change in this conveyor-belt circulation would have consequences.

One of those consequences, Gray believes, could be more hurricanes. "It would make sense that if there' were changes in the circulation that it would affect hurricanes," said Abrams. "That sounds reasonable," said Michael Schlesinger, a scientist at the University of Illinois. Unfortunately, the atmosphere is preciously short of linear relationships. Schlesinger pointed out that the ocean doesn't drive the climate system, but works in tandem with the atmosphere.

"You might argue that the atmosphere in some significant way The following programs are open to the public: 'u. Ethics. Lecture, "The ethics of managed care," by Jerome P. Kassirer, editor-in-chief, New England Journal of Medicine, 5 p.m. Wednesday, Zubrow Auditorium, Pennsylvania Hospital, 8th and Spruce Sts.

215-829-6800. Regulation of DNA structure. Lecture, "DNA damage recognition by DNA-dependent protein kinase," by Steve Jackson, Wellcome CRC Institute, Cambridge, England, 4 p.m. Friday, Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce St. 215-898-3812.

Bioscience and biotechnology. Seminar, "Stress proteins," by Arthur Miller, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Eastern Regional Research Center, Wyndmoor, 3:30 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Room 108, Disque Hall, Drexel University, 32d and Market Sts. 215-895-2624.

Compiled by Cece lentini Here are some of the many free programs offered this week by area institutions: Risk for disease. Seminar on how to evaluate your risk for developing heart disease, cancer or diabetes, based on genetic and cultural factors, 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow, Zubrow Auditorium, Pennsylvania Hospital, Preston Building, 8th and Spruce Sts. Register: 215-829-6800. Arthritis.

Exercises that can benefit arthritis sufferers, 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Chestnut Hill Rehabilitation Hospital chapel, 8601 Sten-ton Wyndmoor. 21S-233-6309. How to use adaptive equipment that will make daily tasks easier, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Cheltenham Friends Meetinghouse, campus of Jeanes Hospital, 7600 Central Ave.

216-728-4818. Cancer. Understanding and coping with fatigue, 12:45 to 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, and intimacy and sexual functioning after a cancer diagnosis, 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, Wellness Community, 4610 City Ave.

215-879-7733. Geriatric health. Program on positive aging, 10 a.m. tomorrow, Tall Timbers Club House, West Chester Little Egg Harbor. Register: 609-978-8999.

Breast health. Program on breast health and how to do a self breast exam, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. tomorrow, Memorial Hospital, 175 Madison Mount Holly. 609-265-7610. Eating disorders.

First of three weekly programs for families and friends concerned about sufferers of anorexia, bulimia and compulsive overeating meets 6 to 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Carrier Foundation, Route 601, Belle Mead. Register: 908-281-1345. Storm Names Here is the official list for 1996 of the names to be assigned to Atlantic tropical storms, which can grow into hurricanes. Omar Paloma Rene Sally Teddy Vicky Wildred Hortense Isidore Josephine Kyle Lili Marco Nana Arthur Bertha Cesar Dolly Edouard Fran Gustav To have your event listed, please mall Information to Cece Lentini, The Inquirer, 53 Haddonfield Rd Suite 300, Cherry Hill, N.J.

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