EICOS 2005
Journalism meets science: Join a lab and experience science as it happens!
EICOS, the ?European Initiative for Communicators of Science?, again invites journalists from European countries into its ?Hands-on Laboratory? and to the ?Extended Assignments?.

12:34 24.01.05

PROFESSOR EVGENY ZHIBURT, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER OF BLOOD: “THE MORE MONEY WE PAY FOR THE DONOR BLOOD, THE FEWER DONORS WE GET”

• by Tatyana Bateneva

The original draft of a controversial social reform bill that aims to end an array of Soviet-era benefits could have destroyed the national donor blood service. The draft called for cancellation of all the entitlements permitted under the law to the voluntary blood donors including the title of “Honorary Donor” established by a decree of the Soviet government exactly 50 years during WWII. Not only the donors objected to the bill, the doctors also gave voice to their discontent. The doctors do know that the donor blood service is the cornerstone of a public health system

17:46 26.08.04

TOP-SECRET PHYSICIST HAS FINALLY EARNED HIS DOCTORATE

• Valentina Gatash

The founder of a new scientific trend had had the degree of a candidate of sciences until recently. He just hated “spending my time on writing a dissertation and getting the paperwork ready”. His new conceptual design of a thermonuclear reactor “Elemag” was available on paper only. Lately he has defended his dissertation that took him just a month to complete

11:25 23.08.04

THE RUSSIAN MANTRA
Obscene language is like a mantra for the Russians. They feel easier after swearing
• by Georgi Ilychev and Ilona Vinogradova

Two-thirds of the Russians admit using unprintable words at times. They say that their friends do it too. However, the above people strongly object to foul language if it’s used in public by politicians, actors, athletes or journalists. This twist of the national mentality seems to explain why half of the people who heard of the “foul language scandal” involving Filip Kirkorov have changed their attitude to him for the worse

11:35 19.08.04

SMALL FOLK’S BIG PASSIONS
Modern kids play deadly games
• by Anna Amelkina

Modern kids are fed up with playing games inspired by Satanism or Rambo. Even the Spiderman doesn’t grab them any more. These days they play a different kind of games featuring death. Why does it happen? An Izvestia columnist Anna Amelkina speaks with Olga Makhovskaya, a psychologist with the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, about the current juvenile game trends

16:36 17.08.04    (комментариев: 9)

MIKHAIL DAVYDOV: ?NOWADAYS ?CANCER? IS NO LONGER A TERMINAL DIAGNOSIS?

• by Sergei Leskov

Russian Center of Cancer Studies named after Blokhin, the largest institution in Europe and the second largest one in the world, has been visited by an American delegation headed by Tommy Thompson, U.S. Health Secretary, and Andrew Von Aschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute. A foreign delegation of such high level paid a visit to a Russian research center for the first time in history of our medical science. And the request for a visit originally came from the Americans

12:28 12.08.04

THE GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO CUT SPENDING ON THE TREATMENT OF HIV-POSITIVE PATIENTS

• by Natalya Konygina

There’re 38 million HIV-positive people in the world. 5 million of them contracted the virus last year, that’s more than in the last few years. The number of HIV-positive in Russia is 860 thousand people. The majority of them are under 30. The number of HIV-positive women has risen

10:36 13.07.04

BOYS HAVE MORE SEX AND GIRLS ARE LESS HEALTHY

• By Tatyana Bateneva

We normally judge of children’s health by official medical and social statistics which largely ignore a child’s opinions and feelings. Yet self-esteem is extremely important for forming a personal conscientious attitude toward one’s heath and maintaining healthy lifestyles

12:01 29.06.04    (комментариев: 1)

THE ENIGMATIC ANDROPOV
15 June 2004 marks the 90th anniversary of Yuri Andropov
• by Fedor Burlatski

Yuri Andropov is undoubtedly one of the most interesting and enigmatic Soviet leaders after Josef Stalin. He isn’t just a historic relic of the past. Above all, he is a precursor of the present time stemming from the reforms kicked off by Mikhail Gorbachev. By his character and methods of work, Vladimir Putin is far more closer to Andropov than to Yeltsin or Gorbachev. Therefore, today it’s extremely tempting to get inside Andopov’s head for analysis and comparison of his plans to things that actually took place during the brief period when he was at the helm

12:20 23.06.04

THE JAPANESE AND THE RUSSIAN GOLD
Chances of tracing the treasures of the Russian Empire look slim
• Vasily Golovnin, ITAR-TASS correspondent in Tokyo, exclusively for Izvestia

A locomotive pulled several railroad cars right to the border between Russia and China. The Japanese military officials laid down strict conditions: the Russians could be given shelter from Reds only if their weapons and government treasures were relinquished. The last part of the requirements referred directly to General Petrov and the goods loaded on the train. The railroad cars contained part of Russia’s gold reserves

13:23 17.06.04    (комментариев: 3)

THE NUMBER OF MISERABLE CHILDREN KEEPS RISING
Russian children?s dire straits
Albert Likhanov, a chairman of the Russian children?s fund, a Russian Academy of Sciences academician and a writer, finds a lot of discrepancies between the figures published in a state report ?On the state of the children in the Russian Federation? issued on the occasion of the International day of children, and the real figures. For example, the number of Russian orphans in the report is three times lower than that quoted by the Russian children?s fund. Though the state report figures appear underestimated, they should cause our deep concern anyway

12:15 11.06.04

“IN COMPARISON WITH TODAY’S SPECIAL FORCES, WE WERE BARELY ARMED”

• Vitaly Bubenin, Lieutenant General, Soviet border troops veteran

Vitaly Bubenin, Lieutenant General, Soviet border troops veteran, recalls most dramatic moments of the border clashes between the Soviets and Chinese on the island of Damanski in 1968

15:31 08.06.04

THE WATER WE DRINK
Telling medicinal drinking water from the common one
• by Alexander Melnikov, candidate of medical sciences

The consumption of bottled water goes up dramatically in the summertime. We know very little of water that we buy at for drinking. Bottled water could be either from a mountain spring or a water tap. Lately there?ve have been two scandals in the U.K. over Dasani, a brand of bottled water produced by Coca-Cola. The product sold at $2.35 per half-a-liter bottle was found to contain treated tap water. Then the tests revealed carcinogens in it. So what?s in the water that we?re drinking?

12:33 03.06.04