Science/Health BRIEFINGS

WORLD'S TINIEST MACHINE: Scientists have made metal gears so smallthat several could fit on the head of a pin. "It's a majorbreakthrough in micromachines," said engineer Henry Guckel of theUniversity of Wisconsin at Madison. "As far as I know we havemanufacturered the smallest metal gear that has ever been made."Scientists say micromachines someday may guide rockets or powerminiature robots. The Japanese envision repairing human cells withmicrorobots. And Guckel says microknives may be used for delicatesurgery. `ARTIFICIAL WOMB': Some couples who can't conceive naturally undergoan expensive procedure called in-vitro fertilization. Eggs from themother are fertilized with the father's sperm and grown in a labdish. After two days, the embryos are returned to the mother inhopes that at least one will survive and grow into a baby. A newprocedure developed at Singapore's National University Hospital couldimprove the success rate, which is as low as 10 percent, the MedicalPost reports. Doctors grew embryos in an "artificial womb"consisting of cells from a human womb. Embryos produced by thismethod "are of much better quality than those obtained in routinein-vitro fertilization laboratories," said Dr. Arif Bongso. RED WINE BEATS WHITE: Drinking red wine in moderation may protectagainst heart disease. But white wine doesn't help, American Healthpublication reports. French researchers found that when 16 healthymen each drank three or four glasses of red wine every day for twoweeks, levels of the "good" HDL cholesterol increased. Drinkingwhite wine increased both the "good" HDL and "bad" LDL cholesterol.Among red wine drinkers, the tendency of blood platelets to clumptogether declined, reducing the chance of clots. Drinking white winehad no such effect. French researchers believe tannins in red winemay produce some or all of the effect. LONG RUNS OK: Studies of casual joggers have found disturbingchanges in knee cartilage and signs of fluid in the joint after only30 minutes of running, suggesting runners' knees could developarthritis and other degenerative joint diseases. But a new studyfound nothing unusual in the knees of seven runners who had justcompleted races ranging in distance from 17 to 50 miles and lastingfrom 3 to 10 hours. "Trained athletes may be able to compensate forthe wear and tear on the knee caused by running and avoid thedegenerative changes seen in untrained runners," said researcherFrank Shellock of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. BLUE LOBSTERS: Lobsters are a mix of green, red and brown. Theyturn bright red when cooked. But about one in every 3 or 4 millionlobsters caught along the Maine coast is blue. University of Maineresearcher Sam Chapman is raising blue lobsters in a study todetermine whether Maine's fishing grounds can be restocked withlobsters raised in hatcheries. No one has been able to prove thatrestocking coastal waters increases the number of lobsters in theocean because hatchery-raised lobsters, released when they're thesize of a thumbnail, are hard to identify after they've grown. Witha blue lobster, "what you have is essentially a colored tag," Chapmansaid. Chapman has released several thousand blue lobsters. BUGS GOBBLE OIL: After the Alaska oil spill, workers usedfertilizers to feed naturally occurring microbes that devour oil.Nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizer, some of it the same stuff usedon lawns, increased the degradation rate by 30 to 50 percent. "Ithad no adverse ecological effects," said Environmental ProtectionAgency biologist James Clark. "We saw no algae blooms, no toxicityto the fish." However, the technique, known as bioremediation,represented only a fraction of the cleanup effort. - Jim Ritter