News Bytes

300 million
Statisticians have calculated that every eight seconds a baby is born in the US - every 12 seconds one American dies and every 31 seconds a new immigrant enters the US. Based on all this, the American population increases by one citizen every 14 seconds. Projected on the current population of the US, this means that in October this year one baby in the US will make history and become the 300 millionth US citizen.

Bio refinery versus crude oil
The US are planning to become more independent of crude oil and the exporting countries by building more bio refineries. The starting signal was the bio diesel extracted from rapeseed. But now the US have decided to set the goal of replacing a quarter of basic components and ten percent of fuel and oils with biotechnology. The US have already announced 30 chemicals for products based on biotechnology that will be in high demand in 2004. Now they are looking for appropriate plants that contain a high portion of cellulose and sugar to extract basic chemicals like cellulose and glucose from them. This can be done with the help of chemical processes or micro organisms.

Breathe-in insulin
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has allowed inhalable insulin in the US for the first time. The medication "Exubera," developed by Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis and Nektar Therapeutics had already been approved in Europe.
Pfizer had recently acquired the license for the medication for $1.3 billion. It is expected that Exubera will turn over more than $1 billion until 2008 and $2 billion a year after that. The medication for diabetes is available in powder form and can be inhaled with the help of a small device. The device has the size of a glasses case - it is planned to introduce the medication by the middle of this year.

High tech police
The plan is to equip Los Angeles cop cars with a sort of compressed-air projectile. With the help of a targeting system, this will launch a GPS system that will stick to the fleeing car.
The new weapon was presented Thursday by LAPD Chief William Bratton. It was developed to pursue suspects without endangering pedestrians. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), however, is not happy about this new technology for chasing suspects. They are demanding that the weapon may only be used with a court order.

German climbs Empire State Building
Thomas Dold from Stuttgart has won the 29th Empire State Building Run Up. The 21-year old climbed the 1,576 (!) stairs in ten minutes and 19 seconds, significantly faster than the Austrian Rudolf Reitberger who came in second. The two of them had already finished neck-to-neck last year, the photo finish determined the Austrian as the winner. Roughly 170 runners participated in the race in New York's highest building. The stair run is being organized by the New York Road Runners, who also organize the New York Marathon.

Groundhog Day
Every year, a large number of people meets on a hill in the town with the strange name of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to ask groundhog Phil about the weather for the next six weeks. Most of you will probably know this ritual form the movie "Groundhog Day," (which, by the way, is shown in the city every year on midnight, Groundhog Day).

This ritual has been an annual tradition since February 2, 1886. The ceremony is a major event in the town - unfortunately, Phil's prognosis for this year wasn't very good. Since the groundhog could not see its own shadow, the people in Philadelphia will have to prepare themselves for bad weather for a few more weeks to come.