European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 21, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Science shorts health amp s c i e nce William Lacourse takes a Hammer to a pane of Glass that has been toughened with chemicals and sound Waves. Crank up the sound to make super Glass by Ben Dobbin the associated press b Egin with a Madonna album or better yet a. Shrill Horn. Jack up the frequency. Then aim the sound Waves at a pane of Glass immersed in molten chemicals. A a apply too much Energy and the Glass can shatter. But the right amount of sound has a. Magical effect it makes the Glass much stronger. Up to five times As much. After four years in the lab starting with a stereo system belting out. Madonna Luciano Pavarotti and everything in Between a scientist in Western new York has come up with a Radical technique for making super a Tough Glass. A. Imagine the uses. Glass bottles almost As Light As plastic ones. Windows halt As thick and less ,.virtually soundproof cars with windshields three times tougher than safety Glass. Eyeglasses Wilh extra thin a but not extra expensive a lenses. Quot the use that we envisioned when we started this was for windows on condominiums built next  a Golf course Quot said William Lacourse professor of Glass science at Alfred University in Alfred a Quot ceramics corridor Quot town 70 Miles South of Rochester. Quot if our Glass is not bulletproof then it s certainly Golf  Glass a rigid network of oxides such As Silicon dioxide contains Mobile atoms of sodium. When placed in a a chemical liquid containing potassium nitrate and heated to 850 degrees. Fahrenheit the larger  atoms drive out the sodium. The extra space taken up by the potassium forces any cracks in the surface of the Glass to close. Quot the result is a much stronger product Quot Lacourse said Quot All Glass is weak because of cracks. If there wore no cracks Glass would be stronger  Glass fiber used in fiber optics is one such example he said. Corning the ceramics giant developed chemical strengthening in 1962, but its applications Are specialized and costly. Adding sound Waves rapidly speeds up the process if i he result is a much stronger product. Ail Glass is weak because of cracks. If there were no cracks Glass would be stronger than steel a Wilna Lacourse Alfred University professor  potential of making it much cheaper Lacourse sad. Quot if you Don t have the sound Energy available to you Glass strengthening could take 10 to 20 hours and up to 300 hours to make something special like a fighter plane Windshield Quot he said. Quot we will use More Energy for a Shorter period but the Overall Energy costs will decrease. If we  right  process Des in that wit allow mass production we May he Able to Cut the Factor of tune by three or four certainly by 50 percent. Any time you can increase productivity by 50 percent that s going to tiring then to  Quot the process is exciting and it s very significant Quot commented John Mackenzie a professor of material science at the University of California los Angeles. Quot the question is \ Tow Low is the Cost going to he a Quot you have to look at the Competition a from paper from plastic from metals. Ion Exchange has been possible All these years it s just that it s Loo expensive. Maybe the costs will go Down sufficiently to extend the  d chemical strengthening already has. Market niches cockpit windows eyeglass lenses platen Glass in some. Photocopiers. The windows in the. Apollo lunar module were treated this Way too. A Lacourse is working with companies on designing Vider commercial uses for his Sounth wave technology but in declined to give retails. Quot we re Down to the engineering a he said. A the research started Low tech in 1990 at Alfred University one of the world s leading centers hit Glass n search. A one of Lacourse x research students Hsin Wang bought a radio Sica k stereo glued .1 Holder to the vibrating part of the speaker and hooked it up to a Glass Sample. It became  electrical signals from music vibrating  speakers were making atoms in hit,1 Glass oscillate. And Altos were More.effective1 than tenors. At that Point if was Lime to adjust tins graphic equalizer using an ultrasonic Horn. Quot we be gone up to frequent is that cannot ice heard Quot lao june my 1. Quot an average stereo  a it m use -10 ,. We re up of 1 Watts certain trerp.jcncie-, Ter e rr11 be t a an diet t than ugh is. We cud or of   j it  drug research scientists say a diet drug that More than 5 million people have taken May produce lasting damage in parts of the brain that regulate. Mood and appetite. A Quot investigators led by George Ricaurte of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore say the drug  which i widely used in Europe causes extensive damage to nerves in the brains of Laboratory monkeys. The food and drug administration is evaluating the drug for licensing in the United states. A sister drug called Fen Laramine which contains  is Fra approved and sold under the Trade name Pon Dimin. Industry representatives say More than 20 million people have used Fen Laramine by prescription since it has been on the Market. A there is a definite cause for concern that humans treated with  May be at risk of brain injury a says Ricaurte he says researchers Are unsure what dose in humans would be enough to produce the damage seen in lab animals but notes the drug stays in human tissue seven times longer than it does in  for herpes an experimental vaccine is providing partial Relief for genital herpes a life Long viral illness that causes painful  25 million americans. A the vaccine is less effective than to had hoped but it proves a therapeutic vaccine is. Possible a said or. Stephen Straus who helped develop the vaccine at the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases in Bethesda my. The vaccine s primary ingredient is a protein a of the herpes simplex virus that causes most cases of genital herpes. Those who received two doses of the protein reported 33 percent fewer herpes outbreaks than those Given fake treatments. Studies to develop a More effective vaccine Are underway Straus  and fingerprints Palm readers up on the latest in science May soon be Able to Tell their clients whether they Are left or right handed. Stanley Cortri a University of British Columbia psychologist who has been studying handedness for 25 years recently published research showing that there is a significant difference in the fingerprint patterns of left. A handers and right handers. Corn said a study of 2,169 people revealed that the left hands of left handers on average have much simpler fingerprint patterns than those of right handers. Specifically lefties have More Arches More ulnar loops and fewer whorls than eighties. The pattern is most marked to the ring fingers a from wire reports recording fingerprints in Germany. Tuesday june 21, 1994 the stars and stripes