Testing prospective anticancer drugs against human tumors using simple in vivo models.

The activities of established and experimental antitumor drugs were tested against the BRO and MeWo human melanomas transplanted in the subrenal capsule of phenotypically immunocompetent (CBA x C57BL/6)F1 mice. Immunosuppression was achieved with preliminary whole-body radiation, and cytological examination showed that the tumors of untreated mice consisted largely of viable tumor cells. Several drugs tested showed moderate activity against one or both tumors.

Determination of Venus Winds by Ground-Based Radio Tracking of the VEGA Balloons.

A global array of 20 radio observatories was used to measure the three-dimensional position and velocity of the two meteorological balloons that were injected into the equatorial region of the Venus atmosphere near Venus midnight by the VEGA spacecraft on 11 and 15 June 1985. Initial analysis of only radial velocities indicates that each balloon was blown westward about 11,500 kilometers (8,000 kilometers on the night side) by zonal winds with a mean speed of about 70 meters per second. Excursions of the data from a model of constant zonal velocity were generally less than 3 meters per second; however, a much larger variation was evident near the end of the flight of the second balloon.