Extended high circular polarization in the Orion massive star forming region: implications for the origin of homochirality in the solar system.

We present a wide-field (approximately 6' x 6') and deep near-infrared (K(s) band: 2.14 mum) circular polarization image in the Orion nebula, where massive stars and many low-mass stars are forming. Our results reveal that a high circular polarization region is spatially extended (approximately 0.

Project to develop family medicine in rural India.

The need to develop Family Medicine in the Mayurbhanj region of India is urgent and extreme. Among the poorest areas of India, the Mayurbhanj, has an under-5 mortality twice that of the rest of India. Family physicians in the region are severely restricted by the absence of a basic infrastructure for family medicine.

Chemistry of the organic-rich hot core G327.3-0.6.

We present gas-phase abundances of species found in the organic-rich hot core G327.3-0.6.

Processing of icy mantles in protostellar envelopes.

We have obtained CO absorption profiles of several young stellar objects (YSOs), spanning a range of mass and luminosity, in order to investigate their ice mantle composition. We present the first detection of CO toward the class I YSO L1489 IRS in the Taurus dark cloud. In general, the CO profiles for YSOs show evidence for both processed and pristine ices in the same line of sight, strong indirect evidence for CO, is suggested in R CrA IRS 7, L1489 IRS, Elias 18, and GL 961E.

Interstellar ices as a source of CN-bearing molecules in protoplanetary disks.

A reliable model for the composition and evolution of interstellar ices in regions of active star formation is fundamental to our quest to determine the organic inventory of planetesimals in the early Solar System. This has become a realistic goal since the launch of the Infrared Space Observatory, which provides a facility for infrared spectroscopy unhindered by telluric absorption over the entire spectral range of vibrational modes in solids of exobiological interest. Interstellar molecules detected in the solid phase to date include H2O, NH3, CO, CO2, CH3OH, CH4, H2CO, OCS and HCOOH, together with a C identical to N-bonded absorber generically termed 'XCN'.

Ultraviolet radiation from F and K stars and implications for planetary habitability.

Now that extrasolar planets have been found, it is timely to ask whether some of them might be suitable for life. Climatic constraints on planetary habitability indicate that a reasonably wide habitable zone exists around main sequence stars with spectral types in the early-F to mid-K range. However, it has not been demonstrated that planets orbiting such stars would be habitable when biologically-damaging energetic radiation is also considered.

Is extraterrestrial organic matter relevant to the origin of life on Earth?

I review the relative importance of internal and external sources of prebiotic molecules on Earth at the time of life's origin approximately 3.7 Gyr ago. The efficiency of synthesis in the Earth's atmosphere was critically dependent on its oxidation state.

Interstellar ices studied with the Infrared Space Observatory.

The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was launched by the European Space Agency on 17 November 1995. The availability of spectra from the Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) on ISO is a landmark in the study of interstellar ices and organics; they provide a wealth of data in the 2-20 microns region of the spectrum covering the principal solid state resonances of condensed matter in interstellar clouds. We thus have the opportunity to study many species likely to be relevant to the inventory of CNO-bearing interstellar material present at the formation of our own and other planetary systems.

Contribution of alcohol to deaths in road traffic accidents in Tayside 1982-6.

In Britain the precise number and relative proportions of deaths among drivers, passengers, and pedestrians in road traffic accidents related to alcohol are not known. These data were obtained in Tayside by cross matching police accident records with blood alcohol concentrations at necropsy. Of 71 alcohol-related deaths 30 were the drivers (or motorcyclists) themselves, nine were their passengers, 23 were pedestrians with raised blood alcohol concentrations, and nine were innocent victims.