NEWS OF THE WEEK IN BRIEF LLLSIIWSKL
HOMELAND
SECURITY
COST OF WAR TO FIGHT TERRORISM President Bush asks for another $4 billion to defend homeland
This picture of a multicolored "stellar bull's eye," now three lightyears across and growing, was taken in early 2002 by the Hubble Space Telescope and released last week by NASA. The star suddenly and inexplicably flashed to 600,000 times its previous brightness. For a brief time, it was the brightest star in the Milky Way.
P
RESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
last week put a price tag on the war against Iraq when he asked Congress for a fiscal 2003 spending supplement of $74.7 billion. This additional funding would cover the cost of waging war over the next six months and is one of the largest emergency spending requests ever made. Still, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-WVa.) warns: "There's more to come." The bulk of the request, nearly $63 billion, is pegged for additional Pentagon spending. But the request also includes $5 billion of additional foreign aid, more than $2 billion for postwar reconstruction in Iraq, and over $4 billion for homeland defense. Most of the homeland security money— $3.5 billion—would be funneled to the Department of Homeland Secu-
FIRSTRESPONDERS About half of the requested funds for DHS would support training and activities for emergency personnel.
rity (DHS), but $500 million would support the FBI's domestic security operations.
First responders—police, fire, and emergency personnel— would receive $2 billion of DHS's additional funds, which would be awarded to states in the form of grants. States would then channel 80% ofthis grant money to cities and counties. This $2 billion is on top of the $3.5 billion forfirstresponders provided in the fiscal 2003 omnibus spending bill signed into law on Feb. 20. Of thefirst-responderfunds, $1.5 billion would be used for training, equipment, and planning. Another $450 million would pay for the costs associated with increased security at critical infrastructures such as chemical plants. An additional $50 million would be used to protect major cities such as New %rk City and Washington, D.C. The remainder of DHS's additional funding, $1.5 billion, would underwrite the department's efforts to secure the nation's borders and ports. DHS Secretaryibm Ridge has said the President's emergency request of $3.5 billion for homeland defense is sufficient. Congressional Democrats disagree and are expected to try to increase the figure by $10 billion.-L0IS EMBER
BIOCHEMISTRY
Odor Receptors May Attract Sperm To Eggs
L
ife is a mystery, and not just in a metaphysical sense: There are still gaps in understanding what guides a sperm cell to an egg. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum, in Germany, and the University of California, Los Angeles, have uncovered evidence that the attraction may depend on the binding of a compound released in the female reproductive system to an odor receptor on the sperm [Science, 299,2054 (2003)]. Sperm cells express several odor receptors. Hanns Hatt and Marc Spehr, both of Ruhr's cell physiology department, and their colleagues have now discovered a new one. By expressing it in cells in a functional form, they have been able to test whether odor
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receptors are involved in sperm chemotaxis, says Donner F. Babcock in a commentary in Science. "Their results indicate that sperm might be selected on the basis of their ability to smell' the egg," says Babcock, who is in the University of Washington's physiology and biophysics department. Among the best activating ligands for the receptor is bourgeonal, which proves to be "both a potent chemoattractant and an effective swimming stimulant to navigating sperm cells," the researchers say. On the other hand, undecanal "strongly inhibits bourgeonal effects." The scientists conclude that manipulation of the sperm signaling system could have "important consequences for contraception and procreation."—SOPHIE WILKINSON
HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
