Rain Forest Exhibit on Display in S.D.

San Diegans can enjoy an exhibit that has been hailed for its impact, as the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park features “Tropical Rainforests: A Disappearing Treasure.” The exhibit is on display through Sept. 23.

Built by the Smithsonian Institution, the 6,000-square-foot exhibit gives visitors a firsthand look at the promise and problems of the world’s tropical rain forests. It guides visitors through three major themes: ecology, people and destruction of the rain forest.

Tropical forests once grew on nearly 4-billion acres, an area nearly twice the size of the United States. Today, less than 60% of the original forested land remains, and most of the destruction has taken place in the last 30 years. Every minute, about 54 acres of tropical forest are destroyed.

Features of the exhibit include a life-size section of a buttressed fig tree, scientific specimens, dioramas, maps and photo murals. At the end, visitors can play a video disc computer game that allows them to make “decisions” regarding tropical forests--and see what the long- and short-term impacts would be.

The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 232-3921.

GLOBAL CHANGE

Carbon dioxide is the gas that environmentalists and scientists worry about most when wondering whether humans are heating up their planet with potentially catastrophic results. Next week, a West German scientist will speak twice at UC San Diego, sharing his knowledge of how industry can better deal with the carbon dioxide it produces.

Reiner Kummel, of the Physikalisches Institut der Universitat Wurzburg, will talk about the removal and disposal of carbon dioxide at 3 p.m. Monday, July 9, in Room 2102 of Urey Hall.

Kummel will speak at 3 p.m. Wednesday, July 11, on “Carbon Dioxide Optimization in Industrial Systems,” focusing on energy use and costs. The talk will take place in Room 2102 of Urey Hall. For more information, call 534-4285.

AIDS

Dr. Ronald C. Desrosiers of Harvard Medical School will speak about the molecular mechanisms that determine the debilitating course the AIDS virus takes in the body, at a seminar Friday, July 13, at the Salk Institute.

Desrosiers will speak at 11 a.m. in the small seminar room of the south building at Salk.

RESEARCH STUDIES

A major nationwide health experiment is attempting, for the first time, to determine the estrogen dosages most effective at cutting a menopausal woman’s chances of getting cardiovascular diseases. San Diego women can participate in the study through the UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Clinical Research Center in La Jolla.

Women must between age 45 and 64 and have attained menopause within the last 10 years. Participants have to be willing to take any of four hormone regimens, and to visit the center 14 times over the next three years. Participants will receive free medical tests and exams, including mammograms, Pap smears and blood tests.

For more information, call the center at 534-7150.

Studies of depression medication also are being conducted in San Diego. Persons interested in participating in the tests, which provide free medicine and associated medical care, can call Feighner Research Institute, 464-4300, or Dr. Murray Rosenthal, 571-1188.

Another depression study needs control subjects--”normal” men who are in good health and with no history of depression, whose medical data will be compared to that of depressed men. Controls are paid for their services, and receive a physical exam also.

Men 30 to 65 years old and interested in participating can call Carolyn or Laura at the La Jolla VA Medical Center, 552-8585, extension 3219.

Scripps Clinic is recruiting volunteers with congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy or angina for a study program. Physical exams, tests and study medications will be provided free. For more information, call Susan Mellon at 554-0018.