On June 19, 1995, Chinese authorities arrested American citizen Harry Wu on charges of spying, an act punishable by death. Wu, a Chinese-born human rights activist, had entered China to investigate human rights abuses in the communist nat...

People have always looked at the stars and wondered if life existed on other planets. Several ancient cultures tell stories in which beings from the stars visit the earth. Not until the mid-twentieth century, however, did the phenomena of a...

Writing Research Papers, a guide for students working with Opposing Viewpoints books, is designed to help college students develop their own thinking and to write and report what they have learned to others. Written to help students think c...

Acne is a common skin disease characterized by pimples on the face, chest, and back. It occurs when the pores of the skin become clogged with oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria. The medical term for acne is acne vulgaris. It is the most ...

In our lives, we constantly seek to know more than we ever can, often times subconsciously. In trying to seek this knowledge, we frequently and inadvertently hurt people around us, or even ourselves. Even more consequential can be the act...

(2002 est. pop. 7.1 million). Aichi Prefecture is situated in the central region of Japan's largest island, Honshu. A leading industrial area, it occupies an area of 5,139 square kilometers. Its primary geographical features are the...

This section contains articles on some aspects of chronic drinking: Abstinence versus Controlled Drinking and Origin of the Term. For further information on this subject, see Disease Concept of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse and the sections on...

Physical violence of all types, from slaps to murder, probably occurs more frequently in the family than in any other setting or group except the armed services or police in time of war or riot. This article summarizes the prevalence rates...

The New Breed...

“As social groups, cliques introduce young people to negative aspects of society, such as conflict and prejudice.” —Debra J. Jordan “Cliques are not an entirely negative aspect of the high school social structure...

EVERYONE FEELS DEPRESSED at times. Illness, the loss of a family member, the breakup of a relationship— these misfortunes and many more are natural causes of sadness and mourning. It is normal to feel depressed about a loss or failure...

PARANORMAL PHENOMENA ARE creatures or occurrences that cannot be explained scientifically. Sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), reports of alien abductions, mental telepathy, ghosts, and miracles all fall into this category. So...

What is Anthrax and how is it transmitted? Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming "bacterium bacillus." Anthrax most commonly occurs in wild and domestic vertebrates (cattle, sheep, goats, camels, antelopes, an...

In 1993 Abdul Momen, director of the human rights organization Women and Children International, traveled to Tungipara, Bangladesh, where more than one thousand children had been reported missing. The children’s mothers told Momen that the ...

Avalanches are rapid downhill movements of snow, ice and/or rock. They occur like landslide movements when the weight of the material can overcome the friction. Debris starts to descend at considerable speeds under the force of gravity. Av...

Bilingual Education in the United States Aside from Native Americans, there are no indigenous "Americans" to speak of in the United States. The U.S. is therefore a large immigrant nation whose history has grown out of its ability to bring...

Viewpoint: Yes, biological weapons are a genie already out of the bottle and awaiting a master. Research and development on biological weapons should be resumed. Viewpoint: No, resumption of research on and development of biological weapon...

With the human genome already decoded, science is at the height of its ingenuity. Everyday, millions of scientists worldwide are working to find cure for varies illnesses and diseases. Some have changed the course of human evolution throug...

Witches have had a negative image for hundreds of years. Raymond Buckland, a witch himself, describes the popular conception of a witch as an old weather—beaten crone, having her chin and knees meeting for age, walking like a bow, l...

There were various responses to the outbreaks of plague from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The most popular of these responses were fear, superstition, and exploitation. Due to the fact that the Europeans at the time did not ...

Cancer Cancer is a horrible disease to which no cure has been found and it continues to consume the lives of millions. Cancer comes from genetic changes in the cell cycle such as a mutation of a somatic cell. Cancer can also be caused f...

In 1984, the first year of his assignment to the Boston diocese, Cardinal Bernard Law approved the transfer of Father John J. Geoghan to St. Julia’s parish in Weston, Massachusetts, despite substantial evidence that Geoghan had sexually abu...

The National Security Act of 1947 created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), America's first peacetime, civilian intelligence organization. The director of central intelligence (DCI) heads the CIA, is the president's chie...

A state, produced by repeated or prolonged drug exposure, in which the presence of drug in the body is required to maintain normal physiological function. This state is recognizable only by the occurrence of a withdrawal reaction when the ...

Chemotherapy is the treatment of a disease or condition with chemicals that have a specific effect on its cause, such as a microorganism or cancer cell. The first modern therapeutic chemical was derived from a synthetic dye. The sulfonamid...