Eye Soar

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BITS & PIECES

THE FRIENDLY SKIES AREN'T ALL that friendly if you're a bird in the path of a jet airliner. In 1987, Japan Air Lines alone reported some 360 bird strikes, 118 of which involved ingestion by jet engines. Such incidents cause thousands of dollars in damage to engines annually and also present a significant safety hazard. In an experiment to find a way to reduce its fleet's bird strikes, JAL has painted a multicolored "hawk eye" on the engine inlet cones of two 747s used for Japanese domestic service. When a cone is spinning, it resembles the eyeball of a huge, predatory bird—an apparition that JAL officials hope will scare real birds out of harm's way.

Rural Water Booklet

You're ready to buy that beautiful acreage in the country—but wait: What about water? If there's an existing well or spring, how do you determine the quality and quantity of water it delivers? Might your water supply be affected by a drought, a flood, a nearby chemical dump or previous applications of fertilizers and pesticides? These and other problems frequently faced by folks far from municipal water supplies are discussed in Ground Water and the Rural Homeowner, an informative 37-page booklet available free of charge from the U.S. Geological Survey, Books and Open-File Reports Section, Box 25425, Denver, CO 80225.

Sweet Solution

If you've ever pressed your own apples or purchased fresh-from-the-press juice, you know that the tasty liquid quickly turns brown, just as an apple turns dark after the fruit has been cut or bruised. The culprit, an enzyme known as polyphenol oxidase, also destroys the vitamin C in apple juice within a matter of days and gives the drink a less-than-fresh flavor. Commercial juice producers add a pectin enzyme to inhibit clouding and add sulfites to prevent browning and flavor change. Sulfites, however, can cause serious (sometimes fatal) allergic reactions in some people, so scientists have been looking for a safer substitute. Cornell University scientists have identified a particularly toothsome alternative: honey. Mixing just 2% honey by weight with browned apple juice and letting the liquid sit at room temperature for 90 minutes clears the drink and prolongs the shelf life of the juice just as effectively as sulfites.

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