2. Gulf War Syndrome

3. Chemical weapons in history

4. The nerve of this gas

5. Agent Orange revisited

6. Dioxin on trial

7. Most poisonous substance?

Update: Gulf War Syndrome

GLOSSARY
Bioaccumulate:The tendency of a chemical to become more concentrated as it passes through the food web, from plants to herbivores and carnivores.

Case-control study:A study that compares "cases" (people who have the disease in question) to "controls" (people who do not have the disease but are similar to the cases in terms of education, gender, weight, etc). The goal is to identify differences between cases and controls that point to the disease.

Chloracne: An acne caused by exposure to chlorinated organic compounds.

Dioxin: A member of a family of highly toxic chlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons.

Epidermal: Pertaining to the upper layer of cells, on the skin, or elsewhere.

Food web: The relationship of who eats whom in an ecosystem (formerly "food chain").

Hormone: A chemical secreted by a gland that signals tissues elsewhere in the body.

Neurotransmitter: A chemical that carries a nerve signal across the synapse (the gap between two nerve cells).

Organophosphate: An organic chemical containing phosphorus, commonly used in insecticides and nerve warfare agents.

Peer review: The process scientific journals use to check the accuracy of research reports: experts, or "peers," read the manuscript before publication.

Picograms/kilogram/day: A dosage measurement, in trillionths of a gram per kilogram of body weight per day.

Smithereens: Tiny bits (an indivisible particle of Mr. Smith).

Spina bifida: A developmental disorder in which the spine fails to fuse properly during fetal development.

Receptor: A molecule on the surface of a cell with a specific shape that allows only certain molecules to link up and signal the cell to do something.

Somatic: Related to the body.

TCD: 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin.

TEQ:Toxic Equivalent, used to sum up the toxic effect of exposure to several dioxins at once.

Thymus: A gland in the neck that's essential to normal development of vertebrates.