Fertilizer from smog? It’s a possibility ....
By Joan Vincent
Staff Writer
Dr. Sidney Benson, a university professor of physical chemistry has discovered a relatively simple way to turn nitric oxide (one of the ingredients of smog) into fertilizer.
The largest producers of nitric oxides are power plants, Benson said, and these power plant emissions can be scrubbed clean of the smog components by forcing the emissions through an inexpensive chemical soluhon that is similar to household bleach. In the process, nitric oxides are turned into substances that can then be used as fertilizer.
Benson calculates that 23 pounds of this fertilizer could be made from every ton of coal that is burned to create energy in a power plant.
The bleach-like solution can also be made from salt water. Benson points out that 80 percent of a 11 American power plants are within 20 miles of an ocean, making salt £ater easily accessible.
Benson believes that though smog may be an unwholesome factor in the Southern California environment, in this say it could also be useful to agriculture as a fertilizer.
He first began this research years ago for the Dow Chemical Company According to Benson, the scrubbing method is the technology of the future because before long the problem is only going to get worse if it is not dealt with now. ___
Dr. Sidney Benson
Where will Skylab fall? - The space laboratory is as good a	jt hit the courtyard of the
scheduled to fall sometime between today and Social Science building as anywhere else. Thursday, but just where nobody knows. There is just
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Volume LXXVII, Number 8 University of Southern California Tuesday, July 10, 1979
The scoop on Skylab — who, what, where, why
By Linda Arakaki	with speeds possibly up to 260
Staff Writer	miles an hour.
The sky is pierced with a bright flash of light that appears to be winking at the world below. But don't attempt to make a wish on this falling star, if the day happens to be the 11th or 12th. There's a good chance that this "star" may be the first sign of Skylab's reentry.
As the 77.5-ton Skylab begins its fiery descent back into the earth's atmosphere, it should begin to glow at an altitude of 100 miles. The moment the world has been anxiously waiting for will occur at 69 miles above the earth, when Skylab is expected to break apart.
As Skylab disintegrates, most of the pieces that break into small fragments will burn up in the atmosphere. But, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration estimates that 500 pieces capable of causing injury are expected to survive the plunge. The first of these pieces is expected to strike the earth only 20 minutes after Skylab's plunge begins.
The debris (weighing anywhere from just a pound to 2* tons) is expected to continue falling for 40 minutes, over an area 4,000 miles long and 100 miles wide.
"The impact from the largest piece of Skylab would be like dumping a good-sized office safe from an airplane," said Dick Smith, NASA deputy associate administrator for space transportation. It is expected to reenter the earth's atmosphere between 2:21 a.m. and 8:21 p.m. on Wednesday. Yesterday the space station was 115 miles from the earth's surface taking about 88 minutes for each orbit.
The station is in 24-hour constant contact with four tracking stations in Madrid, Bermuda, Ascension Island and Goldstone, California.
The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) is calculating the position of Skylab as well as tracking it from an underground base in the Colorado mountains.
No one will know until the final minutes when and where the space station will break apart. NORAD will make its final forecast on the time the station is to fall just two hours before the plunge.
Robert Smith, deputy associate director of NASA, said that at even two hours before impact the (continued cm page 8)
Algerian student shot to death in robbery attempt
By Alan Friedenthal
Staff Writer
A 23-year-old Algerian student was fatally shot Friday night in a robbery attempt by two men currently being sought by the Los Angeles Police Department.
Ali Badja and his roommate, (whose name is being withheld by police), were returning to their West 29th Street apartment from the California Pizza and Pasta Company when they were accosted by the two suspects.
Police officials believe that when Badja raised his hand to exclaim that he had no money one of the suspects fired a bullet into his head, killing him instantly.
While no ballistics test has yet been performed, detectives believe that the weapon was a .22 caliber hand gun or a weapon of similar small caliber.
Badja was found with $6 in his pocket.
Badja, a junior majoring in systems and safety management, had recently transferred to the university from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
He was studying at the university on an Algerian government-sponsored scholarship.
Algerian embassy officials are currently making arrangements for the return of Badja's body to Algeria.
Persons having any information on the suspects, who are believed to be Latins, around 5 feet
6	inches tall are urged to contact Sgt. Otis Marlow' or Sgt. Mike Hefferen of the robbery and homicide division of the LAPD. The number is (213) 485-6570. All calls will be treated in strictest confidentiality, police said.
Prof claims disco music could cause deafness in young people
Ear-splitting sounds from the disco fever era may be playing an expensive tune that will mean millions of future tax dollars.
Asserting that the intensity of disco music often rivals the noise of a jet, Victor Garwood, a professor of speech communication and otolaryngology, calls it a "vast plot against the ear."
To combat the ill effects of disco music, Garwood would like to see comprehensive, nationwide hearing tests for junior and senior high school students.
The tests identify young people who need hearing aids to offset hearing impairments.
Garwood believes that the instant gratification now experienced by disco fans will mean widespread demand for audio therapy in the future.
Hearing aids can cost as much as $500 apiece.
In many cases, the taxpayer
will have to foot the bill for social security, unemployment and welfare benefits to former disco dancers whose hearing has become so imparied, he said.
Their chances for employment will also have been harmed, he said.
When the hearing impairments caused by disco noise in closed auditoriums and discotheques are coupled with the normal decline in hearing abilities caused by old age, the taxpayer will suffer, Garwood said.
Garwood, himself a victim of hearing defects caused by a childhood fondness of firecrackers and his exposure to industrial noises during World War II, contends that he has already seen evidence of hearing loss among disco devotees.
Of all the junior and senior high school principals in southern California, only three have'
inquired at the university's speech and hearing center about noise pollution before allowing disco performances in their auditoriums and 6ymnasiums, Garwood said.
While acknowledging that some principals may be unaware of the damaging effects of disco, it is "irresponsible" to allow the loud music in high schools, he said.
Eventually, when parents become aware of their children's hearing losses, civil lawsuits will result, he predicted.
As many as 60 million Americans may now have some form of hearing deficiency. That figure may increase as much as 80% by the year 2000, partly because of the musical tastes of today, Garwood said.
In a personal campaign to make government leaders more aware of the nation's most pre-
(continued on page 7)