Stanford Report, Apriil 7, 2004

IN PRINT

HUNDREDS OF MICROSCOPIC organisms found in human mouths may offer clues to the causes of disease elsewhere in the body, according to research jointly led by DAVID RELMAN, an associate professor of medicine and of microbiology. A vast and diverse community of microscopic organisms -- including viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa -- thrive in the mouth, and some of them may play important roles in both preserving health and causing diseases, the Los Angeles Times reported April 5. "We already know so much about so many disease-causing agents that it tends to give you the feeling that there is no reason to be going out and trying to find others," Relman said. But the causes of many diseases remain unknown and the mouth appears to be a good place to look for clues, in part because it's easy to reach. For example, scientists have found more than 500 bacterial strains or microbes in the subgingival crevice, the deep space between the gum and tooth. Some microbes found in the mouth may even contribute to disease in other parts of the body, such as the heart, although those links are still tenuous. Ultimately, Relman and other researchers want to better understand the patterns and prevalence of particular microbes and what these suggest about a person's health.

CONTRARY TO COMMON perception, looser divorce laws have had little effect on the number of marriages that fail, the Chicago Tribune reported April 1. According to a study by JUSTIN WOLFERS, assistant professor of political economy at the Graduate School of Business, when California passed a no-fault divorce law in 1970, the divorce rate jumped but then fell back to its old level -- and then fell some more. Over time, Wolfers estimates in work published by the National Bureau Economic Research (NBER), the chance that a first marriage would break up rose by just one-fourth of one percentage point, which is next to nothing. However, according to another NBER paper that Wolfers co-authored, states that relaxed their divorce laws experienced some good things: Fewer women committed suicide and fewer were murdered by their husbands or other "intimate" partners. In new no-fault states, the rate of female suicide dropped by 20 percent, Wolfers estimates, while domestic violence "declined by somewhere between a quarter and a half between 1976 and 1985 in those states that reformed their divorce laws," according to the report. The reason? The change in divorce laws altered the balance of power in a marriage, giving more leverage to the more vulnerable spouse.