NEWS

A Gene Therapy Stamp? Not in This Century

Susan Jenks

A proposed gene therapy stamp took a licking from the competition in the United States Postal Service's commemorative stamp contest, "Celebrate the Century" — coming in sixth out of six in the science and technology category.Go



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The public vote to "put your stamp on history, " which ended in May, provided 30 choices in five different categories for stamps to commemorate the final decade of the century. There were 15 winning selections, all of which will be issued as new 33-cent stamps in April 2000.

In the science and technology category, a gene therapy stamp lost out to one commemorating the World Wide Web's dominance of the 1990s as millions of Americans went on line; a stamp commemorating John Glenn's historic return to space after 36 years; and one recognizing virtual reality's role not only in video games, but in applications ranging from architecture to surgery.

These three stamps also beat out a stamp celebrating interplanetary exploration and the National Air and Space Administration's 10-year program to study Mars, as well as one heralding the 1990 dinosaur fossil discovery of a "Tyrannosaurus rex" in South Dakota. The fossil had been buried for 65 million years and was 90% complete.

The U.S. Postal Service launched its stamp survey through the Gallup Organization in Lincoln, Neb. Nonscientific categories included people and events, arts and entertainment, sports, and lifestyles. Among the other new issues will be stamps commemorating the special Olympics, the pervasiveness of cellular phones, the long-running NBC hit "Seinfeld," and the Gulf War.



             
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