May 30, 2003

Scientists Track China's Well-Traveled Dust; Sons Seem Key to Marital Harmony; Women Said to Become Less Neurotic With Age

On snowy slopes of the Alps and Pyrenees, scientists have discovered red dust bearing the fingerprint of a desert in western China. The team of French, American, and British researchers suggests that winds blew the dust on a two-week, 12,500-mile journey over parts of several continents and a pair of oceans.

Previous work has shown that dust from China can cross the Pacific and reach the United States. The new study, published in the May 1