A Cup of Coffee? The drink with the most appeal for Americans is still coffee, but coffee addicts had better be wary of the instant forms. Greedy for customers and confident* they won't lose them, companies will put their product in any instant form-liquid, powder, chips-and the coffee drinker, aware of his misfortune, finds it hard to avoid some of the more wretched instant products. The harsh fact is that an enormous* quantity of instant coffee is being sold, no doubt,* to nourish the popular demand for convenience. A keg of real coffee may become a museum piece as more and more people opt for instant coffee.

Camp Safety For years a furniture salesman from Connecticut, Mitch Kurman, has toiled ceaselessly for the passage of a youth summer camp safety bill. Why? Because his son David was drowned when his canoe overturned in the raging waters of the Penobscot River. The camp counselors leading the trip were inexperienced, had blundered into dangerous waters, and had no life jackets for the canoers. Mr. Kurman was naturally dazed by the tragedy. But rather than merely mourn his loss and wait for the painful memory to subside, he began a campaign that took him on hundreds of journeys to speak to governors, senators, and congressmen. He had learned that 250,000 children are injured or maimed annually in camp accidents. It was hard for him to comprehend why we have laws that outlaw mistreatment of alligators, coyotes, birds and bobcats, but we have no law to prevent disasters to children in summer camps. Wherever he went, Mr. Kurman was commended for his efforts, but he received only trifling support from the lawmakers. One bill, requiring people to put on life preservers when they took to the water, died in the final reading. Another such bill exempted private ponds and lakes, exactly the waters where most summer camps are located. Even a bill calling for a survey of camp safety conditions was at first defeated. Mr. Kurman's struggle so far has been in vain, but he continues his battle to avoid a repetition of the accident that took his son's life.

A Valuable Discovery The laser is a marvelous device that sends out a slender, concentrated beam of light, a light that surpasses the light at the sun's surface. So vast is the laser beam's power that it has without a doubt the capacity to vaporize* any substance located anywhere on earth. The laser can penetrate steel, pierce a diamond, or make an accurate die for wire so thin that it can be seen only with a microscope.Grateful eye surgeons report that they have used laser beams to repair the retinas in some fortunate* patients by creating tiny scars that joined the retina to the eyeball. Pioneering* medical men are making cautious exploration* into cancer cures with the laser, confident that they will alter* the course of this brutal* disease.

lnhe Frozen Future Doctors are always devising* new cures for diseases that kill people. But suppose you are dying from an incurable illness now. If only you could postpone death until a cure was found! Now some people are trying to do just that. One young man consented to having his body frozen and placed in a massive capsule in order to preserve it until doctors find a cure for his disease. Some peopie have denounced this unique experiment with a torrent of angry words. They resent human attempts to molest the natural order of life and death. There is also a gloomy fear that the world is already overcrowded and that people have to die to make room for those who are about to be born. If the experiment works, unforeseen problems undoubtedly* will arise.

A New Way to Treat Prisoners The warden of a prison today will readily acknowledge the new trend in prison reform. In an attempt to provide a different brand of justice for society's delinquents, officials now reject the idea that prison should completely deprive the convict of freedom. Thus, in some prisons inmates are allowed to leave the prison grounds to visit their spouses or to pursue their vocation. Even the more unstable convict who may have committed homicide is not penalized as harshly as before. The hope is that if persons emerge from prison less defiant than they do now, society will be the beneficiary.