Lithium and Brown Dwarfs

     A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS HAVE JUST USED LITHIUM TO FIND A BROWN DWARF.  NO,
THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT DRUGS USED BY SNOW WHITE'S SEVEN  FRIENDS.  LITHIUM IS A
TYPE OF ATOM THAT WAS CREATED BY THE BIG BANG.  AND A BROWN DWARF IS SORT OF
A COLD MINIATURE STAR.  EXCEPT UP UNTIL NOW ITS ALWAYS BEEN JUST A THEORY, SAYS
ASTRONOMER GIBOR BASRI AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IN BERKELEY. 
     
     Basri: "The brown dwarfs are the objects that are intermediate in . . . size between
the planets and the stars and astronomers don't like this gap we don't have any
theoretical reason to believe there's nothing in there so people have been looking for a
long time to try and find some of these objects."

     NOW, BASRI AND HIS TEAM HAVE JUST SPOTTED ONE FOR THE FIRST TIME BY
SEARCHING THE SKIES FOR LITHIUM.  WHILE A LOT OF LITHIUM WAS CREATED IN THE BIG
BANG--MOST OF IT HAS BEEN DESTROYED SINCE IN THE FURNACE AT THE CENTER OF STARS.
BUT A BROWN DWARF SHOULDN'T GET HOT ENOUGH TO BURN UP THE LITHIUM. 

     Basri: "In a star like the sun, what happens , you have a nice nuclear furnace that's
busily destorying lithium, but the. . . brown dwarf is so low in mass that it won't even
develop a nulcear furnace and so. . . there's nothing destoyring the lithium at the center
and so you should be able to see lithium in the brown dwarf no matter how old it is."

     SCANNING STARS FOR LITHIUM PAID OFF, AND SCIENTISTS AGREE THAT THIS IS THE
FIRST CONFIRMED SIGHTING OF A BROWN DWARF.  NOW THAT BASRI'S FOUND IT, HE JUST
HAS TO DECIDE WHAT TO NAME IT. . . HMM. . .(sfx: GRUMPY? SNEEZY? DOPEY?)