A. Are Today’s Teens
Healthy?
Narrator: This is Science Today. The number
of adolescents in this country may be on the rise,
but are they healthy? Psychologist Elizabeth Ozer
of the University of California, San Francisco says
that all depends on how you measure health.
Ozer: Well, adolescents, quote, are healthy
if you look at what’s traditionally been looked
at measures of health: do they have heart attacks,
do they have cancer, what are they dying of, are
they dying of illnesses? No they are not dying of
traditional illnesses.
Narrator: But Ozer says many adolescents
are taking risks by not exercising, getting poor
nutrition or using drugs. These behaviors, Ozer
says begin during adolescence and are associated
with poor adult health and death..
Ozer: So, what you’re seeing here is that
there are a lot of things we have to be concerned
about what’s happening in the adolescent years but
they haven’t been looked at quote, under traditional
health markers.
Narrator: Ozer says more prevention programs
are key to keeping adolescents thriving. For Science
Today, I’m Larissa Branin.
B. In Search of Black
Holes
Narrator: This is Science Today. While there
is evidence that black holes do exist, a lot about
these forces of gravity remain a mystery. Astronomer
Alex Fileppenko of the University of California,
Berkeley says a new instrument on the Hubble Space
Telescope, called a spectra graph, may provide some
answers...
Fileppenko: There has been a spectra graph
in the Hubble these past six years, but it could
only take the spectrum of one star at a time, or
one small region of the sky at a time.
Narrator: The new spectra graph, installed
by astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery,
has a broader range and Fileppenko says, will greatly
help scientists track down elusive black holes in
the galaxy.
Fileppenko: We’ve had a number of colleagues
who have made very important first steps in this
direction 132 and the information they already have
strongly suggest that there’s a black hole there.
But now we can do this much more efficiently, much
more quantitatively and for far more galaxies.
Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa
Branin.
C. Getting Organized
for Health
Narrator: This is Science Today. How well
a woman organizes and manages day-to-day demands
can greatly affect her health. Dr. Sally Adams of
the University of California, San Francisco bases
these findings on a twenty-two year study focusing
on highly educated women..
Adams: And what we found was that both emotional
and cognitive factors did predict women’s health
across time and the strongest predicting factor
was the intellectual efficiency measure that we
used
Narrator: Intellectual efficiency measures
a person’s organizational skills. Women who had
trouble were found to have more stress-related illness,
which could lead to heart or respiratory disease.
Adams: So women who were more organized
and able to prioritize, to delegate, to manage time
efficiently and who felt more self-confident and
free of conflict about doing that, had better ratings
of health, twenty some years later.
Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa
Branin.
D. Another Reason Dinosaurs
Disappeared
Narrator: This is Science Today. Paleontologist
Kevin Padian (PAY-DIAN) of the University of California,
Berkeley says dinosaurs may have already been petering
out before a giant meteor hit the Earth.
Padian: Some groups were still growing strong,
some groups were already dying out because things
were changing. We don’t know exactly all the environmental
influences that contributed to the demise of every
single species, but we know that lots of things
were changing.
Narrator: Some of these changes included
the shifting of continents and volcanic activity.
But Padian (PAY-DIAN) says a wane of dinosaur reproduction
may have also led to their demise.
Padian: Because the existing species are
constantly becoming extinct and if you don’t keep
producing new species to keep up with your extinction
rate, your gonna be out of business real fast.
Narrator: But Padian does not discredit
the whole asteroid theory..
Padian: When asteroid proponents end their
sentences of explaining their research with "and
killed the dinosaurs", the paleontologists have
a problem with that, but not with the rest of it.
Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa
Branin.
E. Cigarette Makers
Cough Up Money
Narrator: This is Science Today. One of
the smallest major tobacco companies , Ligget Group
Incorporated, recently settled 22 state lawsuits
by admitting smoking is addictive. Public Health
expert Wendy Max of the University of California,
San Francisco says the states wanted to recoup the
six billion dollars they spend on health care related
to smoking.
Max: It wasn’t their decision, they just
had to foot the bill and so they’re coming in as
the third party, who’s been harmed by this and from
a legal perspective, that’s I understand, very different.
Narrator: Max says the states based their
lawsuits on findings in a national survey she helped
put together.
Maxx: So, I found myself, along with some
of my colleagues, right in the middle of this big
legal battle which is very exciting it’s a very
exciting public health advance, we hope.
Narrator: Although Ligget Group will still
manufacture Chesterfield, L&M and Lark cigarettes,
they must now place labels on each pack warning
smokers about the addictive qualities of nicotine.
For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.
