A.
Marijuana-like Drugs Provide Pain Relief
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A synthetic drug that mimics
marijuana was found to directly affect part of the
brain that regulates pain. Researcher Ian Meng says
this University of California, San Francisco study
validates anecdotal reports about patients easing
their pain with marijuana.
Meng:
I wanted to know, is there a real basis, a scientific
basis why this drug may be helping people or is
it simply a placebo effect? Do people just think
that it's going to work and so therefore it works,
or is there some real basis for its actions?
Narrator:
Meng found there is a real basis - these synthetic
drugs, known as cannabinoids, tap into the brain
circuitry which controls pain signals. The effect
is similar to morphine, but without the side effects
of nausea or respiratory problems. Cannabinoids,
however, do cause a loss of motor coordination.
Meng:
So it may be possible that you could increase the
painkilling effects of these drugs by using them
in combination - using lower doses of each so that
you actually can get rid of some of the side effects
that you don't want.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Rethinking How Babies Perceive The World
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Babies used to be regarded
as passive entities needing force-fed knowledge
until learning to speak. But Gavin Huntley-Fenner,
an assistant professor of cognitive sciences at
the University of California, Irvine, says research
has shown that's not the case.
Huntley-Fenner:
In fact, babies aren't the passive receptacles.
They're not even sponges. Really they're sort of
actively trying to make discoveries about the world
and they're constantly experimenting with physical
events, with their own bodies, with their parents.
They're constantly trying things out.
Narrator:
Studies suggest babies who can't talk are just as
active in trying to figure out the world as children
just beginning to speak, so Huntley-Fenner says
it's important to stimulate babies early in development.
Huntley-Fenner:
However, there is some research suggesting that
too much stimulation is bad, so if you overstimulate
babies, you may be worse off than stimulating them
just enough. The important thing is to make the
child's environment as rich as possible and to provide
them with opportunities to learn as long as they're
interested and motivated.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
The Irony Of MTBE Contamination
Narrator:
This is Science Today. For two decades, MTBE has
been added to gasoline to boost octane levels and
in some cities, reduce carbon monoxide emissions.
With the rise of MTBE use, there's also been an
increase in groundwater contamination. Marc Deshusses,
a chemical and environmental engineer at the University
of California, Riverside, works on MTBE bioremediation.
Deshusses:
It's a little bit of an irony that MTBE is apparently
doing a lot of good things for the air because the
air is cleaner, but on the other hand, MTBE is creating
some problems for water supplies and groundwater.
Narrator:
In the lab, Deshusses got microbes to break down
the chemical faster by adding a peat extract.
Deshusses:
Now the implication of that could be tremendous
because I personally think that microbes degrading
MTBE are relatively ubiquitous in the environment.
If you can pump down some of this peat extract and
if it will stimulate the microbe underground, there's
a chance that you can have MTBE disappear faster.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
How To Treat Obesity In The Future
Warden:
Obesity is one of the easiest diseases to diagnose
and yet it's been one of the hardest diseases to
treat.
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Craig Warden, a researcher
at the University of California, Davis recently
discovered a gene that controls how many calories
we burn. This can help treat obesity, but first
Warden says there has to be more understanding about
the disease..
Warden:
People have thought that obesity is because people
overeat or are lazy and so what we're suggesting
is it's not because people are lazy, but it's because
their bodies are fundamentally different and so
this then becomes like any other common complex
disease.
Narrator:
Which Warden says may be treated in the doctor's
office just like high blood pressure or diabetes.
The goal is to develop drugs to regulate the newfound
gene controlling fat burning proteins.
Warden:
And so that there is really great hope that really
in the next few years there will be a whole slew
of new treatments available.
Narrator:
Nevertheless, Warden says it's still important to
eat a healthy, low fat diet and get exercise. For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
A Memory That's Worth Forgetting
Narrator:
This is Science Today. If you've ever had surgery,
you unfortunately know about post-operative pain.
Dr. Allan Basbaum, a professor and research scientist
at the University of California, San Francisco,
says this pain is essentially just a bad memory.
Basbaum:
The spinal cord, which processes the information
and then sends it off to the brain to produce pain
in a conscious patient, is still processing the
information, even in the setting of general anesthesia.
What that means is that there is effectively a memory
of the pain.
Narrator:
Basbaum and his colleagues have discovered that
this bad memory, so to speak, can be avoided by
preventing certain neurotransmitters, or messengers
of pain, from ever reaching the spinal cord. He
says this can be done by combining local and general
anesthetics - like a dentist does.
Basbaum:
The dentist would inject local anesthetics at the
teeth, which is really what this is about, you want
to inject local anesthetics near the injury site,
near the site of operation. The spinal cord never
experiences the injury in the first place and you
reduce the likelihood of getting this clinical problem
established.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
