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A.
A Surprising Link Between Income and Nutrition
Narrator: This is Science Today. A common finding
in most nutrition studies is those with lower incomes
are not as properly nourished as those with higher
incomes. But Joanne Ikeda, a nutritionist at the University
of California, Berkeley found different results in
her study on the diets of three generations of African-American
women.
Ikeda: People at very low income levels have
poorer diet quality, just because they don't have
enough money to buy an adequate diet. In this study,
that held true for the grandmothers and for the daughters.
But it did not show true for the middle generation
- that is, the mothers. It turned out that the higher
income mothers actually had the poorer diets.
Narrator: One reason may be these working moms
lack the time to cook and may just grab what they
can outside the home.
Ikeda: As a matter of fact, one of their biggest
sources of calories is french fries. So there probably
is a lot of eating at fast food restaurants.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
A Computerized Brain Cognition Test
Narrator: This is Science Today. Computers
can be used for almost everything these days. Now,
they can even measure brain cognition. Dr. Louis Gottschalk,
a neuroscientist at the University of California,
Irvine, developed a computer program to help detect
hostility, anxiety - even brain disorders. All a person
has to do is talk into the computer for about five
minutes.
Gottschalk: We've done studies of people coming
to a psychiatric outpatient clinic and got speech
samples and other measures and the five minute speech
samples, it gives scores on some fifteen different
psychological states and they tend to agree pretty
well with what the clinician finds out.
Narrator: The computer program is based on
the Gottschalk-Gleser scale, an international diagnostic
tool used to measure cognitive impairment.
Gottschalk: It's capable of summarizing mathematically
each score. So people send us material. Sometimes
on a patient. There's some doctors that get this,
get a five-minute speech sample and send me and use
it as they might a psychological test.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C. What Doesn't
Destroy You, Makes You Strong
Narrator: This is Science Today. If the famous
Nietzsche quote - What does not destroy me, makes
me strong - rings true to you, chances are you're
what Dr. Salvatore Maddi, a psychologist at the University
of California, Irvine calls a hardy person. Maddi
helps people deal with stress by teaching them what
he calls hardiness skills.
Maddi: A lot of people tell us - well, hardiness
- you either have it or you don't. It's in the genes.
But you know, that's not really so true. If that was
true, hardiness training wouldn't work the way it
does and the research is very clear that it works.
Narrator: Hardiness training teaches people
the coping and social support skills it takes to deal
with stress.
Maddi: Hardy people believe whatever doesn't
kill me makes me stronger. Our approach comes very
much out of that kind of Nietzschian thinking. But
what we feel is when a terrible circumstance overcomes
you, you only have two options - give up or learn
from it. And do something better. And some people
actually do that.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Unlocking Pain Reduction Receptors in the Brain
Narrator: This is Science Today. In the past
decade, scientists have discovered two receptors in
the brain which are affected by synthetic drugs called
cannibinoids. These drugs mimic the active ingredient
found in marijuana. Ian Meng, a researcher at the
University of California, San Francisco, likens the
relationship between these brain receptors and cannibinoids,
to a lock and key.
Meng:
The receptors are on the cell membrane and they're
sort of like the lock and the cannibinoid, or the
synthetic drugs we now have in the laboratory, can
fit into that lock like they key and unleash all of
its actions.
Narrator: Meng discovered these actions include
a process similar to the release of natural endorphins
which results in pain reduction.
Meng: And what we have now found is that the
cannabinoids do the same thing. They can tap into
this same brain circuitry and activate a very specific
population of neurons to reduce the pain signal -
just like the natural endorphins do.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Genetically Engineering the Environment
Narrator: This is Science Today. Biochemical
engineers at the University of California, Irvine
are working to clean up contaminated sites by genetically
engineering bacteria to degrade toxic compounds. Dr.
Thomas Wood's laboratory at UC Irvine, is focusing
on the bacteria near plant roots.
Wood: We're trying to encourage the bacteria
to degrade trichloroethylene into carbon dioxide,
which is chloride ions by giving these bacteria an
additional gene that allows them to degrade this compound.
Narrator: And with trichloroethylene, a faster
process is crucial since slow degradation results
in a compound which is even more toxic.
Wood: What we're trying to do is prevent the
trichloroethylene - the pollutant - from getting into
the groundwater. Now, over the world, there are wells
that have been contaminated and decommissioned because
they have trichloroethylene and there are estimates
that if you drink over your lifetime one part per
million of trichloroethylene, about thirty-two people
out of every hundred thousand would get cancer. So
it's not something you want to drink routinely.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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