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A.
Are Today's Parents The New Pioneers?
Narrator: This is Science Today. In today's
society, more and more young parents are living hundreds
- sometimes thousands, of miles away from the families
they grew up with. Phillip Cowan, a psychology professor
at the University of California, Berkeley, says this
lack of familial support can be trying on young couples
who are trying to juggle raising a family while pursuing
careers.
Cowan: This is happening in times that are
really changing. They're isolated often in homes and
away from the communities and friends. Work circumstances
have changed so that men and women are both working
in many, if not almost all families today.
Narrator: This is unlike the past, when it
was presumed men would work and women would stay home
to raise the family.
Cowan: And it worked to women's disadvantage
in some ways as the whole feminist revolution talked
about. But it did work because at least people thought
that's what we're going to do and they did it. Now
we don't know what to do. We call these couple's 'new
pioneers' because they really are charting new territory
- and they're not finding it easy.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Tracking The Global Trafficking Of Human Organs
Narrator: This is Science Today. The recent
formation of a new Organs Watch program by professors
at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia
University Medical School, has brought the issue of
global trafficking of human organs into the spotlight.
John Roberts, chief of transplant services at the
University of California, San Francisco, recently
spoke about the issue of organ trafficking.
Roberts:
In general, those in the Western countries are sort
of abhorrent of the idea that you would pay somebody
for organs. But on the other side of it, there are
countries where the payment that somebody would receive
for an organ transplant could take care of themselves
and their families for ten years.
Narrator: The main problem is, there are not
enough organs.
Roberts: And that pertains partially to this
payment for organs. It also makes it so that we need
to decide how best to allocate organs to those patients
who are waiting.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
The Problem With "Doing It For The Kids"
Narrator: This is Science Today. When couples
talk about staying together for the sake of their
children, what they may not realize is they're really
doing their kids a disservice. Carolyn Pape Cowan,
co-director of the University of California, Berkeley's
Schoolchildren and Their Families Project, says what
gets lost in the process of focusing on the children,
is focusing on the marriage itself.
Pape Cowan: When parents are talking about
doing it for the kids, what we think we see happening
is that they're focusing a great deal on what kind
of parents are you supposed to be to be the best parent
and get a child who's the best adjusted and adapted
and who will do best with other children and in school
and so on.
Narrator: But what happens is the couple's
marriage gets lost in the process.
Pape Cowan: We would just encourage them not
to give up everything about their couple relationship
for the children. Because actually in the long run
what our results show is that that doesn't help the
kids. Couples who are more satisfied with their life
as partners seem to be more effective in general as
parents.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Can A Stress Hormone Trigger Depression?
Narrator: This is Science Today. While it's
clear that stress can make depression worse, it's
never been clear why this is. Owen Wolkowitz, a professor
of psychiatry at the University of California, San
Francisco says it's been thought that in people who
are genetically predisposed to depression, stress
can - by some mysterious way - cause alterations in
neurotransmitters in the brain, such as seritonin
and dopamine.
Wolkowitz: What our research is looking at
is, is there an understandable biological connection
between stress and subsequent disregulation of neurotransmitters
that then leads to depression?
Narrator: Wolkowitz found intriguing data backing
the theory that stress may trigger depression in a
study of patients with Cushing's Disease. In this
syndrome, there's a spontaneous increase in levels
of a stress hormone called cortisol.
Wolkowitz: So it's not in response to stress,
it's just a primary event. About ninety percent of
those patients develop symptoms reminiscent of major
depression, so it stands to reason that cortisol or
some steroid that's being affected there can actually
cause depression.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Some Facts About Cerebral Aneurysms
Narrator: This is Science Today. Aneurysms
are blood vessels that balloon out because of weakened
vessel walls. Although unruptured cerebral aneurysms
don't always present with symptoms, one classic warning
sign is a headache - but according to Dr. Clay Johnston
of the University of California, San Francisco, these
aren't normal headaches.
Johnston: It generally is very sudden onset
headache and very different in quality. Usually much
more severe than an ordinary headache. Patients usually
don't confuse this with a normal headache. They realize
that something different has happened. That would
be a sign that they had a sudden increase in the size
of an aneurysm or a leaking from the aneurysm.
Narrator: Ruptured aneurysms increase with
age and it's most common in women, but there are other
risk factors including smoking, drinking or having
hypertension.
Johnston:
And people with family histories tend to be more
likely to have one. So there's some predisposition
that you're born with, probably and superimposed on
that are the things you do in your life and your other
diseases, like hypertension.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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