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A.
How Supplementation Can Benefit Smokers
Narrator:
This is Science Today. If you smoke, the first bit
of health advice is obviously to quit. But barring
that, researchers have discovered even modest amounts
of a vitamin C supplement could dramatically raise
a smoker's level of this disease-fighting antioxidant.
Lynn Wallock of the University of California, Berkeley
says unlike previous studies, she and her colleagues
at the U.S. Department of Agriculture separated
the effects of diet and smoking on the level of
antioxidants in the body.
Wallock: Both the smokers and the non-smokers
were recruited for low fruit and vegetable intake.
Virtually all of the constituents in the diet were
similar, so what we were able to do was to isolate
the effects of smoking
Narrator: In doing so, researchers discovered
that of all the antioxidants, only vitamin C was
depleted by smoking and the smokers in particular
had a very dramatic response to supplementation.
Wallock: But the message that we'd like to
get across is that the supplementation was modest
and that that could be achieved by improving the
diet and the benefit of that is there are a lot
of other helpful compounds in fruits and vegetables.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B.
Discovering a New, Environmentally Friendly Fuel Source
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A valuable new source of fuel
was discovered after researchers triggered green algae
to produce large quantities of hydrogen gas. Tasios
Melis, a plant biologist at the University of California,
Berkeley, says the crucial part of their discovery
was realizing there's a metabolic switch within algae
cells.
Melis: And this metabolic switch, when activated,
permits the algae to produce hydrogen instead of oxygen.
Essentially, we deprive the algae from sulfur and
in the absence of sulfur, the algae stop the production
of oxygen and after a short period of time, they activate
the alternative pathway - the result of which is the
production of hydrogen.
Narrator: Many energy experts believe hydrogen
is an ideal fuel because it's clean burning and renewable.
Melis: I think the primary beneficiaries will
be transportation, automobiles, trucks, cars and also
power generating plants - plants that generate electricity.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
C.
A Smart Device for the Future
Narrator: This is Science Today. In the near
future, robotic, airborne sensors the size of a grain
of sand may be able to transmit an accurate picture
of the atmosphere. Kris Pister, a professor of electrical
engineering and computer sciences at the University
of California, Berkeley, says this is based on integrated
circuit technology - the same technology used to make
computer chips.
Pister: There's a new family of processes that
are called MEMS, or Micro ElectroMechanical Systems.
That allows us to actually make sensors and little
motors right alongside the integrated circuits. And
so we can make on a single chip, something that has
the ability to sense the environment, to think about
it and to take some kind of action on it as well.
Narrator: One of the actions it can take is
to communicate.
Pister: So we have the ability to transmit
information and to receive information all from this
little sliver of silicon. So, one of the things we're
doing is making these things small enough so that
they will actually float in air. And so you can imagine
making little weather sensors that sense perhaps temperature
or humidity or barometric pressure and making millions
of them and scattering them in the atmosphere.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Engineers Working to Support New Internet Changes
Narrator:
This is Science Today. One of the co-inventors of
the technology that powers some of the world's largest
Internet search engines says the Internet is facing
major structural changes. Eric Brewer, a professor
of electrical engineering and computer sciences at
the University of California, Berkeley, says these
changes will directly affect users.
Brewer: There's new layers of infrastructure
that make the Internet much faster for cable users
and high bandwidth users like DSL modems. These technologies
are really stressing the Internet in a good and bad
way. Good in a sense that it's creating incredible
innovation and bad in a sense that you're always are
at risk that some things are going to be a little
shaky or that you'll have attacks. But I think that
openness of the Internet is well worth the risk that
we take.
Narrator: In dealing with these changes, Brewer
says the first area of focus will be making it easier
to author new services.
Brewer: The second area is Internet security
- detecting and preventing the recent attacks, of
denial of service, as well as generally increasing
security on the Internet for things like banking transactions
and E-commerce.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
HELP is on It's Way
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A University of California,
Irvine psychologist has developed the Health Enhancing
Lifestyle Program, or HELP, to train people to function
better under duress. Dr. Salvatore Maddi says HELP
teaches people to develop skills and attitudes needed
to cope with stressful situations.
Maddi:
The coping skills are probably the easiest starting
point. Basically what you need to do there is make
a list of all the circumstances in your life that
seem stressful to you. Try to ask yourself whether
they are stressful because there's a big change going
on or whether they're stressful because there's kind
of ongoing conflict between what you want and what
you get.
Narrator: Maddi admits people often say they're
too overwhelmed to go through such a list.
Maddi: Part of the reason they are overwhelmed
and too busy is that they haven't dealt specifically
and effectively with the stresses one at a time. Once
you start doing that, you realize what a difference
it makes.
Narrator: Maddi's program is based on a 30-minute
hardiness survey he developed to measure how stressed
a person is and how the body responds to stress. For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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