B. New Insight about a Brief History of Time

Narrator: This is Science Today. An international group of physicists have recreated a state of matter that had up until now, only been theorized. Daniel Cebra, a physics professor at the University of California, Davis and collaborator on this project, says by colliding lead ions together inside a European particle accelerator, scientists were able to detect a plasma state of matter believed to exist just after the Big Bang. This in effect sheds some light on a brief history of time.

Cebra:The Big Bang itself isn't directly affecting our life because we have to live with whatever it would like - we can't change it. It's nice to know how it progressed. We really want to know how time began - how, where did we come from? And this gives us the best chance to get back as early as possible and as close as possible to know what the universe was like at the very start of time.

Narrator: Understanding this transition also allows researchers to better understand where some of the universe's initial, non-uniformities came from.

Cebra: That can then be modeled into one's models of cosmological expansion. To get an idea of why the universe looks the way that it does.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.

C. Chronic Sinusitis: When Medication Doesn't Help

Narrator: This is Science Today. Chronic sinusitis is a relatively common disease - and its incidence is rising. While the majority of patients can be managed with medication or other treatment of their allergies, Dr. Brad Strong, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of California, Davis, says for a minority of patients, these options may not work.

Strong: For those individuals, sinus surgery or opening up the drainage pathways is effective treatment for their sinus disease. The sinuses are relatively small, bony cavities that have an extremely small opening in one place. If there's swelling around that opening, the sinus cavities become obstructed.

Narrator: Over the last several years, computer-guided imaging has been helping surgeons perform this operation with better accuracy and fewer complications.

Strong: It will be interesting to see if the computer guidance and computers do start to take over some of the role. We would be, obviously, guiding those instruments and techniques, but it will be interesting to see as this technology grows, the advances and the precision that can be applied.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin. .

D. An Unexplored Role in Day Care

Narrator:This is Science Today. A psychologist studying the effects of simple gesturing between babies and adults has found this early form of communication, which she calls 'Baby Signs' can boost the child's I.Q. and self-esteem in the elementary school years. Although baby signs were initially used for parent-child interaction, Linda Acredolo, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis has found these signs are increasingly being used in day-care settings.

Acredolo: What the caregivers find is that it reduces frustration for the children, but it also binds the caregivers and the children closer together. So each is more observant of the other.

Narrator: Acredolo is particularly excited about the use of baby signs in multi-lingual day care centers, of which there are growing numbers.

Acredolo: What the baby signs can do is provide a common denominator, so that they can get their needs met and there is a kind of way to translate among all these different languages. We feel that it has a great role to play - sort of an unexplored role to play - in these daycare settings.

Narrator: The main goal, Shafer says, is to prevent the serious complications which may occur if these STDs go untreated. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.

E. Helping Deaf Children "See" Speech

Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have developed an animated, computer controlled talking head to help deaf children learn to speak properly. Dominic Massaro, a professor of psychology, says this cyberhead goes by the name Baldi.

Massaro: The idea of using this for instruction for the deaf first requires us to think about how you might think of language and communication more generally and that is, people seem to appreciate most face-to-face communication.

Narrator: The software program targets children who have poor articulation.

Massaro: So what we hope to do with our talking head is to tutor these children in the spoken language so that they can become better speakers of the language and obviously, you could do that with natural faces, too. And certainly people have done this. There are a couple advantages to our talking head has and one is that it's simply a cyberhead, it doesn't get tired or bored or upset.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.