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A.
Plants Used to Detoxify the Environment
Narrator:
This is Science Today. One of the newer tools researchers
are using to clean up polluted soil and groundwater
is plants. The process is called phytoremediation
and works in coordination with bacteria or fungi
around plant roots to form a detoxing network of
sorts. Thomas Wood of the University of California,
Irvine, is working on a way to genetically engineer
bacteria to carry an enzyme that degrades the toxic
solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE.
Wood: Our idea is to engineer bacteria that
will hang out in the rhizophere, which is the area
around the plant roots and the plant will feed those
bacteria, so you don't have to add any nutrients
at all. You also don't have to dig up the soil to
treat the soil. The bacteria just continuously make
this enzyme to get through trichloroethylene.
Narrator: Like others in this field, Wood
has long-term goals for this process.
Wood: What we'd really like to do now is
grow trees and take advantage of the bacteria that
colonize tree roots to get rid of trichloroethylene.
The tree we're shooting for is the poplar tree,
since it has roots that basically go from the surface
down to the groundwater.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B.
A Crucial Ligament for Female Athletes
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Sports involving lots of jumping
and twisting put a lot of strain on the knee - particularly
the anterior crucial ligament, which runs behind the
kneecap to connect the shin and thighbones. Dr. Robert
Pedowitz a sports medicine specialist at the University
of California, San Diego, says young women are at
higher risk for this type of injury.
Pedowitz: That's been shown
through the NCAA database, where they track injury
rates as a function of the number of hours of participation.
They've looked at men and women basketball players
and men and women soccer players - those are two sports
that are quite demanding in terms of cutting and twisting
and pivoting. And women have up to four or five times
as high injury rate to the ACL as men do.
Narrator: Pedowitz says this may be
due to a difference in how male and female muscles
are activated.
Pedowitz:
Women
may have a different balance in the muscles that work
to extend the knee versus the muscles that work to
flex the knee.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
The Biggest Risk Determinant in Cancer
Narrator: This is Science Today. It's estimated
that baby boomers are twice as likely to get cancer
as their grandparents were. There are several reasons
why, including the exposure to more carcinogens. But
cell biologist Mina Bissell, of the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory says it's also because people
are living longer than before.
Bissell: The aging process is the biggest risk
determinant in cancer. Every two years of additional
living, you are going to be increasing cancer by a
whole lot.
Narrator: Bissell says the amazing this is
we do as well as we do.
Bissell: You see people say, oh, cancer is
so rampant and my statement is it's not so at all.
You have billions of cells in your body. Imagine,
any one of them, if it was one single gene that could
go wrong, you would be walking around with tumors
all over you and you don't. I mean, the event is actually
quite rare and the question of aging and its importance
in cancer is something very important that we need
to think about.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Intacs: A Possible Alternative to Laser Surgery
Narrator:
This is Science Today. In the last few years, patients
with myopia or nearsightedness have had an alternative
to laser surgery called Intacs - which are designed
to remain permanently in the eye but can be removed
if necessary. Dr. David Shanzlin of the University
of California, San Diego, was the international investigator
for Intacs and says these tiny, transparent rings
are implanted onto the cornea.
Shanzlin: The concept behind the Intacs really
dates back to the late 1970s. An optometrist conceived
of the idea of putting a ring of plastic into the
cornea and in doing so by expanding and or contracting
it, he would be able to either flatten or steepen
the cornea and therefore, correct all refractive errors.
Narrator: Shanzlin says one of the benefits
of Intacs is the fact no tissue is removed at all
- instead, a small pocket is made in the cornea to
insert these little arcs of plastic.
Shanzlin: Now, the advantage to the patient
and from my own personal viewpoint, the advantage
to the surgeon, is that if the patient has a problem
or if the patient does not like the result for any
reason, you take it out.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.The
Future of Extended Wear Hearing Aids
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Researchers are currently testing
out a hearing aid that could be worn for three to
six months without ever being taken out. Robert Sweetow,
Director of Audiology at the University of California,
San Francisco, has been testing out these extended
wear hearing aids and says the patient will be able
to sleep, shower - even swim with it.
Sweetow:You
won't take it out at all. You'll wonder how can that
be? What's going to happen with the hearing aid? Well,
what happens with this hearing aid is it goes in,
it has to be inserted by a physician because it's
goes in your ear - it's extremely small. It goes in
the ear very, very deeply beyond where earwax is produced.
It is the most comfortable thing you can imagine.
Narrator: But Sweetow says it will be a number
of years before this extended wear hearing aid is
available.
Sweetow: But I'll tell you right now - this
is where it's going. This is where the field's going
to go. You're going to go in, you're going to get
a fitting in less than an hour, you're going to walk
out - you can not see it and you do not feel it all
that much.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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