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A.
A Call for Stronger Measures to Discourage Women
& Girls from Smoking
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Because tobacco-related disease
is still a leading cause of death among women, the
Surgeon General recently called for stronger, nationwide
measures to discourage women and girls from smoking.
These measures include reducing cigarette advertisements
and promotion. Epidemiologist John Weincke of the
University of California, San Francisco, suggests
age should be a factor to consider in future anti-smoking
campaigns.
Weincke: Our evidence strongly indicates
that if a person starts smoking very early in life,
before adolescence, the damage that accumulates
persists much longer than if a person starts smoking,
say, when they're twenty years or so. It may actually
take many years for it to clear out of the lungs
and of course, once mutations are induced, theoretically,
they're around forever.
Narrator: Many of the lung cancer patients
Weincke studied began smoking before the age of
ten.
Weincke: People that start smoking very early
in life tend to smoke more cigarettes per day and
they tend to be heavier smokers, so there's this
confounding with age and how much you smoke.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B.
Developing a New Type of Fluorescent Light Bulb
Narrator:
This is Science Today. As the power crisis continues
to affect California and threatens to spread far beyond
the Golden State this summer, conserving energy has
become more of a concern. One way to conserve is by
using energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs in
place of regular, incandescent bulbs. Researchers
at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have been working
on a new type of fluorescent light bulb. Team leader
Marion Scott explains.
Scott: The primary difference
between the conventional fluorescent light bulb and
the new one is the conventional light bulb involves
the use of mercury. In the new light bulb that we're
talking about, there's no mercury inside. In fact,
there's no gas inside at all. It's just a fiber, which
is emitting electrons.
Narrator: And Scott says the lifetime
of conventional bulbs is usually determined by how
much degradation takes place by gas generated ions.
Scott:
The new bulb would have no gas, no ions and so no
degradation of the cathode from that mechanism.
Narrator:
Since this technology is still in the research
stages, it may take a while for this new fluorescent
light bulb to 'come to light'. For Science Today,
I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Important Tips for Dieters . . .
Narrator: This is Science Today. If you feel
like losing a few pounds and think skipping breakfast
might help … think again. According to Lisa Scott,
a clinical nutritionist at the University of California,
San Francisco, breakfast is the most important meal
and one you may not want to miss.
Scott: Eating breakfast gets your motor going.
It gets your body burning calories and if you skip
breakfast and you go straight to lunch, then your
body doesn't burn as many calories in the day and
it sounds funny because you actually might be eating
more if you're eating breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Narrator: And Scott says dieters often fail
to realize that just changing one's eating habits
doesn't always work in the long run.
Scott: It can help you lose weight, but without
exercise, it's very hard to lose weight because exercise
burns calories. It actually allows you to eat more
than what you normally do because you're burning so
many calories. So you want to definitely combine both.
You want to try and watch your diet and also exercise.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.The
Persistence of a Class of Pollutants
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A recent report in an environmental
journal has found butter may be one way to monitor
airborne pollution. According to the scientists involved
in the study, PCBs and other compounds migrate from
the atmosphere to the ground, where they are eaten
by cows and, in turn, accumulate in dairy fat. Environmental
scientist, Thomas McKone of the University of California,
Berkeley, says this type of pollutants are what's
called persistent organic pollutants.
McKone: Persistent organic pollutants are a
class of pollutants that tend to last a very long
time. They don't break down in the environment. Some
of these last so long that we see them migrating northward
into the Artic and starting to show up in terrestrial
or aquatic food webs, so they show up in the whales
or the seals that live in the Artic Circle because
they're so long-lived in the environment.
Narrator: McKone says there is a large, international
effort to restrict the use of persistent pollutants.
McKone: Most of the industrialized, and a large
fraction of the developing countries have signed onto
this treaty to quit making and using persistent pollutants.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Researchers Working Towards Quantum Computing
Narrator:
This is Science Today. In 1965, Gordon Moore, the
co-founder of Intel, predicted that the density of
transistors on semiconductor chips would double about
every 18 months. Raymond LaFlamme, a scientist at
the Los Alamos National Laboratory, says this observation,
now known as Moore's Law, accurately describes a trend
that continues today.
LaFlamme:
Every eighteen months, the size of devices are
shrinking by a factor of two. And if we look at this
trend, it tells us that ten, fifteen years from now
the size of computers, or the transistors themselves,
will be the size of atoms.
Narrator: Once that happens, the rules used
to manipulate information will jump from classical
to quantum mechanics. LaFlamme and his group recently
manipulated seven atoms to perform a simple computer
program - and although a functional quantum computer
is still years away, this latest advance seems to
be following the flow of Moore's Law.
LaFlamme: So in the future, if you want to
have computers which become incredibly much faster
than what we have today, we'll have to go also in
the quantum regime.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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