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A.
Biological Evidence that Men and Women Think Differently
Narrator:
This is Science Today. It seems there's a biological
basis for the common and often times comic belief
that men and women think differently. According
to Dr. Larry Cahill of the University of California,
Irvine, men and women use different sides of a brain
structure called the amygdala to store emotional
memories. In his study, Cahill had men and women
watch movies and then traced their brain activity
using a PET scan.
Cahill:
What we are starting to find is that as things
get more emotional, men are tending to remember
more of the central aspects of the story at the
expense of peripheral details, whereas women are
tending to remember both a little better. Men seem
to have a different pattern. As things get more
emotional, they seem to be focusing in like a flashlight
beam on the gist of the story more at the expense
of details.
Narrator:
Cahill says their results are preliminary and more
study is needed.
Cahill:
What this study essentially does is document that
there is this sex-related laterality of function
going on, we don't really know much more than that
other than this has to be important.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Preventive Behavior in Older Populations
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A new study suggests older
women who actively take part in one preventive measure,
like taking calcium supplements, are more likely to
engage in others - like getting regular mammograms.
Dr. David Reuben, director of geriatric medicine and
gerontology at UCLA, led the study and says previous
research suggested old age was one of the factors
contributing to poor adherence to mammography.
Reuben: What we're seeing here
is a change in the dynamic, whereas older women in
this study are going to be more empowered and take
more responsibility.
Narrator: Reuben says part of this is
because the doctor-patient relationship is no longer
so paternalistic.
Reuben:
I think
what's happening is it's what they call a cohort phenomenon
- that people who were very much in this paternalistic
mode of receiving health care will all have passed
on and that the coming generation of older people
are going to be more empowered and more participatory
in their health care decision making.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
New Materials Studied to Safely Store Nuclear Waste
Narrator:
This is Science Today. As the power crisis continues
in the West, there's been some national interest in
the use of nuclear power. But one of the issues that
has yet to be resolved is the long-term storage of
nuclear waste. It's a problem researchers at the Los
Alamos National Laboratory have been working on. Kurt
Sickafus, a staff scientist at the Lab, says the materials
currently encasing radioactive waste degrade over
time.
Sickafus:
This is a problem with all materials and it's
particularly one of the major limitations of a material
for long-term storage. You must find a material, which
is essentially flexible enough to withstand this very
high damage from the radioactive decay.
Narrator:
Sickafus and his colleagues have found that certain
ceramic materials that have structures similar to
fluorite crystals are very tolerant of radioactive
decay.
Sickafus:
Our hope is that this will be an important step to
get a number of our colleagues in the study of waste
forms to take an interest in crystalline waste forms
and in particular, the kinds of structures we've proposed
looking at in this study.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
How Long Can Humans Live?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. How long can humans live? The
widely held belief is that there's an absolute maximum
lifespan of 120 years and that this figure cannot
change over time. But John Wilmoth, a professor of
demography at the University of California, Berkeley,
says they've found the first evidence that challenges
the belief that the human life span has a set end
point.
Wilmoth:
We showed that there's been a steady increase in the
age at death in Sweden over a long period of time.
We have a hundred and forty years of clean data -
that's to say it's been checked very carefully to
make sure that the ages at death that are being reported
are accurate.
Narrator:
The data found that increases in the age at death
accelerated in 1970.
Wilmoth:
Because of this improvement in our progress in reducing
death rates at older ages. So whether it's going to
keep going up at this pace - about one year of age
for every decade - whether that will continue, that
all depends on our ability to maintain the current
pace of progress in improving survivorship at older
ages.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
A Call for Support of Alzheimer's Disease Research
Narrator:
This is Science Today. One of the most unsettling
aspects about Alzheimer's Disease is the fact no one
can really feel immune to it. Dr. Lennart Mucke, a
neurology professor at the University of California,
San Francisco, says while some cases do have clear
inheritance patterns, they represent just a small
percentage.
Mucke:
It can happen to absolutely everybody. And that's
I think, a very important awareness because I believe
that our mental faculties are probably one of our
dearest possessions.
Narrator:
Mucke is one of many researchers working towards better
treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, but he says public
activism is lacking.
Mucke:
Some of
the lack of that activism may come from this sort
of resignation - well, you know people are old and
you lose your memories and that's just how it is.
But I think that with more and more people living
to be ninety-five and a hundred and some of them are
crisp and clear mentally and active. I think more
and more people will realize that there really is
no reason why they shouldn't be like that.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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