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A.
Researchers Evaluate a New Transportation Technology
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The concept of car sharing
began in Europe as a way to deal with growing populations
and congestion. And now there's great interest in
car sharing programs here in the United States.
In fact, the University of California, Riverside
has become the first university in the country to
use electric vehicles in a shared-car project called
IntelliShare. Electrical engineer Matt Barth says
they're evaluating this new transportation technology.
Barth:
Essentially what we're trying to research is
how can these shared vehicle systems be successful?
The general idea of shared vehicle systems is basically,
instead of having everyone have their individual
cars to get around, you can use just a set of vehicles
that people can share throughout the day.
Narrator:
This would ease traffic and in the case of electric
vehicles, reduce air pollution. Barth says car sharing
is ideal for college campuses and even National
Parks.
Barth:
Places where a lot of people want to go and they
want to get around within that campus or organization.
You could just use the dedicated fleet of shared
vehicles to get around, so it certainly reduces
the parking congestion.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
A National Study Questions a Common Treatment for
Lead Poisoning
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The primary treatment for lead
poisoning in children is a process known as chelation.
Toxicologist Donald Smith of the University of California,
Santa Cruz, says the most common drug used in chelation
therapy is succimer, which is administered either
by injection or taken orally.
Smith: And this drug acts essentially
like a sponge and it binds the metal, lead in this
case, and makes it in a form that can be readily eliminated
from the body, usually via the urine.
Narrator: But a recent study by the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
has raised new questions about the effectiveness of
the drug, since findings suggested succimer - which
is expensive and has the potential for serious side
effects - did not appear to protect children from
the learning disabilities and behavioral problems
associated with lead exposure.
Smith:
Part of
that question is whether lead toxicity or lead exposure
at certain ages creates a permanent level of toxicity
or something that can be reversed by just lowering
the body lead levels.
Narrator:
In
the meantime, the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences advises using succimer with caution.
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Scientists Ponder the Function of Sleep
Narrator:
This is Science Today. There have been many theories
about the exact function of sleep - some ideas dating
back to the ancient Greeks. Neuroscientist Marcos
Frank of the University of California, San Francisco,
says there are currently about half a dozen theories
- ranging from those having to do with learning and
memory to ideas that sleep may be a time to detoxify
noxious substances that accumulate during waking hours.
Frank:
But the evidence for any one of these theories
has been scant over the years, although at least recently
there's been an accumulation of evidence that tends
to lend more credence to the idea that sleep is important
for learning and memory. And that's kind of where
our study comes in.
Narrator:
Their study on sleeping cats demonstrated the first
clear evidence that sleep provides a time for significant
brain growth - or plasticity - after a period of stimulation
or learning.
Frank:
Now that we've demonstrated that sleep matters, now
we want to know why. So the next questions are really
to deal with mechanism. So that's the next real step
is to figure out what exactly sleep is doing.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Why Communicating with Your Baby Goes a Long Way
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Children who used simple gestures
to communicate as babies were found to perform better
on standard I.Q. tests than those who did not learn
these gestures. Linda Acredolo, a psychology professor
at the University of California, Davis, has dubbed
these gestures "baby signs" because they
can be used to communicate like a form of sign language.
Acredolo:
For example, one of the most popular for parents and
babies is some kind of simple gesture for "more".
Babies need more goldfish crackers or more juice.
And so if they have a specific gesture like putting
their fingertips together, tapping them together or
one finger to a palm, everyone knows that that means
more.
Narrator:
Although these signs did benefit children's I.Q. in
the long run, Acredolo doesn't want parents to think
of this as a better baby gimmick.
Acredolo:
But parents can really rest assured that they can
take advantage of all that baby signs offers in terms
of parent-child interaction without worrying about
I.Q. effects or learning to talk. This really promotes
those two skills.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
The Future of Micro ElectroMechanical Systems
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Advances in Micro ElectroMechanical
Systems, or MEMS, which combine electrical and mechanical
components on a computer chip, are giving researchers
the opportunity to develop tiny devices that can sense,
process and communicate information about its environment.
Kris Pister, an associate professor of electrical
engineering and computer sciences at the University
of California, Berkeley, is using this technology
to develop what he calls 'smart dust'.
Pister:
The goal of the smart dust project is to integrate
a sensor and computer and power supply and communication
into a cubic millimeter volume. So, we want to make
a completely autonomous, remote sensor that's roughly
the size of a grain of sand.
Narrator:
The next step would be to develop smart dust with
legs, or rather synthetic insects, such as a silicon
ant.
Pister:
One application of that might be in disaster search
and rescue, where you could sprinkle your little silicon
ants all over collapsed building and have them hunt
for survivors, for example.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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