|
A.
A WISE Approach Towards Teaching Science
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Students can get "wise"
to science with a curriculum called the Web-based
Integrated Science Environment, otherwise known
as WISE. Marcia Linn, a professor of education at
the University of California, Berkeley, co-developed
the WISE curriculum and says the program pioneers
educational uses of the World Wide Web for middle
and high school science instruction.
Linn:
When we first started, we really just weren't
sure how students ever made sense of science. We
really looked at what's wrong with the way that
the science curriculum is and how could we infuse
technology effectively to improve the situation.
Narrator:
WISE uses technology such as the Internet and software
programs to get students to develop an in-depth
understanding of fewer topics through visual representations,
on-line discussions and critiques. Linn calls this
the lifelong learning approach.
Linn:
Our research suggests that the students who've
had the lifelong learning curriculum are more successful
on the topics that they've studied.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.Understanding
Asymmetries in the Human Brain
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Asymmetries, or rather differences,
between the left and right side of the brain routinely
show up in human brain imaging and yet, Larry Cahill,
a professor of neurobiology and behavior at the University
of California, Irvine, says researchers often can't
explain why.
Cahill: The sense of the whys
is the big 64 thousand dollar question, not just in
this immediate area, but in the whole area of human
asymmetry. My guess is that as the cortex gets bigger
and bigger and more complicated as you go across species,
we're going to more and more processing within a hemisphere
relative to across a hemisphere
Narrator: Cahill recently found that
men and women use different sides of the brain to
store long-term, emotional memories.
Cahill:
There's been half a dozen or so brain imaging studies
that have shown differences between the brains between
men and women in various domains, language or mathematical
ability. It's kind of like a few raindrops before
a major storm hits. This is another raindrop.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
A Call for Mandatory Testing of Grain for Genetically
Modified Organisms
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A panel of scientists advising
the Environmental Protection Agency say that genetically
altered StarLink corn has not been proven safe for
food and are urging mandatory testing of grain. Norman
Ellstrand, a professor of genetics at the University
of California, Riverside, says it's easy to lose track
of the transgenes unless people have their material
checked.
Ellstrand:
There are markers available for these genes and
the markers are available so people are beginning
to screen their crops. Farmers who want their seed
to be pure, can isolate their crop so that they are
far enough away or grown at a different time or surrounded
by barrier rows that would cut down on the contamination.
Narrator:
And yet, Ellstrand says this raises an interesting
social issue.
Ellstrand:
Should it be on the shoulders of farmers who want
to keep their crops pure? Or should it be the responsibility
of the farmers who grow millions of millions of acres
of transgenic crops, to make sure that their transgenic
crops do not contaminate the crops of those - who
want to keep them pure.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
The Search for Better Anti-viral Treatments
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Hepatitis C, a viral infection
of the liver, affects more than four million Americans
and so far, the only treatment available does not
work in a very large proportion of patients. That's
why Dr. Raul Andino, a microbiologist at the University
of California, San Francisco, was excited to discover
that ribavirin, one of two anti-viral drugs used to
treat Hepatitis C, has a mechanism that can cause
the virus to experience a genetic meltdown.
Andino:
And so there's an interesting question there - why
work for some and it doesn't work for others? And
can we improve it?
Narrator:
Andino and his colleagues found that ribavirin causes
a flood of new mutations that overwhelms the virus.
Andino:
So all that is opening a completely new field in terms
of anti viral drugs and there are already three different
companies working heavily on trying to further explore
whether this can be a genetic concept. But this is
just the beginning of it, I think.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Merging Two Ideas about the Inner Earth into One Theory
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The Earth's mantle begins about
twenty-two miles below our feet and travels on another
18 hundred miles. Since no one has ever drilled more
than ten miles into the Earth, mantle analysts have
to rely on indirect observations. Louise Kellogg,
a geophysicist at the University of California, Davis,
says different observations led to a difference of
opinion among seismologists and geochemists. So Kellogg
used both lines of thinking to come up with a new
theory about the inner Earth.
Kellogg:
We brought all the observations together into
a single model in which, basically the very deep mantle
has a somewhat different composition from the overlying
mantle.
Narrator:
Based on their findings, Kellogg suggests debate about
the mantle may be due to seismologists tapping into
one level of composition and geochemists into another.
Kellogg:
And so now there's a lot of effort going into understanding
the deep mantle. And so I think what people are going
to do is try and focus some effort on regional studies
of specific slabs and try and look for evidence for
a layer and the deep mantle.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
|
