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A.
A Monitoring Device that Detects Secret Nuclear
Weapons Testing and More ...
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A unique array of monitoring
devices has been developed and deployed in a southern
California desert by a team of researchers from
the University of California, San Diego's Scripps
Institution of Oceanography. Researcher Michael
Hedlin says it's one of the first stations in a
new global network.
Hedlin:
It's a special kind of listening post. It's an array
of microbarometers. And what it does is it listens
to sounds in the atmosphere that are at such long
periods that we can't hear them with our ears. So
it's listening for sounds that we would otherwise
be unaware of.
Narrator:
These include signals such as secret nuclear weapons
tests, volcanic eruptions and meteors. In fact,
Hedlin says one of the first significant signals
they heard was a large meteor crashing into Earth's
atmosphere last spring.
Hedlin:
The explosion was comparable in yield to the
atomic weapon that was dropped on Hiroshima. And
so we recorded very large signals. The signals were
so large that they propagated to the other side
of the planet and were recorded by a similar array
in Germany.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
A Surprising Discovery in Species Evolution
Narrator:
This is Science Today. If you picture in your mind's
eye an elephant, an aardvark and a golden mole, you
probably wouldn't have guessed that these creatures
evolved from a single African ancestor more than 65
million years ago. But that's just what biologist
Mark Springer of the University of California, Riverside
says their sophisticated molecular data indicates.
Springer: There's no previous
work, no previous hint based on morphology that all
of these things should be closely related to each
other. So this really came as a surprise and I think
a lot of the traditional morphological community was
a bit upset with this! I think their attitude was
that this was some wacky hypothesis that was just
going to go away - but it hasn't gone away!
Narrator: In fact, using advances in
DNA technology, Springer says they're continuing to
sequence additional genes - including in different
orders of species - and the support keeps getting
stronger and stronger.
Springer:
From the perspective of geography, it makes some sense.
You've got a whole lot of things - a whole lot of
orders of mammals that originated in Africa and they
seem to be each other's closest relatives.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
What's the Prospect of Sending Humans to Mars?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The thought of sending humans
to Mars is no longer limited to science fiction fantasies.
In fact, such a feat could possibly take place within
the next few decades. But there's a lot to be explored
here on Earth first - namely, psychological preparation
for such a trip. Nick Kanas, a psychiatrist at the
University of California, San Francisco, who has conducted
numerous psychological studies of crews for NASA,
says a trip to Mars would be a completely different
ballgame.
Kanas:
We're now talking about a two to three year mission
where crewmembers truly are isolated and are going
to be needing to take care of themselves more than
anyone else has ever done in a space mission.
Narrator:
Kanas says the crew would need to handle possible
psychotic reactions to such an unprecedented experience
as a trip to Mars.
Kanas:
And so I think we need to have an ability of the crew
in a trip to Mars to take care of themselves as much
as possible - not only in terms of the engineering
and the medical, but also the psychological and the
social.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
New Study Deems Colonoscopy the "Gold Standard"
Test
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Government research has found
that the two most widely used screening tests for
colon cancer - blood tests and sigmoidoscopy, which
is an examination of the lower colon - missed one-quarter
of the precancerous growths and tumors detected by
colonoscopy. Dr. Charles Theuer of the University
of California, Irvine, agrees with the research findings
that colonoscopy is the 'gold standard' test for colon
cancer.
Theuer:
Colonoscopy goes one step further than sigmoidoscopy
because it goes and looks at the entire colon. It's
actually - in my opinion - the best test for that
reason. It looks for polyps and cancers in the whole
colon and gives you the best chance of preventing
colon cancer from starting.
Narrator:
This year, colorectal cancer will kill over 56 thousand
Americans and over 135 thousand others will be diagnosed
with the disease.
Theuer:
Whenever I talk to groups, I make the first point
that one in 20 people will get colon cancer and the
groups I talk to always have more than 20 people and
I just try to make people realize that it's going
to affect you or someone in your family or someone
you know who you're close to. It's that common of
a disease.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
A Safe Way to Help Train Firefighters to Combat Wildfires
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Atmospheric scientists at the
Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories
are developing a computer program that can simulate
and eventually predict wildfire behavior. Mike Bradley
of the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center
at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, says
aside from helping contain wildfires, this program
could also be used in a training environment.
Bradley:
Something that would be somewhat analogous to
flight simulators that is used to train pilots. Firefighters
learn some of their most important lessons under very
hazardous conditions and sometimes they lose their
lives in the process. But we can provide a safe environment
where a firefighter can simulate fighting a fire and
if he or she makes a mistake, they can go back and
do it again and find out what's the best way for a
certain weather condition in the fire to fight the
fire.
Narrator:
Another potential use would be predicting the behavior
of prescribed burns before they're ignited.
Bradley:
And the firefighters can determine - do they really
want to light that fire today or maybe they should
wait until a couple days later.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm ...ah...Larissa Branin.
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