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A.
Discovering a Treasure Trove of Drugs in the Sea
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Small marine animals called
bryozoans commonly live on the bottoms of boats,
piers and rocks underwater. Because of this, researcher
Margo Haygood of the University of California, San
Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, says
in the past, these organisms were considered a nuisance
and a lot of funding was spent to try and get rid
of them.
Haygood:
It was in the 1960s that a group began to screen invertebrates
for anticancer activity and discovered it in this
very well known, very familiar organism. And since
then, there's been a great deal of research on the
compounds that are found in this animal and they do
have tremendous promise for treating cancer.
Narrator:
Haygood and her colleagues isolated the bacteria
within these organisms that produces the anticancer
compound and are now working on methods to commercially
supply this compound.
Haygood:
If we can use the kinds of methods that we're using
here, we can unlock that potential and take advantage
of the biological diversity of the ocean for treatment
of human problems.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
The Art of the Deceptive Smile
Narrator:
This is Science Today. We all know the feeling. The
conversation lulls, leaving a heavy, uncomfortable
silence. You flash a smile across the table and get
a nervous grin in response. But what do those upturned
corners really mean? Doctor Paul Ekman, a psychology
professor at the University of California San Francisco
says they are one of several "deceptive"
smiles that humans constantly deploy.
Ekman: The false smile is made
to deliberately mislead another person to make them
think that you're enjoying yourself when in fact your
not.
Narrator: Ekman says deceptive smiles
are used to hide our true feelings, and are difficult
to distinguish from genuine smiles of enjoyment.
Ekman:
Most of us are really not able to tell whether someone
is lying to us or not, even if it's a very serious
lie, and I believe most of don't really want to know
anyhow. And besides which, who wants to go through
life being suspicious all of the time about whether
someone is misleading us?
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.The
Far and Wide Reach of Tsunamis
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Tsunami is a Japanese word
that means "harbor wave". Casey Moore, a
professor of Earth Sciences at the University of California,
Santa Cruz says tsunamis - which are sometimes called
tidal waves - are caused by earthquakes, underwater
landslides, volcanic eruptions or impact from meteorites.
Moore:
In any case, if it's a landslide or a tectonic
earthquake-related movement, the water surface gets
disturbed and that wave moves out and propagates.
Narrator:
Although tsunamis are not very frequent, when they
do occur, they tend to be quite notable since they
can travel long distances.
Moore:
For instance, the earthquake in 1964 in Alaska - the
tsunami devastated Eureka, California. It came because
of the ocean bottom and the wave came in and focused
there and there was a substantial amount of damage.
Narrator:
Moore is part of an international research team
that's working to improve risk assessment of catastrophic
earthquakes, which can trigger tsunamis. For Science
Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Do Cells Commit Suicide?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Strokes are caused by interrupted
blood flow to the brain and can often result in massive
injury to the brain's neurons. After the initial injury,
the cells often try to repair their damaged DNA. The
process is extremely taxing, and can sometimes kill
the neuron. But Doctor Raymond Swanson, a neurology
professor at the University of California, San Francisco,
says the process may simply be a way for cells to
self-destruct.
Swanson:
Cell death in a stroke is not purely a passive
process. The thinking for many years is that when
cells in the body, and especially in the brain are
deprived of blood, they simply run out of energy and
die, and there's nothing that can be done about it.
Our data shows that the cells themselves contribute
to their own death.
Narrator:But
Swanson says the process isn't just a cellular suicide
mission, but rather a glitch in cell responses to
massive trauma.
Swanson:
And
so what we think is going on is that this is a normal
response to DNA damage, which is simply maladaptive.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Researchers Strive to Better Understand Gamma Ray
Bursts
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The Center for Supernova Research
at the University of California, Santa Cruz does more
than just investigate massive explosions known as
supernovae. Stan Woosley, a professor of astronomy
and astrophysics who directs the center, says they're
interested in all violent explosions that stars produce.
Woosley:
So we study something called gamma ray bursts as well,
and I think our group has the leading model for what
they are. Gamma ray bursts are a very interesting
subject. The observed phenomena has been with us ever
since the early 1970s and I guess about one of those
happens a day - but you can't see them on the Earth.
So they weren't discovered until satellites went up
in space, saw a gamma ray emission.
Narrator:
What you see is a sudden, very intense flash of light.
Woosley:
Trying to understand how something the size of a star
can do this has been a major theoretical challenge
and we think now that they have something to do with
supernovae - that the same engine that powers supernovae
also powers gamma ray bursts - maybe with a slight
difference.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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