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A.
Recent Progress in Nanotechnology to Benefit Consumers
Within Five Years
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Anyone who has shopped for
a new cellular phone or laptop computer knows that
smaller is better. Now researchers at the University
of California, Berkeley are taking the shrinking
trend even further with their work in nanotechnology.
Dr. Peidong Yang says recent progress in the field
could mean benefits for consumers within the next
few years.
Yang:
The immediate impact on society will be that we'll
be able to make, of course, computers smaller, with
higher speed; and also in terms of memory you'll be
able to store more information.
Narrator:
Nanotechnology deals with structures on a tiny scale.
For example, a nanometer, the form of measurement
Yang and his co-workers use in their work, is 250,000
times smaller than a human hair.
Yang:
To be small, basically meaning you consume less
energy, the footprint will be much smaller and also
in terms of computers and communication, you have
faster speed, big storage capability. So that will
impact the daily life of the public.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Advances in Computer Technology Help Astrophysicists
Understand Supernovae
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Despite their prominent role
in astronomy, there's still a lot about supernovae
- or massive exploding stars - that's not known, including
just how these stars do explode. Stan Woosley, director
of the Center for Supernova Research at the University
of California, Santa Cruz, says a team of astrophysicists
and computer scientists at four different institutions
are working on the problem. But as Woosley points
out, it's not a problem that can be solved with pencil
and paper.
Woosley:
It's something that you have to simulate on the largest
computers in the world. So this is really a problem
in computational astrophysics and one reason we're
making progress of late is because of the enormous
advances in computer technology that have occurred
in the last decade.
Narrator: Woosley says they don't run
machines that have a single CPU anymore - they run
computers that have five thousand CPUs wired together.
Woosley:
And
each of these processors might not be much faster
than your home computer that you could buy, but there
are thousands of them and they are optimized to work
together.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Researchers Strive to Ease Morphine Addiction
Narrator:
This is Science Today. People who suffer from chronic
pain usually have bigger problems than morphine addiction.
Many have cancer or other debilitating illnesses.
But when these patients try to stop taking the drugs
that relieve their pain, they often suffer physical
withdrawal. Dr. Jennifer Whistler of the University
of California, San Francisco, leads a team of researchers
who may have found a way to ease the transition.
Whistler:
We think that the kind of tolerance that you develop
to morphine is going to go hand-in-hand with dependence.
By dependence I mean physical dependence-whereby you're
going to show signs of withdrawal.
Narrator:
Morphine dependence worsens as the dosage is increased.
Because patients tend to build a tolerance for morphine,
long-term users end up taking high doses of the drug.
Whistler found that using a tiny amount of another
opiate, like methadone, with the morphine, prevented
test rats from becoming tolerant of the drug.
Whistler:
And if that's true, hopefully that will be true for
patients as well. Even at a single dose you may be
able to prevent some of the physical signs of withdrawal
from the drug.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Understanding the Symptoms and Risks of Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder
Narrator:
This is Science Today. In the months following last
year's terrorist attacks, there's been much discussion
about post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and
what to do about it. Dr. Frank Schoenfeld, director
of the University of California, San Francisco's Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder Center, describes symptom
clusters of PTSD.
Schoenfeld:
The first and most characteristic for PTSD is
re-experiencing - people will have nightmares about
the traumatic experience, but during the daytime,
they may also have vivid, intrusive memories that
are unwanted and they can't get out of their minds.
Also, there's avoidance and numbing.
Narrator:
Schoenfeld says identifying people at risk early on
becomes critical.
Schoenfeld:
People who are less socially advantaged are at risk.
There's often less social support and less structures
to mobilize to help once they get into difficulties.
In a time relationship, if somebody's been under stress
in the year prior to a traumatic event, that puts
them at higher risk.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Why Older Couples Experience More Marital Satisfaction
Narrator:
This is Science Today. For years, social scientists
have known that older couples tend to be happier couples.
Now, the University of California, Berkeley is more
than a decade into a long-term study of marital satisfaction
in both elderly and middle-aged couples. Cenita Kupperbusch
says her research gives some insight into why marriages
tend to get better late in life.
Kupperbusch:
There is a trend for older couples to report slightly
higher levels of marital satisfaction as they moved
into old age and that was not the case for the middle-aged
group. Part of the reason marital satisfaction increases
as people move from the stage when they've got kids
out of the home and they've moved into retirement
is that they've got less things to be having troubles
over.
Narrator:
Kupperbusch says this shows that the low-point for
marital satisfaction may be closely linked with the
years when couples share their home with their children.
Kupperbusch:
I guess the recommendation I would make is if you're
in a good marriage, stick it out. It only gets better.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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