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A.
Understanding the Largest Explosions in our Solar
System
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Considering its importance
to life on Earth, the sun remains surprisingly mysterious
to scientists. But that may soon change, thanks
to the research of Manfred Bester of the University
of California, Berkeley. Dr. Bester's team recently
launched a spacecraft that will give the clearest
pictures yet of solar flares-the largest explosions
in our solar system.
Bester:
Hopefully what we'll be able to do is explain how
solar flares are generated-what are the energy processes
that set off these flares and how in detail they work.
And that will probably allow us in the future to predict
better the occurrence of flares.
Narrator:
Bester says this will help protect the astronauts
who live in the Earth's orbit and will add to the
growing understanding of how the sun works.
Bester:
Our spacecraft is basically putting a microscope
on the sun where maybe before you had a magnifying
glass. So each time you increase your ways of looking
at finer details, there's a very high probability
that you'll find things that were not known before.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Why Those with Hypertension Should Know Their Salts
Narrator:
This is Science Today. It's estimated that nine out
of ten older Americans suffer from hypertension and
even though medications can help, more exercise and
better diets can prevent the problem from even starting.
While watching salt content is highly recommended,
a University of California, San Francisco researcher
says there are "good" salts and "bad"
salts. Dr. Curtis Morris found in a rat study that
potassium salts in fruits and vegetables lowered blood
pressure, but the chloride in table salt raised it,
indicating it may be the chloride that's the culprit
and not the sodium.
Morris:
I think it's very possible that there are a number
of people who have so-called borderline or high-normal
blood pressures in whom hypertension might be prevented
or delayed by increasing dietary intake of potassium
and reducing the dietary intake of salt.
Narrator: Morris says the best way to
get this source of potassium, or the "good"
salt, is to eat more fruits and vegetables - but don't
overcook the veggies.
Morris:
Prolonged
boiling tends to cause a leaching of the potassium
out of the vegetables and it goes out into the water.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Research Explores the Brain and Drug Addiction
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Despite decades of research,
the science behind drug addiction is still largely
unexplained. Dr. Antonello Bonci of the University
of California San Francisco, is working to find out
more about the changes in the brain that make addiction
so hard to overcome.
Bonci:
Even if it doesn't last long, every time we are exposed
to cocaine, even if the pleasurable effects last for
3-4 hours,… there is something in the brain region
that is related to addictive behaviors that is changed
for way longer than three hours of pleasure.
Narrator:
The brain region responsible for the initiation of
addictive behaviors is called the V-T-A. Dr Bonci
found that after five days-long after the effects
of cocaine are gone-the V-T-A is still changed by
the drug exposure.
Bonci:
Is it really possible that in those five days, there
is a transfer of information from the VTA that triggers
the initiation of addictive behaviors to all the other
brain regions, and now the VTA as we know it is not
any more necessary for addictive behaviors.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Study Uncovers Inequities Towards Working Mothers
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Last year, for the first time
ever, more women than men began graduate school at
the University of California, Berkeley. But a recent
study by the university's Dean of the Graduate Division
found that these gains haven't translated into more
tenured positions for those women who have children
soon after finishing graduate studies. Mary Ann Mason
and colleagues used data that was collected by the
National Science Foundation over the last twenty years.
Mason:
This seemed to me to be an important time to see
what was going to happen to these women and how did
it play out over their career time. Particularly the
issue of what effect would family have on their lives.
Narrator:
While 77 percent of men with PhDs eventually found
a tenured position, less than 60 percent of women
with babies that were born soon after grad school
ended up with tenure.
Mason:
Women, because of the fact that children take a great
deal of time, are often slowed down in their career
track. One of our concerns was that the workplace,
although we have 51 percent of our graduate students
as women, does not accommodate a family life.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
The Exciting Field of Nanotechnology
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The field of nanotechnology
- the manipulation of materials and data at the atomic
level - will enable a new generation of products that
are smaller, lighter and more precise. Researcher
Peidong Yang of the University of California, Berkeley
says the field, which may sound intimidating to some,
is moving ahead at a good pace.
Yang:
Right now the public is getting a really good understanding
of what nanotechnology means and government is supporting
these big initiatives in these nanotechnologies. So,
overall I think the investment in nanotech is fairly
healthy at this moment - even with this economic downturn.
Narrator:
But Yang says some of the predictions, including for
tiny nanoscale robots being available within the next
five to ten years, are a bit hyper.
Yang:
I would say this nanoscale science technology will
enable some smaller devices, no necessarily like nano
robot or those tiny things we are talking about right
now - that may take longer.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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