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A.
A Robotic Microscope Helps Scientists Track Cells
Over Time
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A new robotic microscope
is helping researchers track cells over time - and
without all the tedious counting and analyzing.
Dr. Steven Finkbeiner, a researcher at the University
of California, San Francisco's Gladstone Institute
of Neurological Disease, invented the robotic microscope.
Finkbeiner:
The microscope can do what it took us six to eight
weeks to do in about twelve minutes now…so that's
one major advantage, is that it's faster and no one
has to sit there for eight hours day after day, doing
some of these counting measurements.
Narrator:
Equipped with fast and precise motors - the microscope
can zero in on and photograph specific cellular
reference points, as the images automatically appear
on a computer screen for analysis. Finkbeiner is
currently using this technology to study neurons
in Huntington's Disease.
Finkbeiner:
The remarkable thing is now we can follow these
little individual neurons through time and that
enables us to figure out what things change first
in neurons that lead to a particular outcome, so
we can begin to understand what factors are actually
prognostic.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Why are there Regional Differences in U.S Wildfires?
Narrator:This
is Science Today. So far, this year alone wildfires
have burned almost two million acres. That's twice
the ten-year average for this point in the year. Major
fires have struck all parts of the country, from New
Jersey and Florida to Colorado and California. But
all regions are not equal when it comes to fire danger.
Fire Scientist Scott Stephens of the University of
California, Berkeley, says the severity of wildfires
in different parts of the United States has changed
in recent decades.
Stephens:
Most of the West increased in the amount of acres
that've burned in the last 60 years. Some places actually
in the Northeast and the Eastern U.S., and also the
Southeast, have actually seen decreases.
Narrator:
Stephens says natural causes, like lightning,
account for some of these differences. But there are
also other reasons.
Stephens:
You
know I think one of the real changes is really the
cultures of the people. The Southeast United States
has really come up with a culture of fire and people
together. A lot of people use fire down there culturally
for their practices and their management.
Narrator:
Whereas in the West, there's less use of fire as a preventive
tool. For Science Today,
I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Childhood Leukemia Mutation Displays a Long Latency
Period
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A new study has shown that
a genetic mutation associated with a type of childhood
leukemia commonly occurs before birth, but can lay
dormant for up to twelve years. Lead researcher Joseph
Wiemels of the University of California, San Francisco,
says the long latency period of the genetic mutation,
called a translocation, has implications for adults.
Wiemels:
The translocation is occurring in a very early precursor
blood cell, a cell that's going to hang around for
twelve years and maybe, potentially for a lifetime.
And perhaps even some adult leukemias with this translocation
may have carried that translocation from the time
of birth.
Narrator:
The research also suggests that a second event after
the prenatal, long latency period must occur to cause
leukemia.
Wiemels:
But maybe someday we could predict for leukemia and
perhaps have some intervention to prevent the disease
from getting the second event and becoming a full-blown
disease.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Why Europeans Smoke More than Americans
Narrator:This
is Science Today. A recent worldwide study of smokers
and non-smokers in fourteen countries, has found that
on average, Europeans smoke a lot more than Americans.
Preventive medicine specialist, Stephen McCurdy, of
the University of California, Davis helped conduct
the large-scale study and says in Spain for example,
men lit up more than half as much as their American
counterparts.
McCurdy:
The study confirmed what many of us have noted just
in our daily experience who have been to Europe, and
that is that smoking is much more common in Europe
than it is in the United States.
Narrator:
But why
do Spaniards and other Europeans smoke more? McCurdy
says it's a matter of economics.
McCurdy:
If you look
back twenty and thirty years ago, economically most
people did not have the financial means to smoke.
But now with their entry into the European union and
the rapidly advancing improvement in economic circumstances,
people have the money and the ability to smoke…and
certainly many have done that.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
A Study Finds We're a Sleep Deprived Nation
Narrator:
This is Science Today. According to the National Sleep
Foundation, almost two-thirds of Americans are sleep
deprived. And yet, Dr. Chris Gillin, of the University
of California, San Diego conducted studies suggesting
the brain may have an adaptive resource to make up
for sleep deprivation. Still, Gillin says a lack of
sleep should not be taken lightly.
Gillin:
Performance drops when people are sleep deprived.
They're at increased risk of automobile accidents
and it certainly has been implicated in some very
serious disasters. For example, the Three Mile Island
nuclear disaster occurred in the middle of the night
and it was thought that sleep deprived employees made
some human errors that resulted in that.
Narrator:
Gillin and his colleagues found that the sleepier
a person was, the greater the activation in a part
of the brain that controls judgment and working memory.
Gillin:
This
was unexpected to us, but it does suggest that the
brain does have compensatory mechanisms and it's not
just a simple sleep deprivation effect. It's probably
really related to the task that the subject is performing
and to a number of other variables, such as how well
they're performing or how sleepy they are.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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