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A.
The Relationship between Host and Parasite Helps
Drive Evolution
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Researchers led by University
of California, Berkeley biologist Thomas Cline,
recently discovered that a parasite living on the
fruit fly can make sterile fruit flies fertile again.
Cline says this unexpected interaction between a
parasitic bacteria and its fruit fly host has implications
for our understanding of fundamental biological
processes.
Cline:
To find that infection by a bacterium can restore,
can counteract the effects of this single nucleotide
change in a particular gene, just shows you how
little we know really about the kinds of interactions
that go on in the real world, and the kinds of factors
that are really very important for evolution.
Narrator:
Cline explains that the competition between host
and parasite leads to biological change.
Cline:
Because it's a constant race-the parasite obviously
wants to take advantage of the host, and the host
obviously doesn't want to be taken advantage of
too much, so there's this constant race, and it's
true of humans, it's true of every species on Earth,
where there's this constant battle of outracing
your parasites.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.The
Rice Genome and Genetic Engineering
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The recent completion of two
sequences of the rice genome give scientists a better
understanding of a grain that feeds half the world's
population. Pamela Ronald, a molecular biologist at
the University of California, Davis, says this basic
information is not directly related to the more controversial
practice of genetic engineering.
Ronald: This genome sequence
can be applied to traditional breeding, which we have
been doing for a hundred years. Now, genetic engineering
is different because we can take a gene from rice
or from another organism and we can engineer it into
that plant.
Narrator: Using knowledge about the
rice genome for traditional breeding can help farmers
grow rice that is more resistant to disease and drought.
Ronald says genetic engineering can also be beneficial
if the results are carefully monitored.
Ronald:
So I think the idea behind both traditional breeding
as well as genetic engineering of rice is to really
develop improved rice lines that farmers can grow,
that taste very good, that have improved nutritional
qualities.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Automating a System for Detecting Biological Attacks
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A new system called BASIS has
been developed to detect biological agents released
in the air by a terrorist attack. Researchers at the
Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories
created the network of air monitors and testing labs
to protect special events like last winter's Salt
Lake City Olympics. But Livermore Project Manager
Dennis Imbro says the system could be used beyond
special events if certain challenges are met.
Imbro:
If we want to take the system and run it 365
days a year in a city, now we become concerned with
the crew size. And so one of the specific things that
we're doing is automating all the processes. Put it
on robotic workstations and making it easier for a
few people to push through a lot of samples per day.
Narrator:
Imbro says automation involves significant scientific
challenges. The samples used to test for biological
agents must work perfectly since no person will be
present to oversee the process.
Imbro:
False alarms in a situation like this are really very
unacceptable.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Geriatrics Study Looks into Biomarkers for Health
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A UCLA-led geriatrics study
is looking into how biological markers in the blood
may serve as an early identification of disease and
functional decline in older, at-risk populations.
Dr. David Reuben, chief of UCLA geriatrics, says they're
looking at two biomarkers in particular.
Reuben:
The first is serum albumin. Serum albumin is a protein
that everybody has and it's the same albumin that's
in your egg whites. The important thing about this
protein is that it's a very, very good predictor of
four-year mortality or decline in function.
Narrator:
The other biomarker is a cytokine called IL-6 that
can predict the presence of inflammation, which is
a possible indication of disease.
Reuben:
I'm not sure that it's justified in terms of the screening
yet at this point and certainly the IL-6, which is
a pretty expensive test, would not be justified for
screening purposes yet. But that doesn't mean that
sometime in the future this might not be the case.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
An Intelligent Car Sharing Program
Narrator:
This is Science Today. An automated car-sharing system
using electric powered vehicles for short trips is
being used and tested by researchers at the University
of California, Riverside. Electrical engineer Matt
Barth says one of the issues they're looking into
is keeping the IntelliShare Community Vehicle Project
in balance.
Barth:
That we don't have too many vehicles at one station
and not enough at another. And these system management
techniques we've developed does indeed keep our system
in a well-distributed fashion where it continues to
function properly throughout the day.
Narrator:
Each vehicle has a small microcomputer on board that
makes it easy to keep track of its whereabouts and
system status.
Barth:
Probably the reason it hasn't been so popular as of
yet is it adds an extra burden to the user to try
to use these types of systems. When there is an added
amount of convenience with this technology, then people
are going to be able to embrace that and use it much
more often.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, Larissa Branin.
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