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A.
Decoding the Language of Proteins
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Scientists at the University
of California, Berkeley are using optics to decode
a new language-the language of proteins in living
cells. Working with the new Center for Biophotonics
Science and Technology, chemistry professor Jay
Groves is learning how signals transfer information
in the hopes of answering some important biomedical
questions.
Groves:
We're using a variety of these new and optical techniques,
many of which we're developing as we go, to give us
the tools to resolve those signals and figure out
what this language is.
Narrator:
Groves says these technologies will enable researchers
to determine how immune cells communicate with each
other and how they recognize diseased cells in our
bodies.
Groves:
And ultimately if we can see into those communications
ourselves, can we learn how to develop new pharmaceuticals
that tune these things for perhaps being able to
modulate the negative effects of an autoimmune disease.
Narrator:
The Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology
is a national effort linking together ten scientific
research institutions. For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B.
One Reason Why Botox is So Popular . . .
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The popularity of Botox, an
injectable cosmetic treatment that erases lines on
the forehead, is on the rise. Dr. Richard Glogau,
a University of California, San Francisco dermatologist,
says one of the main reasons for its gain in popularity
is it effectively erases certain expression lines
on the face that carry what he calls a tremendous
amount of 'emotional content'.
Glogau: And those vertical lines
between the eyebrows are at the top of the list. They
make you look angry, they make you look tired, they
make you look worn out, even when you don't feel that
way.
Narrator: Glogau says these particular
expression lines really can affect a person's interpersonal
relationships.
Glogau:
It's not well stated, but that's really fundamentally
why the material is so popular. It's not really a
question of just getting rid of lines and erasing
wrinkles. It impacts the way people relate to you
and patients don't generally understand that, but
they very quickly come to the sense that it's different
and getting that without surgery is really the big
appeal. That's really what's pushing this drug.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Refining Third World Indoor Cooking Stoves
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Improved cooking stoves used
in Third World countries have dramatically reduced
the amount of indoor air pollution - a problem that
has long plagued these populations. But better still,
University of California, Berkeley researcher Dan
Kammen, who helped develop, test and distribute these
stoves in Kenya, Uganda and Central America, says
these stoves only cost about a dollar each.
Kammen:
These stoves look more like a little Coleman
portable one, although they're not made of metal generally.
The ones that have become incredibly popular in Kenya
look a like a little hourglass. They're about a foot
tall, the top part of the hourglass has a clay liner,
the pot sits on top of that and the hourglass on the
bottom is where the ash falls.
Narrator:
It may sound simple, but Kammen says it took a lot
of work to refine.
Kammen:
In fact, my training as a physicist and doing a lot
of the field work in energy and development issues,
ended up with a lot of other researchers as well,
being a relatively important part of the process.
We needed to think through all kinds of design questions.
Narrator:
Kammen recently initiated a relationship with
the EPA to help distribute these pollution-reducing
stoves in Third World countries. For Science Today,
I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Seeking Clues to the Cause of the Most Powerful Earthquakes
Narrator:This
is Science Today. An international group of scientists,
including Casey Moore, a professor of earth sciences
at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are seeking
to understand the cause of the most powerful earthquakes.
Moore, one of the chief scientists leading the research
project, says they're using special drilling technology
from the oil industry to measure and monitor physical
properties of a fault zone off the shore of Japan
- and they're doing it in place.
Moore:
So that it's like instead of measuring the density
or the porosity of something that's removed from its
original environment, you measure right where it is
and you get a truer sense of its behavior.
Narrator:
In
particular, Moore says they're looking at fluids flowing
along fault zones.
Moore:
We
want to use the nature of the fault zones and the
fluids as a monitor for movement of the fault because
when the Earth is stressed, when there are forces
on it, it behaves like a sponge and it starts to squeeze
out some of the water. So at this stage, people are
just trying to understand how the faults behave.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
The Evolutionary Advantages of Sexual Reproduction
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Evolutionary biologists have
wondered for years just why sexual reproduction is
more common than asexual reproduction - especially
since asexual populations have the advantage of producing
more offspring. Now, researchers at the University
of California, Santa Barbara, have demonstrated for
the first time that the accumulation of beneficial
mutations is faster in sexual populations. Biologist
Marlene Zuk, of the University of California, Riverside,
has also done work in this field and says that's because
sexual reproduction provides more variation in offspring.
Zuk:
You make fewer of them and they're not as much
like you, but what if they're better? Let's say that
you're in a population where there's some disease
that's attacking everybody. Well, parasites are doing
this because they're able to exploit some aspect of
your genotype. Let's say they can do better to attach
to your intestinal lining. Well, if you have a bunch
of offspring that vary in the quality of their intestinal
lining, then maybe one of them is going to be able
to resist the pathogen.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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