A.
The Effects of Second-hand Smoke on Your Heart
Narrator:
This is Science Today. You may have noticed that
being around second-hand smoke can irritate your
nose and eyes and can often lead to headaches, but
are you aware of what happens to your heart? Dr.
Stan Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University
of California, San Francisco, explains how exposure
to the toxic chemicals in second-hand smoke increases
your risk for a heart attack.
Glantz:
A cigarette is like a little toxic waste dump on fire.
It puts into the air a huge number of toxic chemicals.
They very severely affect your blood and your blood
vessels. They activate blood platelets, which makes
your blood get sticky and stick to the walls of your
arteries. And they also inhibit the ability of your
arteries to expand, when they need to expand to get
more blood to your heart and other parts of your body.
And both of these things increase your risk of a heart
attack. And these are effects that occur within minutes.
Narrator:
Glantz recently published a study proving that creating
smoke-free environments lowers the number of heart
attacks in a population. For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B.
What's the Prospect of a SARS Vaccine?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. With mounting global concern
over the spreading epidemic of severe acute respiratory
syndrome, or SARS, the possible need for a vaccine
looms heavily, but Dr. Arthur Reingold, director
of the Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness
at the University of California, Berkeley, says
that SARS vaccine research is still in its infancy.
Reingold:
There's already been early work
to take this particular Corona Virus and put it
into established cell lines with an eye towards
the future and possibly the need for a vaccine.
I don't think we know if we're going to need a vaccine
for this virus or not. And if we do, it's certainly
going to be a while.
Narrator:
Designing the vaccine to maintain safety
and efficiency standards will contribute to the
delay.
Reingold:
If we
did have an emergency and an emergent need for a
new vaccine, they're a lot of thorny questions about
under what circumstances you would short-circuit
the normal procedures that assure that the vaccines
that we give people are safe and effective. How
we would quickly judge the effectiveness of such
a vaccine also would take some hard work.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
What We Have in Common with Snails
Narrator:
This is Science Today. While it may not be the most
pleasant of senses, fear is there for a reason -
to protect you from danger. Dr. Mark Barad, a professor
of psychiatry at UCLA says fear is a very old response.
Barad:
In fact, it actually predates the vertebrate lineage.
A lot of what we know about the molecular components
of fear or at least of reacting to bad things happening
was learned from the snail! Those molecules are
the same molecules that we use for fear. So the
molecules that are necessary for learning fear have
been the same since snails to us. It's the same
molecule - so the anatomy has developed, obviously
considerably.
Narrator:
Barad has been studying a type of psychotherapy
called extinction of conditional fear.
Barad:
Extinction is learning to inhibit that fear under
circumstances where it's not appropriate. So what
we've discovered - at least one of the specific
molecules that are involved in that process of learning
inhibition, of learning to inhibit your fear, so
the original fear remains.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Promising New Management Options for Sudden Oak
Death
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Scientists may have a promising
new option to manage Sudden Oak Syndrome, a fungus-like
tree disease that's rampaging though California's
coastal mountains and forestland. Plant pathologist
David Rizzo of the University of California, Davis,
says non-toxic chemicals known as phosphates have
shown promise.
Rizzo:
These chemicals are not registered as pesticides
as of yet - they're experimental, but the work is
proceeding and we're somewhat optimistic.
Narrator:
Rizzo says when these compounds were injected directly
into the trunks of diseased trees, they traveled
to the leaves and seemed to stimulate the host's
defense mechanism - but they're not sure how and
there are some limitations to the process.
Rizzo:
Number one, they seemed to have to be injected directly
into the bark. The other thing is it does seem to
be more of a protectant. If the tree is already
infected, it potential could slow down the spread,
but it is not going to cure the tree. So this is
not a cure for already infected trees.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Study Aims to Find Best Screening Test for Lung
Cancer
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Lung cancer kills more Americans
every year than breast, prostate, colon and pancreas
cancers combined. Yet, there is still no standard
approach to lung cancer screening. That's why the
National Institute of Health is funding a huge national
lung screening trial. Jonathan Goldin, is co-investigator
of the site study at the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center.
Goldin:
The national lung screening trial, NLST, is a multi-center
study who's primary objective is to study whether
screening for lung cancer in at risk individuals
with either chest x-ray or CT is an effective mode
of screening.
Narrator:
Eligible study participants will undergo three years
of screening, using the modality they were randomly
assigned.
Goldin:
They will also complete questionnaires that follow
very carefully what's happened to them, not only
medically, but in terms of the impact in a subgroup
of patients, the impact of screening on the psychology
of the patient, the health economy of the patient,
as well as on the society in which screening is
being done will be looked at.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
