A.
Scientists Celebrate Completion of the Human Genome
Project
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Scientists have announced
the completion of the Human Genome Project - a 13-year
international effort to decode the three billion
base pairs in human DNA. The Department of Energy's
Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California,
was one of twenty sequencing centers working on
the project. Eddy Rubin is director of the University
of California-managed facility.
Rubin:
We contributed approximately 12 percent of the entire
human genome. We sequenced three chromosomes. There
are 24 chromosomes in the human genome - we sequenced
5, 16 and 19. Those are our chromosomes and so for
all time, these three chromosomes will have the
sequence that we generated.
Narrator:
The sequence is publicly available on the Internet
and is already being used by scientists and pharmaceutical
developers to seek new ways to prevent, diagnose
and treat human diseases and disorders. Meanwhile,
work continues at the Joint Genome Institute.
Rubin:
We're now using our sequencing capacity to understand
the genetics of information in all forms of life.
B.
The Key to Healthy Aging is Not in a Bottle
Narrator:
This is Science Today. In a society often described
as youth-obsessed, American consumers are bombarded
with anti-aging products, whether they be to erase
wrinkles or to increase lifespan. University of
California, Berkeley nutrition expert, Joanne Ikeda,
says one of the anti-aging diets gaining widespread
attention is based on calorie restriction diets
in rats, which were found to increase longevity.
Ikeda:
And so based on this, there had
been some anti-aging diet books written with a claim
that people can lengthen their lifespan to 120 years
or even 150 years!
Narrator:
But Ikeda says when the calorie restriction
diets were later tested in a yearlong study of men,
the research revealed the men became more irritable
and withdrawn.
Ikeda:
What
this study tells us is when you restrict your calorie
intake, it does have profound effects on your psychological
and social well-being.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
The Emerging Field of In Utero Surgery
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Researchers in the emerging
field of in utero surgery have determined that there
is a larger window of time during the first trimester
of pregnancy to repair facial defects in a fetus.
Jill Helms, a professor of orthopaedic surgery at
the University of California, San Francisco, says
her research suggests that fetal surgeons will have
nine weeks after fertilization to attempt face-saving
surgeries and treatments.
Helms:
One of the interests we have is in the approach
of using fetal surgery to correct craniofacial defects.
And if you want to do something like that, you have
to know, well, when did the defect arise? And what
is the window in time in which this defect could
be corrected?
Narrator:
Helms says today most fetal surgery only correct
fatal defects.
Helms:
As surgical techniques are perfected and as ultrasound
techniques are improved, and earlier diagnoses are
able to be made of fetal defects, there's the possibility
of starting to perform in-utero surgeries to correct
maybe much more mild defects.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
The Challenges Facing Asian Rice Farmers
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A study by the International
Rice Research Institute indicates that over the
next thirty years, demand for rice in Asia is expected
to jump to 70 percent. But are Asian rice farmers
prepared to meet such a challenge? University of
California, Davis rice production expert, Jim Hill,
doesn't think so.
Hill:
Most Asian rice farmers just don't have the
wherewithal to buy fertilizers and in many cases,
they don't have the knowledge to understand how
to use them. I would have to say that countries
like Cambodia are almost at what I would call rice
production systems that they had a thousand years
ago.
Narrator:
Poor quality soils, flooding and droughts also hinder
production.
Hill:
I think all of the principles of working in flooded
soils, which is the unique thing about rice as compared
to any other crop, those principles are the same
whether you're in a high technology industry like
California and the developed world or whether you're
in a very low tech rice growing area.
Narrator:
Hill just completed a three-year study of Asian
rice farming practices. For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
E.
A Proposed Pollution-Free Power Plant
Narrator:
This is Science Today. There's a proposal in the
works by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory to build a research facility that would
produce a pollution-free, ten Megawatt generation
plant using what's called Zero Emissions Steam Technology,
otherwise known as ZEST. Ray Smith, of the Lab's
Applied Energy Technologies, says the concept is
based on rocket engine technology.
Smith:
You burn the fossil fuel with oxygen in a ratio
such that you produce only CO2 and water - you produce
no hydrocarbons.
Narrator:
The steam
and carbon dioxide then go through high- temperature
steam turbines, which generate electricity.
Smith:
The major thrust of this facility - the major work
- will actually be to improve the steam turbines
through materials development work to raise the
inlet temperature of these steam turbines, which
will increase the efficiency of the whole process.
And we think we can get to the 55 to 60% range that
combined-cycle plants do today, but without any
atmospheric emissions, which is a major, major difference.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
