A.
A New Approach to Power Generation
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Over the next twenty-five
years, total electricity consumption in the United
States is estimated to go up a dramatic fifty percent.
To address this growing energy need, scientists
like Chris Marnay of the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, are developing a new approach to power
generation and reliability, which they call the
CERTS Microgrid.
Marnay:
The idea is that a small cluster of generators in
a building, or in a group of buildings, or in an
industrial facility, could function autonomously
from the grid in the case of an outage and also
connected to the grid under normal operating circumstances.
Narrator:
Marnay says today the power grid is very vulnerable-if
one part fails, the whole grid can blackout-but
microgrids could protect vital services during a
blackout and increase security.
Marnay:
And if you could protect what are vital
services and so on in this way, then also the consequences
of an outage could be a lot less. And the corollary
of that is that it makes the grid less attractive
as a target.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Tips for Improving Doctor-Patient Communication
Narrator:
This is Science Today. In today's managed health
care environment, too often patients have less time
to spend with their doctors. At the same time, patients
are expected to be more pro-active in their care.
Dean Shillinger, a primary care physician at the
University of California, San Francisco says this
raises some concern.
Shillinger:
As we place more and more demands
on patients, it becomes more and more incumbent
upon us to ensure that what we've explained can
be recalled, comprehended and then acted on correctly
when the patient goes home. That's a pretty tall
order to ask in any brief communication encounter.
Narrator:
Shillinger conducted direct observation
studies of doctor-patient communications and came
up with a few tips for doctors.
Shillinger:
You want
to avoid the yes, no answers. You want to activate
the patient - to sort of give them the space, say
the thing that they're going to do. To really say,
OK, when you go home, what are you going to tell
your granddaughter about the reason that you're
going to need this operation? Just to make sure
that she can really say it in her own words and
understand it at that level.
Narrator:For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Teenaged Vegetarians are on the Rise
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Health care studies indicate
that more and more of our nation's teenagers are
becoming vegetarians. Nutrition expert Joanne Ikeda
of the University of California, Berkeley says while
their diets are, on average, better than those of
their non-vegetarian peers, maintaining a balanced
diet can be challenging.
Ikeda:
Nutrients
that teenaged vegetarians are most apt to be at
risk for are calcium, iron and vitamin B12, so the
teens need to make sure that they're eating things
like tofu processed with calcium sulfate or they're
drinking calcium-fortified soymilk or calcium-fortified
orange juice.
Narrator:
With a plant-based diet, vitamin supplementation
is strongly encouraged.
Ikeda:
We recommend that people supplement their diets
with what's called a vegetarian support formula.
This has a very active source of vitamin B12.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Researchers Work to Sequence Infectious Bacteria
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The Joint Genome Institute,
which played a major role in the sequencing of human
DNA, is one of the world's largest and most productive
genome sequencing centers. A U.S. Department of
Energy facility managed by the University of California,
the Joint Genome Institute is also contributing
to the sequencing of infectious bacteria. Scientist
Susan Lucas oversees the production sequencing of
seventeen different pathogens.
Lucas:
The need has been accelerated since September
11th to be able to detect these signatures of pathogens
sooner to be able to develop treatments. So after
we sequence the infectious bacteria, the sequence
will be made available to scientists, as well as
to scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory
where scientists will begin to develop detection
instruments to be able to recognize certain signatures
from these genetic blueprints.
Narrator:
Lucas says since there are no actual pathogens on
site, scientists are working with the fragmentary
DNA of infectious bacteria. For Science Today, I'm
Larissa Branin.
E.
How Certain Viruses Benefit from Genomics
Narrator:
This is Science Today. From a molecular perspective,
the majority of what we know about certain viruses,
such as HIV and Hepatitis C, comes from a genetic
understanding. Ed Penhoet, a professor in the School
of Public Health at the University of California,
Berkeley, says that understanding how proteins function
in a virus is critical for developing cures.
Penhoet:
So the entirety about what we know about HIV today
almost has been driven by genomics. The virus was
cloned. People knew nothing about the proteins it
encoded. They figured out those proteins. They developed
drugs based on the structure and their activity.
Those drugs have entered into human health and made
a big contribution to people with HIV.
Narrator:
Penhoet says the same is true for Hepatitis C.
Penhoet:
Hepatitis C today-still no one can grow Hepatitis
C-the entirety of what we know and the products
that we've developed in that case have come from
a pure genomics approach. The virus was cloned first
before anything else was known about it.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
