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A.
Did the Emergence of the Continents Lead to Animal
Life?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The emergence of continents
almost a billion years ago may help explain the
origins of animal life. A new theory by geologist
Eldridge Moores of the University of California,
Davis says the continents surfaced more quickly
than is commonly thought, and the results were dramatic.
Moores:
If you drained water off the continents, then you
start getting this tremendous continental effect which
would invigorate ocean circulation and that would
stir up nutrients that happen to be in the oceans
and you'd be eroding stuff that's coming off the continent.
Narrator:
These environmental changes would have added oxygen
to the atmosphere, which was a precondition for animal
life.
Moores:
The oxygen content of the atmosphere went from a fairly
low level of two percent to the present twenty percent.
And it's that rise in oxygen that has made possible
the development of animals. We wouldn't be here today
if it wasn't for the fact that we have an atmosphere
that's out of equilibrium.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Atmospheric Scientists Work on a Wildfire Prediction
System
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Atmospheric scientists at the
Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories
are working together to develop a set of computer
models that will simulate and eventually predict the
behavior of wildfires. Scientist Mike Bradley is working
on this project at an atmospheric center located at
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Bradley:
Here in the National Atmospheric Release Advisory
Center, we're bringing in weather data from all over
the world. From observations and from model simulations
from a number of different agencies, and we also run
our own models here on a daily basis to predict regional
weather. And so we're leveraging very highly on existing
capabilities as we move forward in this program.
Narrator:
Bradley says the simulated interaction
between the fire and the weather are crucial components
of their program.
Bradley:
Our
long-term goal is to be able to respond in a predictive
mode to a fire that's actually burning and we're notified
during the process of the fire.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
How Do Gorillas Prevent Infanticide?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Almost forty percent of gorilla
infant deaths are caused by a male gorilla who isn't
the father. A new study by Sandy Harcourt, an anthropologist
at the University of California, Davis, looked into
how female gorillas can and do prevent infanticide.
He found that gorillas, unlike chimpanzees, can't
mate with numerous males in an effort to make them
all think they're the father.
Harcourt:
The thing about gorillas, they have such a short travel
distance per day and such a short period of heat that
it turns out that actually, they cannot mate with
enough males to prevent all the other males being
infanticidal.
Narrator:
Instead, female gorillas have to mate with one powerful
male so he'll protect their infant. The males don't
have to make the same kind of choice.
Harcourt:
There's a powerful male in the area and the females
individually join him. He gets the benefit of having
a bunch of females-each female is mating with only
that one male. So the females are monogamous if you
like, he's polygamous.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Do You Believe in One True Love?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Are you a hopeless romantic
who believes in that one true love? Well, a University
of California, Berkeley sociologist says having such
a belief may provide the basis for a permanent commitment
in marriage. According to Anne Swidler, having an
attachment to the idea that there really is one true
love may help reconcile two very contradictory lines
of thought in romantic relationships.
Swidler:
We want to have our love relationships be freely chosen.
We want to commit ourselves as an expression of our
pure desires. And we want our relationships to last
forever.
Narrator:
But Swidler
says the freedom to choose and the commitment that
lasts forever are in principle, potentially contradictory
things.
Swidler:
In a sense, our attachment to the idea that there
really is one true love - you need an idea like that
in order to believe that you could make a completely
free choice that really would endure forever.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Another Dimension in Sea Exploration
Narrator:
This is Science Today. An optical, laser imaging system
called 3-D Sea Scan is giving researchers the ability
to view objects and organisms on the sea floor with
a range of accuracy down to the thickness of a penny.
Jules Jaffe of the University of California, San Diego's
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was one of the
designers of this new three-dimensional device.
Jaffe:
Most of the imaging systems that we had in the past,
if not all of them, were simply a good camera and
a good light. And you can get some beautiful pictures
under water, but there's an interesting, perceptual
phenomenon when you see a three-dimensional image
rotated in front of you. It really gives you a much
more physical sense for what the thing actually looks
like.
Narrator:
This can benefit not only biologists, but also
those interested in mapping objects lying on the sea
floor or engineers insuring the safety of underwater
oil and gas lines. Jaffe says the 3-D Sea Scan can
even be used to better detect underwater mines.
Jaffe:
It
should be a new tool for people who are looking for
things that shouldn't be there or trying to find things
that are there and so, we're excited about all of
the above.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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