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A.
Researchers Working to Build a Better Battery
Narrator:
This is Science Today. New electronic devices like
PDA cell phones hit the market every day, but are
the batteries that power such technologies improving?
Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
have created a new rechargeable battery that could
replace traditional batteries. Lab researcher Jeff
Morse says the technology uses a process similar
to the one used in making computer chips and the
hydrocarbon fuel is like the butane found in Bic
lighters.
Morse:
So essentially the fuel cell incorporates miniaturized,
micro-fabricated processes, similar to microcircuit
technologies, and it allows us to use a concentrated
liquid hydrocarbon fuel.
Narrator:
This fuel cell technology lasts 2 to 3 times longer
than existing batteries, and recharging will involve
putting in a new cartridge.
Morse:
So to the average consumer for a cell phone,
they're going to be recharging their battery with
an instantaneous recharge of a little fuel cartridge
maybe every two weeks whereas now they do that maybe
every four days or so.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
The Importance of Sequencing the Rice Genome
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Two sequences of the rice genome
have been completed - giving researchers important
basic information about rice genetics. Pamela Ronald,
a molecular biologist at the University of California,
Davis, says such information will provide a better
understanding of the genes that may have important
functions in a staple crop that feeds almost half
the world population.
Ronald: For example, uptake of
nutrients from the soil or disease resistance. So
we have a very carefully sequenced genome that will
continue to be useful and then for my studies, the
sequences are already very useful because what we
do in my lab is try to understand the basis of rice
plants to resistance to diverse diseases and usually
what this involves is recognition of the pathogen
- and then activation of a particular set of proteins.
Narrator: This would eventually lead
to molecules that restrict spread of the pathogen.
Ronald:
So virtually every rice researcher will benefit from
the rice sequence information.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Self-Management Training for Asthmatics
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Over 17 million Americans suffer
from asthma - a chronic disease that's hit epidemic
proportions in this country. Susan Janson, a University
of California, San Francisco professor, serves on
a national panel of asthma experts and says one of
the major goals is targeting self-management training
to every adult with asthma. Janson recently conducted
a study to see how long patients wait to seek care
after the first asthma symptoms begin.
Janson:
We found out the average wait was between four
hours and twenty-four hours and that is a long time
to sit and wait. Some patients waited three days!
Three days, sitting home wheezing, can't breathe,
not going in.
Narrator:
Janson says patients gave a variety of reasons
for waiting, including uncertainty of the severity
of the symmetry or simply not knowing what else to
do.
Janson:
People, if they're going to self-manage their disease,
need some cues to figure things out so they can be
certain. I think we have to design them into every
self-management teaching session.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
The Origins of the Medicare Payment System
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A recent study by Dr. Elizabeth
Landsverk, a geriatrician at the University of California,
San Francisco, found that Medicare failed to pay for
almost forty percent of the time spent during an older
patient's initial medical visit. She says this shortfall
can be traced to the methods of researchers who developed
the reimbursement system in the 1980s.
Landsverk:
Even though they tried to standardize the costs between
the surgical specialties, to make a relationship there,
they didn't try and bring evaluation and management,
or what the internist does of seeing the patient,
hearing their story, and then trying to figure out
what's wrong with them, into line with the benefits
that they provide for procedures.
Narrator:
Landsverk believes this legacy of unequal Medicare
reimbursements creates unintended financial incentives.
Landsverk:
And that can lead to more procedures done than may
be necessary. Talk is cheap - it's not paid for. If
you do things to patients, that's paid for.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
A New Technology to Protect the Nation's Food Supply
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A new technology used to detect
bioterror agents like anthrax can also be used to
find harmful bacteria in food. Biomedical scientist
Paula McCready of the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, says the method involves testing whether
a piece of DNA unique to the bacteria is present.
McCready:
We've developed a system where we're able to
take very basic types of information, like DNA sequence
information and we're able now to mine that data in
order to look for unique regions that are identifiers
for a particular organism.
Narrator:
McCready says the research was always intended to
help protect the food supply from bacteria like Listeria
monocytogenes, which kills about 500 Americans each
year.
McCready:
It was by design one of the outcomes that we hoped
for when we initially started this. We created a very
generic process intentionally because we wanted to
be able to segue from the bioterrorism work and apply
it more broadly to other arenas.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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