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A.
The Newly Compiled Brain Atlas Project
Narrator:
This is Science Today. No two human brains are alike,
so when scientists are looking at the brain, how
do they know if what they're looking at is normal?
It's a question that researchers who study brain
function and structure have struggled with for many
years. That's why neurology professor Arthur Toga
co-conceived UCLA's newly compiled Brain Atlas Project.
It's basically a database filled with seven thousand
digitally mapped images of the brain.
Toga:
Because it's computational, we can render exquisite
visualizations or three-dimensional models that
can be interacted with and spun around and colored
in different ways and shown to illustrate how one
structure relates to another structure. So for a
teaching tool, it's a remarkable advance.
Narrator:
This reference system for the human brain is available
on the web for scientists to use.
Toga:
The electronic way that this project is being conducted
provides for seamless cooperation between scientists
at different sites, all around the country, all
around the world.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Why Identical Twins Tend to Live Longer than Fraternal
Twins
Narrator:
This is Science Today. For a long time it has been
known that identical twins live longer than fraternal
twins, but until now, nobody has known why. Malcolm
Zaretsky, a molecular and cell biologist at the University
of California, Berkeley, recently found that frequent
communication by phone or mail between identical twins
keeps them alive longer.
Zaretsky: I looked at various
factors, environmental factors, to see what could
be responsible for the greater longevity of identical
twins. And I found that communication between twin
partners was a very significant factor.
Narrator:
This finding
suggests that meaningful human relationships, and
not just genetics, affect our longevity.
Zaretsky:
Identical twins who communicated frequently had a
mortality rate, which was about 5% less than identical
twins who did not communicate frequently, but that
was not the case with fraternal twins-their mortality
rate was the same whether they communicated frequently
or not.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Understanding the Cause and Effect of Macular Degeneration
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Age-related macular degeneration
is a disease that leads to loss of central vision
and affects up to ten percent of people over sixty.
Lincoln Johnson, a researcher at the University of
California, Santa Barbara's Center for the Study of
Macular Degeneration, says the central visual field
is what you use for watching TV, reading a book or
looking at a person's face.
Johnson:
That light from that person's face hits a part
of your retina called the macula and it's the most
sensitive part of your retina. The cells there that
sense light die and then you're left with a big dark
grey to black hole in the middle of your field.
Narrator:
Johnson has discovered that the same molecules present
in the brain plaques of patients with Alzheimer's
disease are also found in abnormal deposits in the
eye called drusen. These are present in patients with
macular degeneration.
Johnson:
So that's what we have now - a candidate to trigger
this inflammatory response, which causes downstream
damage to additional cells that are normal and are
thus causing the disease to progress.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Possible Breakthrough in the Semiconductor Industry
Narrator:This
is Science Today. Researchers at the University of
California, Berkeley, have witnessed strange and puzzling
behaviors when they look at the structure of small
nanoparticles. Physicist Benjamin Gilbert says that
depending on what material you've got and what environment
you're working with, nanoparticle structures can change
before your eyes.
Gilbert:
We were really interested to see this because this
is indication that the structure of nanoparticles
is not a static property. It can actually change at
room temperature depending on what environment it
finds itself in.
Narrator:
In their experiments, researchers used water to cause
a semiconducting nanoparticle to change its entire
crystal structure. Gilbert says the ability to control
structure by changing environments could be a breakthrough
in the semiconductor industry.
Gilbert:
What we have speculated is that semiconductor
nanoparticles may be of a range of possible structures
that they could adopt, depending on what one puts
on the surface. And that we could have some control
over these structures just by choosing the correct
solvent or the correct coating material.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Designing Discriminating Nuclear Detection Instruments
Narrator:
T his is Science Today. As part of an ongoing effort
to boost national security, researchers at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory are developing portable
gamma-ray sensors to detect nuclear materials. Simon
Labov, who heads the lab's Radiation Detection Center,
says one of the challenges is pinpointing the source
of gamma rays.
Labov:
We're developing detectors that are sensitive
and discriminating. They have clarity. That's how
you know whether or not it's a material of concern,
or just an everyday, background material.
Narrator:
For example,
the ground itself has natural uranium in it. And often
times, when people have certain medical treatments
or diagnostic procedures performed, they'll be radioactive
for a while.
Labov:
So, we're developing instruments that will let those
go - and say, oh yes, we know what that is. That's
an isotope that's very commonly used there and is
not a concern for danger or anything like that, so
we let it go. But then if someone comes though - obviously
with plutonium or something, we say 'Whoa, we want
to stop that!' So we need things that have that kind
of sensitivity.
Narrator:
For Science
Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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