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A.
Promoting Power Generation Efficiency Without Environmental
Damage
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The U.S. Department of Energy
has teamed up with three California universities
to promote higher efficiency in power generation
without causing more environmental damage. Daniel
Kammen, a professor in the Energy and Resources
Group at the University of California, Berkeley,
says that promoting the capture and use of waste
heat could double power plant efficiency.
Kammen:
Combined Heat and Power, or CHP, is the fact
that most power plants produce electricity, but
they also produce heat, which is generally waste
heat. It's vented to the environment; all that heat
is a large source of energy we're not using.
Narrator:Kammen
says that the combination of fossil fuels and the
capturing of waste heat could increase efficiency
from 30% to 80%. He adds that this technique can
be adopted by single family homes and businesses
with small generators.
Kammen:
So we would like to talk more about how homes can
generate their own electricity and capture that
heat; and whether they use it in their own home
or sort of export it to a neighboring business.
Those are parts of this whole Combined Heat and
Power mandate.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Consumers Should Use Caution When Buying Internet
Prescriptions
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Scores of Internet pharmacies
have sprung up worldwide offering consumers discounted
prescription drugs. While some of these web sites
are legitimate, others have little or no safeguards.
University of California, Davis toxicologist Art Craigmill
says consumers are better served by the local management
of drugs sales, where there is record of the patient's
medical history.
Craigmill:
One of the most serious things that can happen when
drugs are mixed is drug interactions and drug interactions
can be a major cause of hospitalization. Drug interactions
can occur between over the counter drugs and prescription
drugs, prescription drugs and prescription drugs and
over the counter drugs, prescription drugs and herbal
remedies.
Narrator:
Without a medical history, Craigmill says Internet
prescriptions may cause adverse effects.
Craigmill:
Another possible interaction is that one drug may
interfere with the effect of another one and prevent
it from having its therapeutic effect. Or it may increase
the metabolism of another one, which would therefore
diminish the response as well.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Will
Children Who Stutter Have Sleep Apnea Later in Life?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. UCLA scientists have linked
obstructive sleep apnea to brain damage. Ronald Harper,
who led the study, says they also discovered almost
half of these patients stuttered as children, suggesting
that sleep apnea may be the result of faulty brain
wiring early in life.
Harper:
We believe that the initial loss or damage or miswiring
in the language expression areas triggers the conditions
for obstructive sleep apnea. Once that apnea is triggered
and once it continues and that is accentuated by enlarged
tonsils or by obesity in later life, then some of
the later damage occurs.
Narrator:
Harper and his colleagues believe the later damage
occurs in the brain's cerebellum, which has a major
role in cardiovascular and respiratory control.
Harper:
What
we hope to do is examine children, using these non-invasive
procedures and see whether they suffer the same consequences.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
What's Causing Extinctions in our National Parks?
Narrator:
Extinctions in our National Parks - too little land,
or too many people? This is Science Today. Sandy Harcourt,
an anthropologist and conservationist at the University
of California, Davis, says it turns out endangered
species - including bear, mountain sheep and wolves
- are affected not by the size of a park, but rather
by the amount of people living outside park boundaries.
Harcourt:
The graph of extinctions against the amount of
land was a completely flat line and what it really
looked like is, what was killing off American large
mammals is what people are doing around the parks
- the number of people around the park is proportional
to the number of species going extinct in these parks.
Narrator:
Harcourt's findings dispel a common notion that animals
in our national parks are safe and it suggests more
has to be done to protect them.
Harcourt:
We have to manage what people are doing around
the national park as well. And the more people there
are around the national park, the heavier, the more
intense, our management of what those people do is
going to have to be.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
A Supplement that 'Gives Back' to Every Cell in Your
Body
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Scientists have long known
that each cell in our bodies produce energy with the
aid of coenzymes like CoenzymeQ10, or CoQ, but our
stores of these coenzymes lessen as we age. University
of California, Santa Barbara, biochemist Bruce Lipshutz
says that replenishing your body's store of coenzymes
like CoQ is an easy and effective way to give back
to every cell in your body.
Lipshutz:
As we age the amount of CoQ in our cells simply drops
over time, and that's why it's important to think
about it as a dietary supplement given its importance
in so many biological functions. I'm not sure that
people really see the distinction that CoQ is a unique
position because all we're doing is putting back what
we're losing as we age.
Narrator:
CoQ
acts as an antioxidant and boosts our immune systems.
Fortunately for Americans, the supplement form of
the enzyme is available over the counter, whereas
in other countries like Japan, where is it produced,
CoQ is only available by prescription. For Science
Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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