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A.
Why Husbands May Want to Do More Housework
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Husbands take note - men
who help their wives out with housework and childcare
are likely to have better behaved children, not
to mention spouses who find them more sexually attractive.
Sociologist John Coltrane and his colleagues at
the University of California, Riverside examined
data from a national survey to support these findings.
Coltrane:
We were particularly focused on the fathers
and what they do with their children because frankly,
men don't do much housework with their kids and
when they do, we reasoned that it would have considerable
impact.
Narrator:
In fact, Coltrane found that those kids were
more cooperative in their classroom, rated by their
teachers as having more friends and getting along
better with their peers.
Coltrane:
So the picture seems to be that there is a cooperative
family dynamic when fathers do housework with the
kids that carries into their social world.
Narrator:
Coltrane says this cooperation is not only a
model of partnership parenting, but of partnership
marriages, which he says bodes well for the survival
of marriage in the future. For Science Today, I'm
Larissa Branin.
B.
The Importance of Clinical Trials for Breast Cancer
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Herceptin, a targeted breast
cancer therapy, was proven effective in clinical trials
both as a single agent, as well as in combination
with chemotherapy. Dr. Hope Rugo, who co-directs the
Breast Oncology Clinical Trials program at the University
of California, San Francisco, says Herceptin wouldn't
be here today if it weren't for the hundreds of women
who participated in clinical trials.
Rugo:
Those women were randomized like the flip of a coin
to standard therapy or standard therapy with Herceptin.
And we, as oncologists, have a tremendous gratitude
to those patients, but it's also really important
for the women out there now, for our population, to
understand how important it is to participate in those
trials as we go forward.
Narrator:
That's
because although researchers may not have the answers
today, future generations may benefit tomorrow.
Rugo:
And these may be your daughter, or your cousin, or
your sister, will benefit from the information that
we get from trials that we do today, tomorrow.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Designing
Therapeutic Drugs to Target a Variety of Diseases
Narrator:
This is Science Today. In a first study of its kind,
researchers at the University of California, Santa
Barbara, identified the major components of drusen,
a plaque deposit linked to age-related macular degeneration,
a disease that leads to loss of central vision. Lincoln
Johnson, of the university's Neuroscience Research
Institute, led the study.
Johnson:
Once we had a handle on what we thought the major
components were and began comparing those with other
deposits, it became pretty clear that they were very
similar to those in Alzheimer's and also, those that
occur in atherosclerosis and other kinds of amyloid
diseases.
Narrator:
Johnson says the disease processes in the body are
probably similar from organ to organ, but what's different
is there may be different organ-specific molecules
that trigger these responses.
Johnson:
If we can design therapeutics, which get at the basic
mechanisms of these disease processes, maybe we have
the ability to disease therapeutics that could combat
a wide variety of diseases, instead of designing therapeutics
that might be, say an Alzheimer's or macular degeneration
drug.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Reaping the Benefits of Exercise on Mood
Narrator:
This is Science Today. To reap the beneficial effects
of exercise on mood, you have to continue to exercise.
Those were the findings of a University of California,
San Diego study of an elderly population of men and
women. Donna Kritz-Silverstein, a professor of family
and preventive medicine, says their long-range, community-based
study differs from previous research.
Kritz-Silverstein:
Most of those studies were in individuals who were
either clinically depressed or they didn't eliminate
people who, for physical limitations, could not be
exercising. This was probably one of the few studies
that had been done in a community-based sample of
individuals who were not clinically depressed and
they are physically able to exercise.
Narrator:
The study participants' mood was measured by a standardized
test called the Beck Depression Inventory.
Kritz-Silverstein:
It consists of a series of 21 sets of items and within
those sets of items, there are statements that people
have to take the statement that best describes them.
and then you basically sum their scores based on a
formula.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
A Twin Study Sheds Light on a Puzzling Question
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Studies of twins have been
very useful over the years in several aspects of biological
and medical investigations. Such research includes
studies of Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.
At the University of California, Berkeley, researcher
Malcolm Zaretsky is looking into why identical twins
live longer than fraternal twins - a phenomenon that
has long puzzled scientists.
Zaretsky:
My study indicated that the health behavior of identical
twins is better than that of fraternal twins. They
exercise more, they smoke less, they communicate more
frequently.
Narrator:
That identical
twins communicate more than fraternal twins was a
key finding in Zaretsky's study.
Zaretsky:
Now one thought I have is that communication
is more important for identical twins because possibly
they have very similar connections in their nervous
systems. Because brains of identical twins, in principle
they are identical, but I'm sure they're not, but
they are probably more similar than those of other
people who are not identical twins, fraternal twins.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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