A. Researcher Calculates Energy Loss from Ethanol Use
Narrator: This is Science Today. University of California, Berkeley, geoengineering professor, Tad Patzek has found that using ethanol from corn, a gas additive, spends more energy than it saves. Patzek calculated that the energy spent growing corn, converting it to ethanol and shipping it was more than the energy the ethanol would provide once in use.
Patzek: We use more resources, both in terms of fuels and in terms of minerals, soil, clean water and air, than we produce useful work out of corn ethanol.
Narrator: U.S. policymakers are currently working with farmers to ramp up corn production, in an effort to double the use of ethanol as a gas additive by 2012.
Patzek: If you were to convert all the corn in the United States that was produced in 2004, which was the record crop ever in the history of the United States, you would satisfy at most 15 percent of the US gasoline consumption, and you cannot convert all the corn because you have to use it for other uses like feeding people and animals.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B. A Range of Options for Men with Prostate Cancer
Narrator: This is Science Today. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. One out of six American men is at lifetime risk of prostate cancer and if a close relative has the disease, the risk more than doubles. Dr. Peter Carroll, a prostate cancer specialist at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, says it's also one of the most treatable of cancers and has a range of options.
Carroll: Watchful waiting, surgery, radiation therapy or even newer forms of treatment.
Narrator: Carroll says for those who chose surgery, the majority of patients are candidates for refined techniques.
Carroll: Where we can spare the nerves around the prostate to ensure maintenance of normal sexual function and urinary control.
Narrator: At the UC San Francisco Prostate Cancer Center, investigators and physicians collaborate to discover the fundamental, biological processes underlying prostate cancer and work towards new ideas for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
Carroll: You get quality care at the cutting edge of what research has to offer.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Study Finds Solar & Wind Power Can Cut Down Utility Bills
Narrator: This is Science Today. A new study by Ryan Wiser, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, found that use of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power could save consumers money on utilities.
Wiser: If you increase the renewable energy share of the nation from the current 10 percent share to a 20 percent share, you can expect that natural gas prices may well go down by as much as 10 percent.
Narrator: Wiser's study applied a model used by the Department of Energy to calculate future energy demand, price and consumption. And while solar and wind power could lower the nations dependence on natural gas, Wiser says some utility companies are reluctant to invest heavily.
Wiser: We don't yet have utilities, universally jumping on the bandwagon; there is a concern that, wind power is intermittent. It's there when the wind blows, it's not there when the wind doesn't blow. So wind is never going to contribute 100 % of our nations electricity supply. There's going to be a need for other sources that are able to ramp up and ramp down to match the variability of wind.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Robotic Instrument Network that Covers Most of Globe
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography have developed self-contained, five-year instruments, which are deployed on a global basis to measure the world oceans every ten days. Scientist Dean Roemmich says the international, robotic instrument network, called Argo, now covers most of the globe.
Roemmich: They're quite modest looking – they're aluminum pressure housing, it's a fairly small instrument. The pressure housing will go down to two thousand meters – very high pressure in the ocean. Then, it has on its tops a satellite transmitting antenna and the sensor package for measuring temperature, salinity and pressure.
Narrator: Argo has many applications, but Roemmich says the primary driver is climate.
Roemmich: When the climate system warms, what we're really talking about is warming of the ocean almost entirely, so I think the first thing we can learn from ARGO is the pattern and the depth penetration of temperature change in the ocean.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Maize Gene May Have Important Commercial Applications
Narrator: This is Science Today. A biology lab at the University of California, San Diego that specializes in corn and corn development, has isolated a gene called barren stalk 1, which appears to play a very important role in regulating branching in maize plants. Biologist Robert Schmidt says it regulates the initiation of what are called lateral meristems.
Schmidt: So, you can imagine that plants would be pretty boring if you didn't have an ability to make these lateral or axillary meristems. You'd basically have a one-dimensional organism.
Narrator: Schmidt says understanding how this gene works could have important commercial applications.
Schmidt: It may be important to efforts that are designed to engineer new architectures in plants – to make them more efficient at capturing sunlight for photosynthesis, so they could be perhaps more productive; modifying their shape or form in ways that would make them more amenable to mechanized harvesting or even manual harvesting.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
