A.
Satellite Reveals Surprising Features of Earth's Gamma-Ray Flashes
Narrator: This is Science Today. Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs, are very short blasts of gamma rays emitted into space from the Earths upper atmosphere. David Smith, a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz led a recent observation of flashes of gamma rays that appear over thunderstorms, which revealed surprising features.
Smith: The x-rays and gamma-rays that come from these flashes extend in energy all the way up to about three hundred times the energy of one of the x-rays that a dentist or a doctor would use. So, these are extremely high energy photons and I was very surprised to find that the Earth is capable of making gamma-rays at those very high energies.
Narrator: Usually, energies this high are emitted from black holes and neutron stars.
Smith: Of course, here on Earth, one of these flashes is a miniscule total number of photons. I mean, the black hole is so bright we could see it across the galaxy. So, the total amount of energy is not comparable, but the energy per gamma-ray is which to me, is fascinating.
Narrator: For Science Today, Im Larissa Branin.
B.
A New Era of Molecular Monitoring of Coastal Areas
Narrator: This is Science Today. Ocean scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz are studying the phenomenon of toxic algae in the coastal zone. Mary Silver, an internationally-recognized leader in biological oceanography, says these microscopic phytoplankton are responsible for causing shellfish poisoning syndrome.
Silver: When shellfish, which filter-feed and remove particles from the water take them into their bodies, they hold on to some of these toxins for periods. Often very briefly, but sometimes up to weeks or months. And then people who consume the shellfish with those toxins in them could get sick and the sickness could be very mild to life-threatening.
Narrator: Monitoring systems are set up across the nation to detect them. But Silver says thanks to technology, a new era of molecular monitoring is on the way.
Silver: So that the genes of the species responsible for poisoning can be recognized at sea, as the organism starts to increase in abundance, we'll actually have almost real time measures.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
The Interaction Between Mountain Lions and People
Narrator: This is Science Today. Over the last several years, one of the major focuses of the University of California, Davis Wildlife Health Center has been to study what mountain lions are doing when people are in close proximity. Walter Boyce, director of the Wildlife Health Center, says they chose the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in San Diego, California as the place to conduct their long-term research project.
Boyce: Cuyamaca was the location where a woman was killed in the mid-1990s by a mountain lion and there were several other public safety incidents. So we thought this is a good place to go in there and ask questions about what are lions doing when people are close by and what people are doing when they're nearby lions.
Narrator: For a period of three years, radio collars were put on twenty lions in and around this park.
Boyce: What we found was that the lions were doing a really good job of avoiding people. There were at least eight adult mountain lions in that park at any given time over that three-year period.
Narrator: One reason for the avoidance? Mountain lions are active most at dawn, dusk and during the night. So in general, they were in day beds, or dense vegetation, when people were out and about. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
How Green Tea Extract Affects Bladder Cancer Patients
Narrator: This is Science Today. It's estimated that in this year alone, over 60 thousand new cases of bladder cancer will be diagnosed. According to Jian Rao, a member of the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center, one of the problems with bladder cancer treatment and management is it always comes back.
Rao: You can remove the cancer temporarily, but the cancer keeps coming back from different areas. If the cancer is superficial, you can keep just removing it. The problem is, some of the tumor may eventually become invasive and it becomes metastatic. That eventually will cause people to die.
Narrator: Rao recently led a bladder cancer study that found green tea extract has potential as an anti-cancer agent – proving for the first time that it is able to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact. Now the National Cancer Institute is funding a five-year human trial.
Rao: By that time, we can hopefully say conclusively whether the green tea really can help the patient or not.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. Do Adults Needing Assistance with Daily Activities Get Enough Help?
Narrator: This is Science Today. A University of California, San Francisco study examined how many of the nations 3.3 million adults, who need assistance with activities essential to daily living, are not having their needs met. Mitch LaPlante, a professor of social and behavioral sciences, says their study is the first to estimate how many additional hours of help people need.
LaPlante: Ninety-three percent of people's needs seem to be met in terms of how many hours of help they receive, but it's evident as well that even a small amount of unmet need can be a devastating situation for someone to be in because it's associated with people falling, losing weight, getting dehydrated and not being comfortable with how they're living.
Narrator: LaPlante says they used a large national survey to conduct the study.
LaPlante: So its statistically very powerful and this survey, it was interesting because people were asked how many hours of help they actually get, so we can compare the hours of help that people get between those who say that their needs are met and those who say their needs are not met.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
