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A.
The Value of Studying Model Organisms in Biology
Narrator: This is Science Today. Biologists at the University of California , San Diego have demonstrated that fruit flies can be used to study the link between the biochemical activities and physiological effects of anthrax toxins. Ethan Bier, a senior author of the study, explains the value of such model organisms in biology.
Bier: I think there is an important place for model organisms that include fruit flies and nematode worms and yeast, even, to look at the function of genes that have been highly conserved during the course of evolution in terms of understanding their mechanism of action. And once those mechanisms are understood, one can then hopefully translate some of that knowledge into a vertebrate system or mammalian system to see what relevance it has to the actual course of a human disease.
Narrator: Bier and colleagues found anthrax toxins that cause disease and death in mammals have similar toxic effects in fruit flies – an important step, which may lead to new therapeutic strategies in humans. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Ethics Consultations Found Useful in Resolving Conflicts about Care
Narrator: This is Science Today. At some point in our lives, many of us will be faced with difficult and confusing decisions about medical treatment for a seriously ill loved one or for ourselves. To help us make those decisions, every hospital offers professional guidance in the form of an ethics consultation. Felicia Cohn, director of medical ethics at the University of California , Irvine , participated in a study that found ethics consultations were beneficial for intensive care patients.
Cohn: What ethics consultations are designed to do is to help families, patients, and health care team members make difficult decisions about treatment plans.
Narrator: Ethics consultations are also useful in resolving disputes that may result in inappropriately prolonged, non-beneficial or unwanted treatments.
Cohn: We come in and assess the medical situation and the preferences of everyone involved to determine if it's ethically appropriate to withdraw certain treatments in a particular situation.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C. University Access to Satellite Imagery May Change the Future of Remote Sensing
Narrator: This is Science Today. Geography professors and students at the University of California , Santa Barbara will have virtually unlimited access to previously inaccessible high resolution satellite imagery of North American data sets. David Siegel, who directs the campus' Institute for Computational Earth System Science, says the campus has partnered with a private company in Santa Barbara called Terra Image USA .
Siegel: They could see that there weren't any new students being trained to use it and there weren't professors using it and they went through and looked at why and it's because the costs are just exorbitant.
Narrator: Siegel says access could change the way UC Santa Barbara, a leader in earth remote science, teaches remote sensing.
Siegel: We could redesign our curriculum so that the way that the one year sequence works in remote sensing, the first is how to look at aerial photography; the second one is how satellites work; and the third is doing digital remote sensing in the laboratory. We have the ability to task the satellite to sample where we want and so you can order an image. So there's this huge opportunity.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D. When Breast Cancer Strikes Younger Women
Narrator: This is Science Today. The average age of breast cancer diagnosis in the United States is sixty-two, yet twenty-five percent of women will be fifty years or younger at the time of diagnosis. In a recent study, Patricia Ganz, director of Cancer Prevention and Control at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center , found the youngest women – those between 25 and 34 – were more vulnerable to psychological and physical hardship years after diagnosis.
Ganz: For a 30-year old woman who may have just gotten married or has started a new job or is thinking about having a family – is kind of in the prime of her life in terms of many life goals – to feel a lump in her breast and then be told it's cancer, or have some other symptom that brings her to the doctor, is really not expected at that age. Whereas the older women at least have had more contact with the health care system and realize that they could indeed get an illness.
Narrator: This study supports previous findings about quality of life issues and Ganz hopes it may lead to better support therapies for this particular group of patients. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. New Insight into a Disease that Strikes 20 Million Americans
Narrator: This is Science Today. An elusive link between a high-fat, Western-style diet and the onset of type 2 diabetes, which affects 20 million Americans, has been discovered in mice studies by researchers at the University of California,San Diego. Study leader Dr. Jamey Marth says it's a single gene that encodes an enzyme called GnT-4a, which is key to insulin production.
Marth: We realized very early that mice lacking this gene had very high blood-glucose levels very early in life – even when they were provided a good, healthy diet.
Narrator: In further studies, mice with the gene intact had a disruption in GnT-4a expression when placed on a high-fat diet, leading to type 2 diabetes.
Marth: So if we can make an animal that now will continue to express this enzyme, no matter whether it has a healthy or high-fat diet, and then if we can see as a result of that, that the animal's resistant to type 2 diabetes, then we can say without a doubt, this is the key mechanism that is gone astray. It's very likely that
it's the same mechanism in humans.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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