A.
Robotic Flotation Devices Take Snapshots of the World's Oceans
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography took snapshots of the global oceans using robotic flotation devices called ARGO. Dean Roemmich, a professor of oceanography, says they had the help of 16 countries and adds that the study of the ocean is changing because of such international coalitions.
Roemmich: Initially all of the countries had regions of the oceans they were interested in, often near their coastlines. All of the international partners agreed that what we really needed was a global system. So we begun moving out from the regional arrays, putting floats into open oceans.
Narrator: According to Roemmich the recent tsunami in Asia and Africa indicate that countries should pay attention to ocean observation.
Roemmich: Argo is one element of what I call a comprehensive ocean observing system. And I think what we have to do is look very carefully at the whole range of ocean applications and the new technologies.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Truck-Stopping Technology Has Site Protection Applications
Narrator: This is Science Today. Remote-controlled truck stopping technology may protect government buildings, power plants and other sensitive facilities from threat of attack by a hijacked truck or tanker. Pat Lewis of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was part of a team that developed and demonstrated the device for the California Highway Patrol, in an effort to prevent hijacked vehicles from becoming ‘bombs on wheels.'
Lewis: An officer would insert the box in between the truck and the trailer. It's fairly simple – you'd remove the glide hands going to the trailer, apply those now to the box and then the box is now in line with the original braking system going to the trailer.
Narrator: The handheld device controls the brakes very much like a radio-controlled toy. Lab researchers also developed a system of continuous signal antennas that could be placed around various buildings to prevent an attack.
Lewis: It can be operated from a number of difference sources, via the Internet or you can do it via a small handheld device – any wireless, Bluetooth or Blackberry-type device that you can get on the Internet would also work to send this out.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Studying Possible Molecular Link Between Heart Disease and Stress
Narrator: This is Science Today. A recent University of California, San Francisco study found that chronic stress affects molecules that play a key role in cellular aging and possibly, the development of disease. Psychologist Elissa Epel, who led the study, measured a type of DNA that caps the ends of chromosomes, called telomere length, as a predictor of a cell's age, and also measured telomerase activity.
Epel: Telomerase is an enzyme that buffers the telomere, protects it and promotes it's lengthening. So we examined telomerase as an early precursor, an indicator of what might happen to the telomere.
Narrator: In a sample group of mothers caring for disabled children, Epel found that moms with the highest perceptions of stress had lost an amount of DNA in their telomeres that one would expect during the normal aging process of 13 years. This data is leading the researchers to now study heart disease.
Epel: That's because number one, there are lots of links in the literature showing that people with heart disease have much shorter telomeres in their white blood cells.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Gene ID'd as the Possible Root of Modern Maize Development
Narrator: This is Science Today. Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have identified a gene in maize that may have been critical to the Mesoamericans' development of the stalk-like corn plant from its wild, bushy ancestor called teosinte. Robert Schmidt, who led the research team, says the transformation of teosinte into modern maize was one of the landmark events in human agriculture.
Schmidt: Probably this took place, they estimate, probably seven thousand years ago and exactly how this occurred is not known. But studies by other labs have been able to demonstrate that there are probably about five regions in the maize genome that played a significant role in developing modern maize from teosinte.
Narrator: One of those regions lies on top of a gene called barrenstalk 1, which affects branching. With the help of an expert, Schmidt's team demonstrated that all modern maize inbreds have just one form of this gene. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Why End-of-Life Care is Crucial in Decision-Making
Narrator: This is Science Today. Contemplating potential end-of-life decisions is difficult, especially for young, healthy people. According to Felicia Cohn, the director of medical ethics at the University of California, Irvine College of Medicine, it's important that we discuss our wishes with loved ones, so that they know how to proceed should they ever need to make medical decisions for us.
Cohn: I get a lot of people who tell me they just can't have that kind of conversation with their family. How can you bring it up over dinner? Most of us don't want to think about the ends of our lives until we are actually staring it in the face.
Narrator: But Cohn says most of us cannot anticipate the specific types of medical situations we may be faced with.
Cohn: It's really important to think about in advance so that your loved ones know what kinds of things you would be interested in, and so that you yourself have a sense yourself, because it's a lot harder to have that conversation when you're sitting in the waiting room of a hospital while your loved one's lying in a hospital bed.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
