A. Forearm Support Boards Reduce Pain Associated with Computer Use
Narrator: This is Science Today. Attaching a forearm support board to your desk could help reduce upper body pain associated with computer use. A study conducted by the University of California , San Francisco showed that these boards reduced pain among customer service workers using computers most of the day. Dr. David Rempel, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and director of the Ergonomics Program at UC Berkeley, explains the findings.
Rempel: We found that the pain when people use the boards was less in their neck and shoulders and their forearms, the right forearm. And it also prevented new cases of musculoskeletal problems in the shoulder and the neck region.
Narrator: Stopping this pain early could prevent the need for medications, and help avoid more serious conditions among workers who use computers often.
Rempel: We worry that when a person has that amount of pain, they're beginning to use pain medications regularly, the pain medications can have side effects. And if they don't seek care for the problem, it may lead to an injury to the arm or shoulder and require medical care, physical therapy and possibly even surgery.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
An Online Digital Fish Library
Narrator: This is Science Today. One of the world's most valuable natural history collections – the Scripps Marine Vertebrate Collection at the University of California, San Diego – has gone digital. Project director Lawrence Frank, a professor of radiology, says they're using MRI technology to create a high-resolution, 3-D online catalog of preserved fishes, which will allow anyone with Internet access to examine fish as never before.
Frank: MRI uses very large magnetic fields to image the water in the body or in tissues, and because it's imaging water it has the advantage of being able to look at soft tissues. So, in this project, MRI allows us to get a complete 3-D data set of the internal organs of the fish.
Narrator: One of the goals of the Digital Fish Library is to develop special coils to accommodate the fact that fish come in wide variety of odd shapes.
Frank: Once the fish is put into the middle of the coil and secured, it's put into the MRI scanner, where then the imaging proceeds.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Listening For a Common Indicator of Heart Trouble
Narrator: This is Science Today. The human heart may typically make two sounds, but weakened hearts can actually produce a third sound. This third heartbeat, called an S3, has long been known to be a common indicator of possible heart problems. Dr. Andrew Michaels of the University of California , San Francisco explains.
Michaels: When a physician hears this third heart sound, it signifies weakening of the heart muscle. And this has been something that's been taught to medical students and training physicians for the last hundred years.
Narrator: Michaels led a study that demonstrated that experienced physicians are better able to hear this third sound using just a stethoscope. He says this simpler method has its advantages.
Michaels: We do have fancier ways to image the heart with an echocardiogram or going to the cardiac cath lab or doing some other imaging of the heart, but those tests are not readily and immediately available. Some of them are invasive, and they're all expensive.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Scientists Work to Bring Wi-Fi Technology to Cars
Narrator: This is Science Today. Combining wireless networking, or Wi-Fi, with GPS technology could be the next step in protecting drivers on the road. Scientists from the University of California , Berkeley are working on a way to bring Wi-Fi to cars and build a system that will alert drivers in dangerous situations. Engineering professor Raja Sengupta describes how it works.
Sengupta: So now the idea is that your cars got Wi-Fi and its got GPS, and it sends out this message every 50 milliseconds, 100 milliseconds, something like that, saying that, this is my position, this is my speed, etc. So there's a GPS receiver in your car, from that you read your own position. You send that over to your radio and your radio sends it out.
Narrator: This system will connect to a network of cars that are all communicating what they are doing.
Sengupta: This guy's in front of me and you know what? He's slamming his brakes. And then this information system in the car that does this computation gives the driver a warning. That's the basic idea of using Wi-Fi and GPS to improve the safety of your car.
Narrator: Sengupta estimates that this system will be available to the public within five to ten years. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
A World Renowned Fetal Treatment Center
Narrator: This is Science Today. The Fetal Treatment Center at the University of California , San Francisco , now in its 25 th year, is renowned for international leadership in evaluating fetal abnormalities and providing innovative treatment for mother and baby. Pediatric surgeon Dr. Michael Harrison co-founded the center and in 1981, led the first operation on a fetus inside the mother's womb.
Harrison : Clearly, the history over the last 26 years here has been very deliberate effort to do less and less invasive procedures. We spent essentially all of our time trying to do less invasive procedures and when we look at the things we're trying to accomplish, yes some of them still require quite invasive procedures, open procedures even – but I would say without exception, we're going to aim to convert every one of those to less invasive, minimally invasive approaches.
Narrator: The Fetal Treatment Center recently received funding for a web portal allowing patients and referring physicians to communicate with the center's doctors in real time. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
