A. Attention Athletes: Lactic Acid is Your Friend
Narrator: This is Science Today. If you work out a lot, you're not doubt familiar with feeling the burn of lactic acid. Many consider lactic acid to be a waste product that builds up in the muscles, leading to fatigue, reduced performance and pain. But exercise physiologist George Brooks of the University of California , Berkeley , says lactic acid is not an athlete's poison – in fact, it's a friend in the form of fuel.
Brooks: Lactic acid can also be used to make blood glucose. So, for that to happen, the lactic acid has to leave the muscle, go through the circulation, reach the liver and kidneys to be made into glucose. So, nature has found a way to fuel different body parts by this stuff, which is called lactic acid.
Narrator: In a recent study, Brooks and his colleagues for the first time linked two metabolic cycles – the oxygen-based aerobic, or oxidative metabolism and the oxygen-free anaerobic, or glycolytic metabolism.
Brooks: Lactic acid is really the vehicle which links glycolytic metabolism and oxidative metabolism.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin .
B.
Insect Eyes Inspire an Artificial Compound Eye
Narrator: This is Science Today. Using houseflies and dragonflies as models, bioengeineers at the University of California , Berkeley have developed an artificial compound lens that structurally and optically mimic an insect's 360 degree field of vision. Bioengineering professor Luke Lee says the device uses thousands of microscopic lenses to provide a wider field of vision than previously possible.
Lee: This is a new way of fabricating three dimensional optical systems.
Narrator: These eyes can eventually be used as cameras for various surveillance applications and Lee says they can even be used in medical procedures, such as endoscopies and image-guided surgeries that require the use of cameras.
Lee: Hopefully, using all this biologically-inspired technology and discovery, we can make a nice, new platform for preventive medicine that we can create new diagnostic system by having a new sensor using this technology.
Narrator: Artificial compound eyes may first be used in ultra-thin camera phones within the next few years. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin .
C.
An Ergonomic Solution Has an Economic Impact
Narrator: This is Science Today. Installing forearm rests at the desks of employees using computers could not only reduce upper body pain, but may also save the companies money. David Rempel, a professor of medicine at the University of California , San Francisco and director of the Ergonomics Program at UC Berkeley, led a one-year study that found arm boards reduced the risk of neck and shoulder disorders by nearly half.
Rempel: I think the overall conclusion is that these forearm support boards reduced pain in the forearms and neck, and based on our business model that we analyzed, it looks like it would be a benefit to the employer and the employee if these kind of forearm support boards were used among people who do customer service work.
Narrator: Rempel also adds that this reduced pain could also have crossover benefits in the workplace and in customer relations.
Rempel: We think it would be beneficial for any size company. You have reduced pain in the employees, improved morale based on less pain. And we think it might be affecting how well they deal with the calls and the callers if they have less pain
at the workplace.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin .
D.
The Educational Aspects of the Digital Fish Library
Narrator: This is Science Today. At least one of every four hundred and eighty-two fish families in the world will be imaged as part of a five-year project that combines MRI technology with one of the world's largest collections of preserved fish specimens. The result will be the Digital Fish Library Project – an online catalog of three-dimensional, high-resolution images available to anyone with Internet access. Dr. Cheryl Peach, academic coordinator of the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, says a large part of the project is bringing Scripps research to the broadest possible audience, including students and teachers.
Peach: The role that we have in this project is one in which we were taking on the educational aspects of the Digital Fish Library project, where we will be creating teaching modules for students, so that they can have access to the technology and the fish collections. One of the primary objectives is to actually demonstrate to students and involve students in something that approximates the process of scientific research.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin .
E.
Children Need to Feel Good About Following the Rules
Narrator: This is Science Today. When it comes to establishing and following rules, many people think that young children are solely punishment-motivated. But psychologist Kristin Lagatutta of the University of California , Davis has studied children between the ages of 4 and 7 and found that youngsters increasingly recognize that they feel good following the rules and considering the possible consequences of their actions.
Lagatutta: They were things about getting people mad or people getting hurt or people being disappointed, but it wasn't really punishment per se.
Narrator: In fact, Lagatutta's scenario-based studies found that in order to follow a rule, there had to be some sort of positive emotion for the child.
Lagatutta: What piecing this all together means is that getting kids to really internalize the rules and make kids think that this is their decision, they're making this good decision to do this, they associate that with positive emotions, they're not associating that with negative emotions.
Narrator: Lagatutta's study has implications for research on moral reasoning, as well as practical applications for teachers and parents. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin .
