A.
Lab Scientists Develop an 'ELITE' Explosives Detector
Narrator: This is Science Today. A disposable, quick and easy-to-use explosives detector currently being used commercially was developed by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It's called the Easy Livermore Inspection Test for Explosives, or ELITE. Chemist Peter Nunes, who helped develop the ELITE, says it's a portable, color metric test for explosives.
Nunes: By color metric, we mean that the end user is going to look for a color change. So, very simply, all he does is he takes the swipe material, he swipes his surface of interest, puts it back into the ELITE and exposes it to a chemical by breaking this tiny ampoule . And if the user gets color change, that says that there's an explosive there.
Narrator: The ELITE can detect about thirty different explosives and unlike other technology used, it's very inexpensive, portable and does not require training.
Nunes: There was a need to have explosives detection in the hands of large amounts of people, whether they be police officers or soldiers in the field.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Researchers Work on a Tsunami Alert for the Pacific Northwest
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography are working with Canadian scientists in the Pacific Northwest to develop an early waning system for tsunamis. Geodesist Yehuda Bock says it would work with GPS technology, which they've used to study subduction zones off Indonesia and to model earthquakes.
Bock: The same technology that we used for modeling the earthquake could then be used as a way of providing early warning for a tsunami. The way it works is the GPS measurements are now being able to be recorded and processed essentially in real time. We can monitor the real time motions and by understanding the tectonics of a region, we can then create what we call scenario earthquakes – meaning, we can anticipate where a great earthquake will occur.
Narrator: In the Pacific Northwest, there's a bout a fifteen minute delay between an earthquake happening on the subduction zone and a tsunami hitting Vancouver Island . So, that's fifteen minutes in which a warning could be issued.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C. The Facts about Brain Aneurysms
Narrator: This is Science Today. A brain aneurysm is an abnormal bulging outward of one of the arteries in the brain. When one of these blood vessels rupture, it causes bleeding into the brain that can lead to death in half of those who suffer from it. Another thirty percent will be permanently disabled. Dr. Claiborne Johnston, director of the University of California, San Francisco's Stroke Center, says one to two percent of adults have an unruptured aneurysm.
Johnston : If you take a look at their blood vessels closely, you'll find one. And we know that smoking is an important risk factor for them. Being a woman is also a risk factor – not clear why; and high blood pressure appears to be a risk factor and having a family member with an aneurysm also puts you at risk for having one.
Narrator: Most unruptured aneurysms don't have symptoms, but sometimes people will develop headaches. But they're an unusual, very sudden kind of headache.
Johnston : So, like a thunderclap – boom – a headache begins. And the other is often it's often the worst headache that anybody's ever experienced up to that point. So, that's another way to trigger someone to thinking, “Hmmm, you know, maybe I ought to go in and be seen right away.”
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Research Center for Biodefense & Infectious Disease
Narrator: This is Science Today. The University of California , Santa Barbara will be home to one of ten research centers in the country funded by the National Institutes of Health, dedicated to countering threats from bioterrorism agents and infectious disease. Microbiologist Peggy Cotter, who will serve as a project director for the center, says the goal is to get a basic understanding of how certain bacteria cause disease.
Cotter: Our aspect is really basic science – understanding of the potential pathogens so that we can potentially develop vaccines or therapeutics that will prevent us from getting sick if we get exposed or at least come up with rapid treatments if it really materializes.
Narrator: Bioterrorism agents to be studied include anthrax and botulism, but Cotter says they'll also study naturally-occurring infectious diseases, such as West Nile virus and hantavirus.
Cotter: It's not strictly focused on biodefense, but also on these emerging infectious diseases that are sort of developing and moving around the world, which they can do much more easily now with world travel.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. A Study Offers Insight into Late Life Depression
Narrator: This is Science Today. Contrary to a popular stereotype that old age is a depressing time, researchers looking into emotion and aging have found evidence that as people get older, they experience less negative emotions in their lifestyle. Cognitive psychologist, Mara Mather of the University of California , Santa Cruz , led the memory research study.
Mather: It looks like this is actually because they get better at regulating emotion, they focus more on regulating emotion than younger adults do. They say they do on surveys and they actually appear to be better at regulating emotions.
Narrator: Mather says the research provides potential insight into late life depression, especially vascular depression, which includes symptoms of cognitive decline.
Mather: This type of research might be able to answer why that is happening.
That if you're no longer able to do sort of self-directed control over your own thoughts and what you're really paying attention to, that you can no longer regulate your emotions as well and that might be something that contributes to developing depression later in life.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
