A.
A New Method Aids a Brain Imaging Technique
Narrator: This is Science Today. An imaging technique called MEG can be used to measure magnetic fields outside the skull that are produced by neurons firing as you think, speak or move. MEG, which stands for magnetoencephalography, can be used to diagnose illness and further investigate brain function. But it's very expensive, so scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a cost-saving MEG ‘helmet' that uses the most sensitive magnetic-field sensor known – the superconducting quantum interference device, or SQUID.
Kraus: Those devices are used in current MEG systems, but our system uses kind of like a superconducting mirror – and so magnetic fields from the outside world are reflected away from the sensors and fields from your brain are reflected toward the sensors.
Narrator: Physicist Robert Kraus says this method pretty much eliminates the need for specially-shielded rooms that cost hospitals millions of dollars – offering doctors more access to MEG technology.
Kraus: This will help doctors not only look for diagnostic tools, but also learn about the disorders and ultimately look for cures.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin .
B.
An Exciting Time in the Field of Alzheimer's Disease Research
Narrator: This is Science Today. It's estimated that there are more than 5 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer's disease. While there is no cure for this debilitating, neurodegenerative brain disorder, researchers have long been working to develop new treatments that may alter the course of the disease and improve quality of life for patients. Dr. Frank LaFerla, co-director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the University of California, Irvine, says the field of Alzheimer's disease is at an exciting junction.
LaFerla: Many in the field believe that the plaque protein beta amyloid is a major trigger for all forms of Alzheimer's disease and ultimately, we'll know if we're right depending upon the success of the human clinical trials. There are currently many clinical trials that are underway that specifically target some aspect of beta amyloid biology and if in fact beta amyloid is the trigger for Alzheimer's disease, we anticipate that these human clinical trials will turn out in a very positive light.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C. Sleep Deprivation and the Elderly
Narrator: This is Science Today. The issue of sleep deprivation usually conjures up images of harried, working mothers, busy corporate executives or college students, but this is a common trend amongst older people, too. In fact, Dr. Kathryn Lee, a professor in the Department of Family Health Care Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco, says as we get older, we get less sleep.
Lee: People in retirement don't have to keep a schedule like working, employed people do. So they tend to sleep in, go to bed later and yet they're getting less sleep and they're worried about it, which makes it a self-fulfilling process. And they just need to be aware that as long as you're awake and alert during the day, it doesn't matter how much sleep you get during the night. It's when you fall asleep during the day when you don't intend to, that you really need to have a very careful assessment of your sleep.
Narrator: Lee led a recent survey of women sponsored by the National Sleep Foundation that found that more than half of those polled were getting fewer than one or two nights of good sleep each week. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Developing Genes that Enable Rice to be Flood & Salt-tolerant
Narrator: This is Science Today. Globally, rice is the most important food for humans and every year, millions of rice farmers in the poorest areas of the world lose their entire crops to flooding. Now researchers have developed a gene that enables rice to survive complete submergence. Julia Bailey-Serres, a professor of genetics at the University of California, Riverside is a member of the research team.
Bailey-Serres: A conservative estimate of the crop damage that's done internationally is one billion dollars per year and that's U.S. dollars. This unfortunately affects the poorest of farmers as well and so the impact on poor farmers when they are supplied lines that are submergence tolerant could be tremendous.
Narrator: The researchers are also interested in combining two traits in rice lines – the submergence tolerant with a salinity tolerance trait.
Bailey-Serres: Because in many flood prone areas, the water that's submerging the plant is actually saline water because this is in river delta areas.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. Sophisticated Technology Offers Efficient Tracking of Ground Contamination
Narrator: This is Science Today. A computer-driven technique called reactive transport modeling, which has traditionally been used as an engineering tool, is now being applied to Earth Sciences research. Carl Steefel, a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, says combined with high-resolution images of mineral surfaces and sophisticated computer clusters, the technology can create three-dimensional models that simulate reality.
Steefel: If you've got contamination in the ground, you often want to know two things; you want to know how fast is that contaminant going to move and is that going to be a threat to drinking water supplies? So you need these models to describe that accurately.
Narrator: Steefel adds that another important use is in remediation.
Steefel: If you want to clean up the contamination, you may come up with various schemes to try to flush the system – but it turns out that the computer models are a much more efficient way to do the preliminary design of these kind of field tests then simply going out into the field and start pumping fluids into the subsurface.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
