B. Why Researchers Study Spider Silks

Narrator: This is Science Today. Those pesky cobwebs hanging in the dark corners of your home may be a nuisance to you, but they are the source of much fascination and research by scientists. In fact, the mechanical properties and genetic structure of spider silks has been studied for more than a decade by biologist Cheryl Hayashi of the University of California, Riverside .

Hayashi: There are over thirty-seven thousand described species of spiders and just a handful of them have been looked at for silk genes. In my lab at UC Riverside, we're taking a diversity approach to looking a spider silk evolution.

Narrator: Hayashi's lab has looked at four species in particular and have identified the genes and DNA sequences for two key proteins in the silk of the black widow spider.

Hayashi: Once we know all the silk genes that are in those species, we'll have a much better understanding of how these silks have evolved.

Narrator: This information may lead to the development of new, super strong synthetic materials. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.

Narrator: This is Science Today. When considering disease states or the general treatment of any disorder, it's becoming clear that the body's internal clock, or Circadian rhythm, is going to have an affect on the way that the medications or treatments work.

Kriegsfeld: If you consider just general medications – the elimination rates, the metabolism rates and the absorbance rates and the distribution rates within the body – differ depending upon the time of day.

Narrator: Lance Kriegsfeld of the University of California , Berkeley says previous research has found that asthmatic children react better to medication given in the evening. There has even been data suggesting that the timing of chemotherapy should be considered to boost its effectiveness.

Kriegsfeld: The oncology community dismissed some of these results initially because the data were not particularly robust. But it's becoming increasingly clearer through large scale clinical trials that this is a very important consideration and oncologists are becoming aware of it and hospital administrators are thinking of ways that they could incorporate that into the way that they treat patients.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.

D. A Novel Approach to Helping Teens Lose Weight?

Narrator: This is Science Today. Nationally, over a hundred billion dollars a year are spent on the care of diabetes. Most cases are called Type 2 diabetes, which used to be called adult-onset. But now doctors are seeing children developing this disease as a consequence of obesity.

Patrick: Primarily, a lot of it can be prevented if people lose weight nad they don't have to lose dramatic amounts of weight. If you lose seven to ten percent of your body weight that could make a very meaningful difference as far as the likelihood that you're going to develop diabetes in the next year or two.

Narrator: Dr. Kevin Patrick, a professor Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, is working on a project that targets teens to lose weight by using interactive, web-based and wireless technologies to get the message across.

Patrick: To get kids, it has to be fun; it has to be something that's very interesting to them and/or it has to be clearly bought into at that household. You can't just talk to somebody and say – gosh, you really ought to lose weight and here's what you should do and give them a one-page handout and come back in six months and we'll talk about it. That just doesn't work.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.

E. The Importance of Mapping Brain Function

Narrator: This is Science Today. Physicist Robert Kraus of the Los Alamos National Laboratory has helped develop a helmet of sensors that can be used with a technique called magnetoencephalography to observe tiny electrical currents in the brain.

Kraus: What happens when you think, when you move a hand, when you see things, are huge numbers of brain cells or neurons fire in your brain all together – simultaneously. That produces a current. That current results in a magnetic field; that magnetic field comes out of your head and we measure the magnetic field all around your head with a sensor system.

Narrator: Kraus says mapping the brain is important for a variety of reasons.

Kraus: It's important for neurosurgeons if they need to remove a tumor and they don't want to impair your ability to move a hand or use your fingers. It's important for determining where you might have a problem in your brain, such as epilepsy or what parts of the brain might be involved in causing schizophrenia.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.