Narrator: This is Science Today. A surprising, fundamental discovery about the properties of human bone has been made by scientists at the University of California , Santa Barbara . Engineer Georg Fantner says their study revealed a ‘glue' that appears to contain springs that uncoil when the bone is stressed and helps the bone to absorb shock.

Fantner: The next step definitely is to try to find out what the glue actually consists of. We have some good guesses, but we really want to find which type of molecules play a role within this glue and then to find out whether there actually is a difference between the amount and the quality of the molecules in bones from younger people compared to older people or people that have bone diseases.

Narrator: These findings may lead to new diagnostic and preventative therapies.

Fantner: What we have found is that there is a component there that is very likely responsible for a large part of the bone strength that was previously, completely unknown. So for therapy, or bone fracture prevention, this opens up now a whole new world of possibilities.

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

C. Young Kids Learn to Feel Good About Following the Rules

Narrator: This is Science Today. Young children, especially between ages six and eight, recognize that they feel good when they follow rules and consider possible consequences. Psychologist Kristin Lagattuta of the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California , Davis , says their scenario-based study has implications for how children develop morals.

Lagattuta: It's not that somewhere between six and eight years of age, that they suddenly think, oh yeah – you feel great following the rules all the time and you feel bad breaking the rules all the time. Not even adults feel think that way. For adults, the primary emotion prediction they had was mixed emotions, too. Because on some level, it feels good to get what you want regardless of the fact that you broke a rule.

Narrator: But unlike the four and five year olds studied, Lagattuta says the older children were on the cusp of understanding the relationship between prediction of emotions and desire fulfillment.

Lagattuta: And so, really talk about and find these moments where you can talk to your children about consequences and about the meaning for rules in the hopes that they can internalize this.

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

D. Quality of Life Lower in Young Women After Breast Cancer

Narrator: This is Science Today. Younger women diagnosed with breast cancer may be more likely than older women to have lower quality of life years after diagnosis. Dr. Patricia Ganz of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center , led a multi-ethnic study of nearly six hundred women who were age fifty or younger when they were first diagnosed with breast cancer.

Ganz: While physical functioning was very good and normal across all of the subgroups in terms of youngest to oldest, for emotional functioning, the youngest women – that is women who were 25 to 34 at their diagnosis – there was still a substantial amount of ongoing distress.

Narrator: Ganz says that's probably because many such young women feel invulnerable to such a serious, life-threatening illness in the prime of their lives. Ganz says this study may help doctors.

Ganz: Instead of just saying, oh, you should better, you're just not taking things well. I think this kind of data puts things in perspective that this is a pretty common finding and she's not unusual.

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

E. Researchers Address the Risk of an Avian Flu Pandemic

Narrator: This is Science Today. Although no cases of avian flu have been documented in humans in the United States , Terra Kelly, a wildlife veterinarian at the University of California , Davis , says there is the possibility of transmission through migratory birds infecting domestic poultry or waterfowl.

 Kelly: Or people coming over from Asia that are infected or have infected or contaminated luggage or other things that avian influenza virus that is causing illness and death in people in Asia could arrive in the United States and potentially be passed from human-to-human form and cause what everyone is calling a pandemic avian influenza.

Narrator: Kelly says although the risk is small now in people in North America , UC Davis has established a detection system along the Pacific flyways to look for and monitor for avian influenza viruses in waterfowl.

Kelly: Because waterfowl are reservoirs of avian influenza viruses and one of the ways that it can enter the United States from outbreaks in Asia is through waterfowl populations migrating down the Pacific flyway.

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