A. Scientists Look into How Marine Aerosols May Affect Global Climate
Narrator: This is Science Today. Marine aerosols are particles that are produced by waves crashing in the ocean. One of the major components of these particles is sea salt, but that's not the only substance. A team of researchers led by atmospheric scientist Kim Prather of the University of California , San Diego 's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, are looking into what other particles are present and just how they may affect global climate.
Prather: Since the ocean represents such a large fraction of the Earth – over seventy percent of the Earth is covered by the ocean – we figured that if we can understand how those aerosols are behaving and affecting climate, potentially regional climate patterns, then we can start to understand the impact of a very, very large source of aerosols to our atmosphere.
Narrator: This research may also help scientists understand how marine aerosols affect human health.
Prather: There has not really been a lot of research done in this area, but it's certainly something that I would say should be looked into at some point.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Animal Hoarding is a Psychological Disorder
Narrator: This is Science Today. Animal hoarding is a type of animal abuse in which people ‘collect' animals – sometimes up to hundreds at a time – and keep them in deplorable living conditions. Catherine Toft, a population ecologist at the University of California , Davis and expert in the field, says that animal hoarding is actually a psychological disorder.
Toft: It's a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Many people hoard stuff and they've done a lot of research on that. But when you add animals to the mix, it's a very small subset of that population and really very, very misunderstood for a long time because it appeared to look like other things.
Narrator: Toft says she thinks animal hoarding is much more common than we know.
Toft: It's a secretive activity. Hoarders know that there's something wrong with what they're doing and they try to hide it and it's very misunderstood. But I'd like to thank the media for helping us find out how common it is and also provide some exposure to animal hoarding to the public.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
The Importance of Early Diagnosis & Care for High Risk Pregnancies
Narrator: This is Science Today. Every pregnancy carries some risk, but women who have had previous problem pregnancies, suffer from chronic conditions or are over the age of 35 are considered high-risk. Dr. Manuel Porto, a professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California , Irvine , says these women are carefully monitored during the pregnancy. But Porto , one of the nation's leading experts on high-risk pregnancies, emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and care.
Porto : Ideally, a woman with a high-risk medical condition would do very well to actually see a high-risk specialist in consultation before pregnancy. A pre-conception consultation can often uncover problems or prevent problems that might occur in the pregnancy later on. Women with hypertension, diabetes and other serious medical conditions can often have their condition improve so that their outcome of pregnancy would be better as well.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
UC's Role in the Future of Metagenomic Data
Narrator: This is Science Today. The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, or Calit2, is a partnership between the University of California San Diego and UC Irvine. Over a thousand researchers work on over fifty projects on the future of telecommunications and information technology. Calit2 recently launched a sophisticated science server that will enable the analysis of one of the largest data sets of marine genomics. Director Larry Smarr says this gives researchers access to the enormous biodiversity that exists genetically, in the world's oceans.
Smarr: After all, evolution has been working for four billion years on thousands of microbes at each point in the ocean to adapt to the local environment. We now have that environmental data as well as that genome data across all those species from sixty or seventy different spots in the ocean. In addition to that, we have data from different depths in the ocean and of course, this is just the beginning.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. Challenging Consumer Assumptions about Organic Farming
Narrator: This is Science Today. A University of California study has found that, with the exception of reduced exposure to pesticides, the growth in organic agriculture has not resulted in better working conditions for farm workers. This is contrary to some consumer assumptions that organic producers get more benefit from organic production than conventional agriculture. Another study, conducted by Julie Guthman, a community studies professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz , also challenged popular assumptions about organic farming.
Guthman: Even at its best, organic farming never looked like the imaginary that people impose on it because California never had a class of family farmers who grew for the market with their own family labor. I mean California agriculture has been based on migrant wage labor since we moved into specialty production – actually, before then in the 19 th Century. So, I think if we're concerned about ecological farming and social justice in farming, we need to create new imaginaries and not go back to a past that never was.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
