A. A Revolutionary Underwater Electronic Imaging Technique
Narrator: This is Science Today. A revolutionary, underwater electronic imaging technique is under development at the University of California, San Diego 's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Michael Buckingham, a professor of ocean acoustics, is the co-developer of Acoustic Daylight Ocean Noise Imaging System or ADONIS. Buckingham explains that this technique uses the ambient noise already present in the ocean to create images of objects in the water.
Buckingham: The idea that the ocean is the silent deep is not necessarily correct. The ocean is a noisy place, there are lots of things creating sound, which fill the depth.
Narrator: Still in the testing stages, fundamentally, ADONIS works like a camera without a flash. That is, it uses ambient light reflected off an object to create an image of that object. Once perfected, Buckingham says ADONIS could have numerous applications.
Buckingham: It could be used in the Navy or commercially in the oil or cable-laying industry.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Tracking and Monitoring West Nile Virus
Narrator: This is Science Today. The West Nile virus first emerged in the United States in 1999. The virus, which lives in birds and other animals, can be transmitted to humans by mosquito bites. Research entomologist Bill Reisen of the University of California, Davis is using satellite data and remote imagery to better monitor and manage West Nile Virus in California and eventually, other Western states.
Reisen: Our research has been really to track this whole movement and decide how the virus persists and then amplifies to levels to start infecting humans.
Narrator: During the winter months, when it's too cold for the virus to grow in mosquitoes, Reisen says it's very difficult to find.
Reisen: A winter focus of our research has been trying to decide how it spends the winter. Up north, it may spend the winter in hibernating mosquitoes, whereas in areas like Los Angeles , there may be a just very low level of continued transmission. But we're still trying to gain data on this, as to how the virus does this.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms of Normal Wound Healing
Narrator: This is Science Today. A research team at the University of California, Riverside is trying to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of normal wound healing. Manuela Martins-Green, a professor of cell biology, is leading this research effort.
Martins-Green: In my laboratory, we have three major branches of research. One concentrates on trying to understand the cell and molecular mechanisms of normal healing, so that we can then be better informed to try to help people that don't heal well. To try to solve the impaired healing. Another branch of research devotes itself to finding molecules to improve healing. And the third is to look at how they impair wound healing.
Narrator: In lab rats, Martins-Green discovered that applying insulin directly to wounds dramatically sped up the healing process, but this has not yet been applied in humans.
Martins-Green: It's promising. We're trying to do our best to accelerate these studies as quickly as possible.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
The Risk of Common Household Cleaners
Narrator: This is Science Today. Common household cleaners and air fresheners can emit toxic pollutants at significant levels that may lead to health risks, such as asthma, when used indoors in unventilated spaces. William Nazaroff, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, says in the past, studies have emphasized on the large and obvious sources of air pollution.
Nazaroff: This study focuses on pollution that comes from small sources, and usually we overlook small sources, but when the small sources are in close proximity to people and used in enclosed spaces, then even small rates of emission can have a significant effect.
Narrator: Nazaroff focused on chemicals found in cleaners known as ethylene-based glycol ethers and the reaction of ozone with terpenes, a class of chemicals found in pine, lemon and orange oils used in cleaners and air fresheners.
Nazaroff: I think the key thing is just to be aware that pollution isn't always out there. It's sometimes right under our nose.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. The Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence
Narrator: This is Science Today. The Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, established at the University of California, San Diego, is one of seven National Cancer Institute centers nationwide. The goal is to develop clinically useful nanotechnology platforms to treat, understand and monitor cancer. Electrical engineer Mihri Ozkan of the University of California , Riverside says her work with micro-electrical arrays – devices 100 thousand times thinner than a human hair – will be part of the project.
Ozkan: So far in our studies, we have identified the differences between a liver cell versus a neuron coming form the brain and connective tissue cells and then cells are coming from the bones. We do have their signature patterns, so we can identify if there are unknown cells and if they are among these ones that we created in the library, we can identify these cells. So, the same principals is going to be applied for detection of healthy versus cancerous and also among different types of cancer cells.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
