thewaysofstudyenglishs

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith.

BOB DOUGHTY:

And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we tell about two recent inventions that have helped to save lives. We will also tell about the people who developed them.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

Most cars have seat belts as part of their equipment. Seat belts protect drivers and passengers in case of accident. They also reduce the effect of a crash on the body. Safety experts estimate that the restraining devices save more than four thousand lives a year in the United States alone. Worldwide, some experts, say the devices have protected up to a million people.

Nils Bohlin

The United States first recognized the invention of an automobile seat belt in eighteen forty-nine. The government gave a patent to Edward J. Claghorn of New York City so that others would not copy his invention. Claghorn called the device a Safety-Belt. It was said to include hooks and other attachments for securing the person to a fixed object.

BOB DOUGHTY:

Other inventors followed with different versions of the seat belt. But more than one hundred years passed before the current, widely used seat belt was developed. It resulted from the work of a Swedish engineer, Nils Bohlin. His three-point, lap and shoulder seat belt first appeared on cars in Europe fifty years ago.

Bohlin was born in Sweden in nineteen twenty. After completing college, he designed seats for the Swedish aircraft industry. The seats were built for the pilot to escape from an airplane in case of disaster. Bohlin's work with planes showed him what could happen in a crash at high speed. In nineteen fifty-eight, Bohlin brought that knowledge to the Swedish car manufacturer Volvo. He was the company's first chief safety engineer.

At the time, most safety belts in cars crossed the body over the abdomen. A buckle held the restraints in place. But the position of the buckle often caused severe injuries in bad crashes.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

Nils Bohlin recognized that both the upper and lower body needed to be held securely in place. His invention contained a cloth strap that was placed across the chest and another strap across the hips. The design joined the straps next to the hip.

Volvo was the first automobile manufacturer to offer the modern seat belt as a permanent addition to its cars. It also provided use of Nils Bohlin's design to other car-makers.

The Swedish engineer won many honors for his seat belt. He received a gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in nineteen ninety-five. He died in Sweden in two thousand two.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY:

Kevlar is another invention that has saved many people from serious injury and death. Kevlar is a fibrous material with qualities that make it able to reject bullets. Added to clothing, the material protects security officers and soldiers across the world.

The fibers form a protective barrier against gunfire. Bullets lose their shape when they strike Kevlar. Those bullets look like mushrooms, and do not enter the body. Most threats to police and security officers come from handguns. They wear Kevlar vests to protect the upper body. Soldiers wear more extensive clothing protected with Kevlar against heavier ammunition.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

Kevlar might not have been invented had Stephanie Kwolek been able to seek a career in medicine. From childhood, she wanted to be a doctor. But she lacked the money for a medical education.

Today, thousands of people are glad that Stephanie Kwolek became a research chemist. In that job, she developed the first liquid crystal polymer. The polymer was a chemical product that formed the basis for Kevlar.

Stephanie Kwolek

Stephanie Kwolek was born in nineteen twenty-three in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. As a child, Stephanie loved science. Later, she studied chemistry and other sciences at a Pennsylvania college now known as Carnegie Mellon University.

She got a job with the DuPont chemical company in nineteen forty-six. It was the beginning of a career with the company that lasted about forty years.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

By the nineteen sixties, Dupont already had produced materials like nylon and Dacron. The company wanted to develop a new fiber. Stephanie Kwolek was part of a DuPont research group that asked to work on its development.

At the time, she was searching for a way to make a material strong enough to use on automobile tires. If tires could be improved, automobiles would need less fuel. Miz Kwolek needed a new way to make stiff, resistant fibers for the job.

BOB DOUGHTY:

Her experiments for the project were supposed to produce a clear substance similar to a thick syrup. Instead, what Stephanie Kwolek produced was unexpected. It was a liquid that looked cloudy or milky. She said she might have thrown it out. But she decided to let it sit for awhile.

Recently, she told VOA that she was warned the liquid could never complete a required process. The process calls for the chemical to be pushed through the small holes of a spinneret. She remembers that the man operating the device at first refused to accept her material. He probably suspected it had solid particles that would block the holes. However, after awhile he said he would try it. She says she thinks he was tired of being asked, or might have felt sorry for her.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

That person must have been surprised when the substance passed the test. It returned from the laboratory with more firmness than anything Stephanie Kwolek had made before.

Mizz Kwolek did not tell anyone that she had produced something new and strong. She said she was afraid there might have been a mistake. Repeated testing, however, did not find anything wrong. She and her group worked to improve the discovery. DuPont first manufactured large amounts of Kevlar in nineteen seventy-one. The material is found today in hundreds of products from sports equipment to window coverings.

Over the years, Stephanie Kwolek has received many awards. Her honors include membership in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Today she says she loved her long career in chemistry. She says that considering the times, she was lucky to get the job.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY:

Getting Kevlar placed in protective clothing resulted mainly from the work of Lester Shubin and Nicholas Montanarelli. Mister Shubin was educated in chemistry. He worked for the United States Army in the nineteen seventies. At the time, Mister Montanarelli was an Army project director. He was trained in engineering and psychology.

The two Americans were working at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. They were searching for a way to protect people in public life from gunfire. Mister Montanarelli knew about DuPont's recently developed fiber, and the two men decided to test it.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

The men fired handguns at several materials protected by Kevlar. The material changed the shape of the bullets. It seemed a good candidate to help defend police officers and soldiers.

Mister Shubin was able to gain financial help for a field experiment. Thousands of police officers in many cities began to wear the vests. But Mister Montanarelli said it was difficult to get companies to make them. The companies feared legal action if the vests should fail.

BOB DOUGHTY:

Then came December, nineteen seventy-five. A gunman shot at a policeman in Seattle, Washington. One bullet hit the officer's hand. But a bullet fired very close to the policeman struck his chest.

The officer survived. The bullet did not enter his body. He felt good enough to protest being kept in a hospital that night to make sure all was well. The incident helped get manufacturers to stop worrying about legal action. They began making the vests.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

Today, about three thousand people are members of the Kevlar Survivors' Club. DuPont and the International Association of Chiefs of Police organized the exclusive club. All the members have escaped injury or death because long ago, a chemist named Stephanie Kwolek produced something unexpected.

BOB DOUGHTY:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

And, I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

FRITZI BODENHEIMER:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Fritzi Bodenheimer.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Winter conditions are affecting many countries in Earth's northern hemisphere. Winter brings cold weather and, with it, a danger as old as man's knowledge of fire. The danger is death or injury by carbon monoxide poisoning. Today, we tell about this ancient and continuing danger.

(MUSIC)

FRITZI BODENHEIMER:

Several years ago, a family was enjoying a holiday in the American state of California, near the Pacific Ocean. The family included five children and their parents. The oldest child was twelve years old. The youngest was three.

The family was spending the weekend in a camper. A camper is a small shelter carried in the back of a truck. People can sleep in it for a few days.

The weather turned cold the second night the family stayed along the Pacific coast. The camper did not have any heating equipment to warm the space while family members slept.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

A house where a family of four died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning this summer in Detroit, Michigan

The next day, other people found the family. The parents and their five children had died in their sleep. They died because they did not know that burning wood products creates a deadly gas – carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is known as a silent killer. The California family went to sleep in their warm camper and never woke up.

(MUSIC)

FRITZI BODENHEIMER:

Carbon monoxide poisoning causes death and injuries around the world. The poison gas has been a problem since people first began burning fuels to cook food or to create heat.

This gas is a problem in all parts of the world that experience cold weather. A few years ago, America's Centers for Disease Control studied deaths linked to carbon monoxide poisoning. It found that the average number of carbon monoxide deaths in the United States was greatest in the month of January.

The C.D.C. also found that carbon monoxide kills more than four hundred Americans each year. And, it said, more than twenty thousand people are taken to hospital emergency rooms for treatment of health problems linked to the gas.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Carbon monoxide is called the silent killer because people do not know it is in the air. The gas has no color. It has no taste. It has no smell. It does not cause burning eyes. And it does not cause people to cough.

Yet, carbon monoxide gas is very deadly. It steals the body's ability to use oxygen.

Carbon monoxide decreases the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to body tissues. It does this by linking with the blood. When the gas links with the blood, the blood is no longer able to carry oxygen to the tissues that need it. Damage to the body can begin very quickly from large amounts of carbon monoxide.

How quickly this can happen depends on the length of time a person is breathing the gas and the amount of the gas he or she breathes in.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER:

Carbon monoxide poisoning has warning signs. But people have to be awake to recognize them. Small amounts of the gas will cause a person's head to hurt. He or she may begin to feel tired. The victim's stomach may feel sick. The room may appear to be turning around. The person may have trouble thinking clearly.

People develop severe head pain as the amount of gas continues to enter their blood. They will begin to feel very tired and sleepy. They may have terrible stomach pains.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Carbon monoxide is measured in parts per million in a normal atmosphere. Breathing in two hundred parts per million of carbon monoxide will cause the first signs of poisoning. It will result in head pain, stomach problems and a feeling of tiredness after two to three hours.

A level of eight hundred parts per million will cause a person to lose consciousness. Victims will not know what is taking place around them. This will happen within two hours of breathing in this amount of carbon monoxide. Twelve thousand parts per million of the gas will cause death in one to three minutes.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER:

Medical experts say carbon monoxide affects people differently. For example, a small child will experience health problems or die much quicker than an adult will. The general health of the person or his or her age can also be important.

An older adult with health problems may suffer the effects of carbon monoxide more quickly than a younger person with no health problems. People with heart disease may suffer chest pains. They may begin to have trouble breathing.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Carbon monoxide does not always cause death. But it can cause many medical problems. Breathing low amounts of the gas for long periods of time can lead to permanent damage in the heart, lungs or brain.

Medical experts say small amounts of carbon monoxide over a long period of time can greatly harm an unborn baby.

(MUSIC)

FRITZI BODENHEIMER:

Water heaters that burn natural gas create carbon monoxide. Fireplaces and stoves that burn wood create the gas. Natural gas stoves and gas dryers or charcoal grills also create carbon monoxide. Automobiles create it. Any device that burns fuels like coal, gasoline, kerosene, oil or wood will produce carbon monoxide.

Experts agree that the leading cause of carbon monoxide poisoning is damaged equipment that burns these fossil fuels. They say many people die or are injured by the gas because they do not use these devices correctly.

Experts say any device used to heat a home should be inspected to make sure it is working correctly. And, no cooking equipment like a charcoal grill should ever be used to heat an inside area.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Carbon monoxide gas is created by fuel burning devices because not all of the fuel is burned.

Most devices used for home heating have a way to expel the gas from the home. For example, a fireplace has a chimney. Natural gas stoves or gas water heaters are usually connected to a device that safely expels the gas from the home. An automobile has a system for releasing unburned gasoline under and behind the vehicle.

Anyone who uses a device that burns fossil fuel must inspect the equipment carefully to reduce chances of carbon monoxide escaping. Companies that produce the devices usually provide directions about using the device correctly. These directions should be read and understood before using any equipment that burns fuel inside a home.

(MUSIC)

FRITZI BODENHEIMER:

You can do a number of things to protect yourself from the effects of carbon monoxide. First, immediately leave the area if you recognize the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning in yourself or others.

Seek emergency medical services after you leave the area where you suspect the gas might be. Usually the treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning involves breathing in large amounts of oxygen. However, a doctor will know the best method to treat the effects of such poisoning.

Carbon monoxide does not quickly leave the body, even after treatment has begun. It can take several hours before the gas disappears.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Installing a CO detector

In many countries, it is possible to buy and use a special device that will warn when harmful levels of carbon monoxide are in the area. These devices can be linked to a home's electric system. Others are battery-powered. Experts say these devices should be placed near sleeping areas in the home.

The most important weapon against carbon monoxide poisoning is the safe use of materials to heat any enclosed area. Safety directions that come with heating equipment must be followed. Older equipment powered by fossil fuels should be inspected every year to make sure it continues to be safe. Knowledge about the dangers of carbon monoxide could be the most important information you ever learn.

(MUSIC)

FRITZI BODENHEIMER:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Fritzi Bodenheimer.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we look at the newest devices demonstrated at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show. The show offered a look at what could be the most popular electronic products this year.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Consumer Electronics Show is the world's biggest technology trade show. Industry representatives and reporters gather at CES each January to see the next, must-have electronic devices for the coming year.

This year, the show took place between January seventh and tenth in Las Vegas, Nevada. A record three hundred thirty businesses attended for the first time. These can be manufacturers or suppliers who sell products from other companies. In all, there were over twenty thousand new products from more than two thousand five hundred businesses.

The Consumer Electronics Association produces CES. It is the largest trade show of any kind in North America -- with over one hundred thirty thousand square meters of exhibition space.

VOICE TWO:

The electronics industry is hoping a new crop of products will help it recover from an eight percent decrease in sales last year. The biggest attention-getters were the latest 3-Dimensional high definition televisions.

Tara Dunion is a spokeswoman for the CES. She says 3-D televisions promise to bring the intense experience from movie theaters to the home. The huge popularity of 3-D films like "Avatar," "Up" and "Monsters vs. Aliens" has many people willing to buy this costly, developing technology.

Dreamworks Animation made "Monsters vs. Aliens" and the popular Shrek series. The company announced last year that it would only make 3-D films in the future. And, television networks ESPN and Discovery Communications say they plan to operate television channels in 3-D. Big TV manufacturers like LG Electronics, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung have all developed their own products.

CES attendees use 3-D glasses to play a game

If you have seen a 3-D movie, you already know that you need special eyeglasses to watch. Some 3-D TVs do not require special glasses. But experts say it will be years until such technology is ready for the general market.

The latest 3-D TVs work by dividing picture images in two, one for each eye. When each eye sees very similar, but different versions of an image, the brain thinks it is seeing depth, or three dimensions.

Dividing the image can be done in two ways -- both using special eyeglasses. One 3-D technology uses low-cost polarized glasses. Each side of these devices blocks a set of images that appear in a different form of polarized light. So each eye sees a slightly different image, producing the 3-D effect. But TV receivers that use what is called a passive glasses system are costly.

VOICE TWO:

An active glasses system requires electronic glasses that are wirelessly connected to the television. A signal from the TV tells each side of the glasses when to turn on and off, showing each eye slightly different images that create the sense of depth. The switching happens so fast that the images appear continuous.

Active eyeglasses cost more -- about one hundred dollars each. But the technology for such receivers is not too different from current flat screen TVs.

There were examples of both technologies at the twenty-ten International CES. There were even 3-D TVs that require no glasses at all. But 3-D TVs are expected to cost a lot – with one selling for several thousand dollars. Still, the Consumer Electronics Association predicts that more than four million 3-D TV sets will be sold this year.

(MUSIC)

A Samsung e-reader on display at CES

Digital tablets and eBook readers could also be popular this year. These easy-to-hold devices let you read and watch media or search the Internet and order products. Dell and Hewlett-Packard exhibited new tablet devices at CES.

Lenovo demonstrated a product that can be used as two computing devices. The IdeaPad U-One Hybrid is a notebook computer, which has a removable screen that becomes a digital tablet. Amazon showed versions of its popular Kindle eBook reader. Barnes & Noble, Samsung, Sony and other companies also showed models of eBook readers.

VOICE TWO:

But Apple made the biggest news when it announced that it would offer its own digital tablet this year. Apple did not show the product at CES, but industry watchers are extremely interested. Media reports say Apple plans to announce the tablet, possibly called the iSlate, later this month.

Like netbooks, tablets are less costly ways to use the World Wide Web and digital information. Some experts think these easily carried devices could represent the future of computing. But their lower price means smaller profits for manufacturers and sellers.

VOICE ONE:

Wireless telephones could be a big part of the electronics industry's return to growth. At the start of CES, Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro made some predictions. He said fifty-two million wireless phones will be sold in the United States this year.

Smartphones represent over thirty percent of the market. They are phones that search the Web, send messages and carry out applications. Their share of all mobile phones is only expected to grow.

VOICE TWO:

Google launched its Nexus One smartphone, which the company calls a "superphone," at CES. This is Google's first attempt to sell its own electronic device. Nexus One will directly compete with Apple's popular iPhone. It uses Google's Android mobile operating system and is meant to work easily with Google's Web-based services.

Nexus One, though, is not the only new smartphone that uses Android. Several big phonemakers are coming out with Android-based mobile phones.

And, there is another group of mobile devices to watch for: Smartbooks. These are smaller and cost less than netbooks, while still having a keyboard. They are meant for looking at Web pages and placing information on Twitter. Manufacturers are still developing smartbooks. But they are products to watch in the future.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Sustainable technologies have been a growing part of the International Consumer Electronics Show for years. The CES has an area for companies to demonstrate products that save energy, reduce waste and reuse materials.

Show spokeswoman Jennifer Bemisderfer says the Sustainable Planet Tech Zone is four times bigger than last year. Among the products were TVs that use light emitting diodes, or LEDs, to save energy. Some manufacturers are increasingly interested in what has been called cradle to cradle technology. Jennifer Bemisderfer says this involves thinking about a product's whole lifetime:

JENNIFER BEMISDERFER: "When those products are at the end of their useful life, how are they going to be broken down? How are we going to get some of the essential elements out of those products and have them reused in the manufacturing process?"

VOICE TWO:

Many of the products shown at CES require wireless connections to the Internet. Julius Genachowski is the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, which supervises broadcasting and communications. Mister Genachowski spoke at the show about the technical problems that wireless devices present.

He says they depend on a limited number of radio wavelengths. But he says the problem can be solved. And, he hopes to increase wireless Internet access across the United States.

Mister Genachowski told CES that wireless technology, or broadband, can be an engine of economic growth. And, he noted its importance to the country's social goals.

JULIUS GENACHOWSKI: "Promoting our common goals around education, health care, energy, public safety, and, I think in each of those areas, you actually see on the floor here new innovative ideas to take advantage of this general purposes technology that broadband is, and apply it to provide better services at lower cost in each of these areas."

Mister Genachowski said government has a limited part in technology development. He said most investment is private. But he said his agency hopes to support progress by getting investors interested in new technologies.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Mario Ritter with reporting by Mike O'Sullivan in Las Vegas. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And, I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

Protesters on the last day of the climate change conference last month in Copenhagen

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The World Meteorological Organization says two thousand nine was probably the fifth warmest year since eighteen fifty. It also says the past ten years may be the warmest ten-year period ever measured.

Controlling rising temperatures was the subject of an international conference last month in Copenhagen, Denmark. The United Nations called the conference to replace a nineteen ninety-seven agreement, the Kyoto Protocol. The protocol contains measures designed to fight climate change.

VOICE TWO:

Almost two hundred countries were represented at the conference. In the end, only five of them were able to negotiate an agreement. They are Brazil, China, India, South Africa and the United States. The agreement is known as the Copenhagen Accord. It asks major polluting countries to voluntarily reduce gases linked to what scientists call the greenhouse effect.

Scientists say Earth's atmosphere acts like a greenhouse. Carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere trap heat from the sun. They prevent the heat from escaping into outer space. This balanced system makes it possible for plants, animals and people to survive on Earth. However, the balance is changing. Human activities are producing increased amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases. Burning fuels like oil and coal is a major cause. Clearing forests for agriculture is another.

VOICE ONE:

The Copenhagen Accord sets a goal of one hundred billion dollars a year in aid to help poor nations with climate control by twenty-twenty. The accord states that limiting temperature increases to no more than two degrees Celsius is necessary to stop the worst effects of climate change.

Many small nations wanted a stronger agreement. One hundred nations supported a target of keeping temperature increases below one point five degrees. The nations also say they regret that the Copenhagen Accord has no force of law. Instead, it is voluntary.

VOICE TWO:

China vetoed proposals calling for fifty percent cuts in greenhouse gases. It also vetoed eighty-percent cuts by developed countries by the middle of the century. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao praised the accord. He said that his government took an important and helpful part at the conference.

Environmental activists said the accord is a declaration that small and poor countries are not important. The representative from the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu made an emotional appeal for a treaty with legal force. Tuvalu is the world's second smallest country. Rising seas and warming conditions threaten its existence.

Lumumba Di-Aping was the chief negotiator for G-77, a group of mostly poor countries. He said the agreement is, in his words, a suicide pact.

VOICE ONE:

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown criticized the negotiation process at the conference. But both he and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the agreement provides a hopeful beginning.

The administration of President Obama says the Copenhagen Accord represents progress. Some reports say the president was responsible for a compromise that made the accord possible. Without his efforts, the reports say, other countries would have gone home without any agreement.

The United States and China are the biggest producers of greenhouse gases. Some commentators say both sides acted in recognition of political conditions in their countries. For example, President Obama wants Congress to take steps against global warming. But the American economy is weak, and twenty-ten is an election year. Political observers say the idea faces strong opposition.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Last year, an incident in Britain brought attention to disagreements about climate change. Private e-mails and other documents were hacked from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. The stolen materials included more than one-thousand e-mails and two thousand documents. The information was placed on the Internet. Police are investigating the thefts. The university opened an investigation of the Climatic Research Unit. The head of the C.R.U., Phil Jones, temporarily left his position.

VOICE ONE:

The stolen materials intensified questions about global warming. Are climate changes real? If so, were human activities mainly to blame? Most scientists involved in climate research answer "yes" to both questions. Even opposing scientists say human-influenced global warming has become widely accepted by the scientific community.

Some scientists, however, do not believe the evidence for warming. Or, they say the Earth may be warming, but human activity is not responsible.

Instead, these experts say, our planet is experiencing a normal series of temperature changes. They say such changes are events that have always happened.

VOICE TWO:

American researcher Patrick Michaels questions the evidence supporting human-influenced global warming. He said the stolen e-mails prove that the evidence is not correct.

Critics also noted an e-mail written more than ten years ago by Professor Jones of the C.R.U. In the e-mail, he used the words "trick" and "hide the decline" when writing about a graph showing rising temperatures. The image appeared in several scientific publications.

The critics say his wording showed purposeful misrepresentation. But other experts offered technical explanations of how the wording was not meant to hide a drop in temperatures. They say the word "trick" can mean a shortened and effective way to express complex findings.

VOICE ONE:

A few of the stolen e-mails showed open dislike for scientists who oppose the idea of human-influenced global warming. American scientist James Hansen suggested that some of the e-mails showed poor judgment. But he said such comments should be separated from the scientific research.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

VOICE ONE:

Scientists have long known that giant pandas mainly eat just one kind of plant: bamboo. The animals are also known for a low rate of reproduction.

Pandas are also threatened by a loss of land and illegal hunting. It is estimated that less than two thousand of the animals live in the wild. They are mostly found in southwestern China. Another one hundred twenty pandas live in zoos and research centers, mainly in China.

VOICE TWO:

The researchers identified the genetic structure of a three-year old female panda named Jingjing. The study showed that pandas have been in existence for up to three million years. Yet their genetics have caused pandas to develop more slowly than human beings and other mammals.

Pandas are a subspecies of Ursidae, the bear family. But the study showed a high genetic similarity between pandas and dogs. The panda genome is smaller than the human genome. The human one has about three billion base pairs of deoxyribonucleic acid. The panda genome has about two billion five hundred million base pairs.

VOICE ONE:

Another finding was that the panda's genetic material differed in many places. Researcher Jun Wang says this tells scientists that the decrease in the panda population is not a result of inbreeding. Mating by individuals with similar genes was thought to be a problem.

One unusual finding was the structure of the panda's taste gene. This, scientists say, can affect the ability to taste meat and other foods high in protein. Because pandas likely have all the genes needed for breaking down meat, scientists believe an inability to taste meat may have led to their all-bamboo diet.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Brianna Blake, who was also our producer. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And, I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Scientists who study the Earth tell us that the continents and ocean floors are always moving. Sometimes, this movement is violent and might result in great destruction. Today, we examine the process that causes earthquakes.

(MUSIC)

A teacher in Indonesia points to a school damaged by an earthquake in November

The first pictures of Earth taken from space showed a solid ball covered by brown and green landmasses and blue-green oceans. It appeared as if the Earth had always looked that way -- and always would.

Scientists now know, however, that the surface of the Earth is not as permanent as had been thought. Scientists explain that the surface of our planet is always in motion. Continents move about the Earth like huge ships at sea. They float on pieces of the Earth's outer skin, or crust. New crust is created as melted rock pushes up from inside the planet. Old crust is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts again.

VOICE TWO:

Only since the nineteen-sixties have scientists begun to understand that the Earth is a great, living structure. Some experts say this new understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific thought. The revolution is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents -- a process called plate tectonics.

Earthquakes are a result of that process. Plate tectonics is the area of science that explains why the surface of the Earth changes and how those changes cause earthquakes.

VOICE ONE:

Scientists say the surface of the Earth is cracked like a giant eggshell. They call the pieces tectonic plates. As many as twenty of them cover the Earth. The plates float about slowly, sometimes crashing into each other, and sometimes moving away from each other.

When the plates move, the continents move with them. Sometimes the continents are above two plates. The continents split as the plates move.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Tectonic plates can cause earthquakes as they move. Modern instruments show that about ninety percent of all earthquakes take place along a few lines in several places around the Earth.

These lines follow underwater mountains, where hot liquid rock flows up from deep inside the planet. Sometimes, the melted rock comes out with a great burst of pressure. This forces apart pieces of the Earth's surface in a violent earthquake.

Other earthquakes take place at the edges of continents. Pressure increases as two plates move against each other. When this happens, one plate moves past the other, suddenly causing the Earth's surface to split.

An aerial image of the San Andreas fault from Carrizo Plain in central California

One example of this is found in California, on the West Coast of the United States. One part of California is on what is known as the Pacific plate. The other part of the state is on what is known as the North American plate.

Scientists say the Pacific plate is moving toward the northwest, while the North American plate is moving more to the southeast. Where these two huge plates come together is called a fault line.

The name of this line between the plates in California is the San Andreas Fault. It is along or near this line that most of California's earthquakes take place, as the two tectonic plates move in different directions.

The city of Los Angeles in Southern California is about fifty kilometers from the San Andreas Fault. Many smaller fault lines can be found throughout the area around Los Angeles. A major earthquake in nineteen ninety-four was centered along one of these smaller fault lines.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The story of plate tectonics begins with the German scientist Alfred Wegener in the early part of the twentieth century. He first proposed that the continents had moved and were still moving.

He said the idea came to him when he observed that the coasts of South America and Africa could fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. He proposed that the two continents might have been one, then split apart.

Later, Alfred Wegener said the continents had once been part of a huge area of land he called Pangaea. He said the huge continent had split more than two hundred million years ago. He said the pieces were still floating apart.

VOICE ONE:

Wegener investigated the idea that continents move. He pointed out a line of mountains that appears from east to west in South Africa. Then he pointed out another line of mountains that looks almost exactly the same in Argentina, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He found fossil remains of the same kind of an early plant in areas of Africa, South America, India, Australia and even Antarctica.

Alfred Wegener said the mountains and fossils were evidence that all the land on Earth was united at some time in the distant past.

Alfred Wegener

Wegener also noted differences between the continents and the ocean floor. He said the oceans were more than just low places that had filled with water. Even if the water was removed, he said, a person would still see differences between the continents and the ocean floor.

Also, the continents and the ocean floor are not made of the same kind of rock. The continents are made of a granite-like rock, a mixture of silicon and aluminum. The ocean floor is basalt rock, a mixture of silicon and magnesium. Mister Wegener said the lighter continental rock floated up through the heavier basalt rock of the ocean floor.

VOICE ONE:

Support for Alfred Wegener's ideas did not come until the early nineteen-fifties. American scientists Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said the continents moved as new sea floor was created under the Atlantic Ocean.

They said a thin valley in the Atlantic Ocean was a place where the ocean floor splits. They said hot melted material flows up from deep inside the Earth through the split. As the hot material reaches the ocean floor, it spreads out, cools and hardens. It becomes new ocean floor.

The two scientists proposed that the floor of the Atlantic Ocean is moving away from each side of the split. The movement is very slow -- a few centimeters a year.

In time, they said, the moving ocean floor is blocked when it comes up against the edge of a continent. Then it is forced down under the continent, deep into the Earth, where it is melted again.

Harry Hess and Robert Dietz said this spreading does not make the Earth bigger. As new ocean floor is created, an equal amount is destroyed.

VOICE TWO:

The two scientists also said Alfred Wegener was correct. The continents move as new material from the center of the Earth rises, hardens and pushes older pieces of the Earth away from each other. The continents are moving all the time, although we cannot feel it.

They called their theory "sea floor spreading." The theory explains that as the sea floor spreads, the tectonic plates are pushed and pulled in different directions.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The idea of plate tectonics explains volcanoes as well as earthquakes. Many of the world's volcanoes are found at the edges of plates, where geologic activity is intense. The large number of volcanoes around the Pacific plate has earned the name "Ring of Fire."

Volcanoes also are found in the middle of plates, where there is a well of melted rock. Scientists call these wells "hot spots." A hot spot does not move. However, as the plate moves over it, a line of volcanoes is formed.

The Hawaiian Islands were created in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as the plate moved slowly over a hot spot. This process is continuing, as the plate continues to move.

VOICE TWO:

Volcanoes and earthquakes are among the most frightening events that nature can produce. More than one thousand people were killed when a powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia at the end of September. Thousands more were injured or left without homes because of the earthquake. At times like these, we remember that the ground is not as solid and unchanging as people might like to think.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. We would like to hear from you. Write to us at Special English, Voice of America, Washington, D-C, two-zero-two-three-seven, U-S-A. Or send your e-mails to special@voanews.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Today, we tell you everything you ever wanted to know about snow.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Justin Snow of the Indianapolis Colts stands in a snowstorm during a National Football League game on Sunday

VOICE TWO:

Snow is a form of frozen water. It contains many groups of tiny ice particles called snow crystals. These crystals grow from water particles in cold clouds. They usually grow around a piece of dust.

All snow crystals have six sides, but they grow in different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals grow in one of two designs -- platelike and columnar. Platelike crystals are flat. They form when the air temperature is about fifteen degrees below zero Celsius. Columnar snow crystals look like sticks of ice. They form when the temperature is about five degrees below zero.

VOICE ONE:

The shape of a snow crystal may change from one form to another as the crystal passes through levels of air with different temperatures. When melting snow crystals or raindrops fall through very cold air, they freeze to form small particles of ice, called sleet.

Groups of frozen water droplets are called snow pellets. Under some conditions, these particles may grow larger and form solid pieces of ice, or hail.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

When snow crystals stick together, they produce snowflakes. Snowflakes come in different sizes. As many as one hundred crystals may join together to form a snowflake larger than two and one-half centimeters. Under some conditions, snowflakes can form that are five centimeters long. Usually, this requires near freezing temperatures, light winds and changing conditions in Earth's atmosphere.

Snow contains much less water than rain. About fifteen centimeters of wet snow has as much water as two and one-half centimeters of rain. About seventy-six centimeters of dry snow equals the water in two and one-half centimeters of rain.

VOICE ONE:

Much of the water we use comes from snow. Melting snow provides water for rivers, electric power centers and agricultural crops. In the western United States, mountain snow provides up to seventy-five percent of all surface water supplies.

Snowfall helps to protect plants and some wild animals from cold, winter weather. Fresh snow is made largely of air trapped among the snow crystals. Because the air has trouble moving, the movement of heat is greatly reduced.

Snow also is known to influence the movement of sound waves. When there is fresh snow on the ground, the surface of the snow takes in, or absorbs, sound waves. However, snow can become hard and flat as it becomes older or if there have been strong winds. Then the snow's surface will help to send back sound waves. Under these conditions, sounds may seem clearer and travel farther.

VOICE TWO:

Generally, the color of snow and ice appears white. This is because the light we see from the sun is white. Most natural materials take in some sunlight. This gives them their color. However, when light travels from air to snow, some light is sent back, or reflected. Snow crystals have many surfaces to reflect sunlight. Yet the snow does take in a little sunlight. It is this light that gives snow its white appearance.

Sometimes, snow or ice may appear to be blue. The blue light is the product of a long travel path through the snow or ice. In simple terms, think of snow or ice as a filter. A filter is designed to reject some substances, while permitting others to pass through. In the case of snow, all the light makes it through if the snow is only a centimeter thick. If it is a meter or more thick, however, blue light often can be seen.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Snow falls in extreme northern and southern areas of the world throughout the year. However, the heaviest snowfalls have been reported in the mountains of other areas during winter. These areas include the Alps in Italy and Switzerland, the coastal mountains of western Canada, and the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains in the United States. In warmer climates, snow is known to fall in areas over four thousand nine hundred meters above sea level.

A December storm left heavy snow to clear off a sidewalk in Omaha, Nebraska

Each year, the continental United States has an average of one hundred snowstorms. An average storm produces snow for two to five days.

Almost every part of the country has received snowfall at one time or another. Even parts of southern Florida have reported a few snowflakes.

The national record for snowfall in a single season was set in nineteen ninety-eight and nineteen ninety-nine. Two thousand eight hundred ninety-five centimeters of snow fell at the Mount Baker Ski area in the northwestern state of Washington.

VOICE ONE:

People in many other areas have little or no snowfall.

In nineteen thirty-six, a physicist from Japan produced the first man-made snow in a laboratory. During the nineteen-forties, several American scientists developed methods for making snow in other areas. Clouds with extremely cool water are mixed with man-made ice crystals, such as silver iodide and metaldehyde crystals.

Sometimes, dry ice particles or liquid propane are used. Today, special machines are used to produce limited amounts of snow for winter holiday ski areas.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Snow is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in the United States every year. Many people die in traffic accidents on roads that are covered with snow or ice.

Others die from being out in the cold or from heart attacks caused by extreme physical activity. Last month, two major snow storms caused serious problems in most of the United States. In the East, one storm dropped lots of snow on communities from North Carolina to the New England states on the weekend before Christmas. The Associated Press reported that at least seven deaths were linked to the storm. Most involved automobile accidents.

The weather caused cancellation of thousands of flights along the East Coast. About one thousand two hundred flights were cancelled at New York City's three major airports.

The storm gave two airports in the Washington, D.C. area their highest one-day snowfall totals for December. The most snowfall was reported in nearby Wintergreen, Virginia, where more than seventy-six centimeters fell. And, the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received its second-biggest snowfall since record-keeping began.

VOICE ONE:

People may not be able to avoid living in areas where it snows often. However, they can avoid becoming victims of snowstorms. People should stay in their homes until the storm has passed. While removing large amounts of snow, they should stop and rest often. Difficult physical activity during snow removal can cause a heart attack.

It is always a good idea to keep a lot of necessary supplies in the home even before winter begins. These supplies include food, medicine, clean water, and extra power supplies.

VOICE TWO:

Some drivers have become trapped in their vehicles during a snowstorm. If this happens, people should remain in or near their car unless they see some kind of help. They should get out and clear space around the vehicle to prevent the possibility of carbon monoxide gas poisoning.

People should tie a bright-colored object to the top of their car to increase the chance of rescue. Inside the car, they should open a window a little for fresh air and turn on the engine for ten or fifteen minutes every hour for heat.

People living in areas where winter storms are likely should carry emergency supplies in their vehicle. These include food, emergency medical supplies, and extra clothing to stay warm and dry. People in these areas should always be prepared for winter emergencies. Snow can be beautiful to look at, but it can also be dangerous.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by George Grow. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. You can comment on our stories at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

HOST:

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

If you can read a clock, you can know the time of day. But no one knows what time itself is. We cannot see it. We cannot touch it. We cannot hear it. We know it only by the way we mark its passing.

For all our success in measuring the smallest parts of time, time remains one of the great mysteries of the universe.

VOICE TWO:

One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time. There could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated.

A world without time could exist only as long as there were no changes. For time and change are linked. We know that time has passed when something changes.

VOICE ONE:

In the real world -- the world with time -- changes never stop. Some changes happen only once in a while, like an eclipse of the moon. Others happen repeatedly, like the rising and setting of the sun. Humans always have noted natural events that repeat themselves. When people began to count such events, they began to measure time.

In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness.

The sun rises in the eastern sky, producing light. It moves across the sky and sinks in the west, causing darkness. The appearance and disappearance of the sun was even and unfailing. The periods of light and darkness it created were the first accepted periods of time. We have named each period of light and darkness -- one day.

VOICE TWO:

People saw the sun rise higher in the sky during the summer than in winter. They counted the days that passed from the sun's highest position until it returned to that position. They counted three hundred sixty-five days. We now know that is the time Earth takes to move once around the sun. We call this period of time a year.

VOICE ONE:

Early humans also noted changes in the moon. As it moved across the night sky, they must have wondered. Why did it look different every night? Why did it disappear? Where did it go?

Even before they learned the answers to these questions, they developed a way to use the changing faces of the moon to tell time.

The moon was "full" when its face was bright and round. The early humans counted the number of times the sun appeared between full moons. They learned that this number always remained the same -- about twenty-nine suns. Twenty-nine suns equaled one moon. We now know this period of time as one month.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants. They moved in groups or tribes from place to place in search of food. Then, people learned to plant seeds and grow crops. They learned to use animals to help them work, and for food.

They found they no longer needed to move from one place to another to survive.

As hunters, people did not need a way to measure time. As farmers, however, they had to plant crops in time to harvest them before winter. They had to know when the seasons would change. So, they developed calendars.

No one knows when the first calendar was developed. But it seems possible that it was based on moons, or lunar months.

When people started farming, the wise men of the tribes became very important. They studied the sky. They gathered enough information so they could know when the seasons would change. They announced when it was time to plant crops.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The divisions of time we use today were developed in ancient Babylonia four thousand years ago. Babylonian astronomers believed the sun moved around the Earth every three hundred sixty-five days. They divided the trip into twelve equal parts, or months. Each month was thirty days. Then, they divided each day into twenty-four equal parts, or hours. They divided each hour into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty seconds.

VOICE TWO:

Sundial

A sundial measures the movement of the sun across the sky each day. It has a stick or other object that rises above a flat surface. The stick, blocking sunlight, creates a shadow. As the sun moves, so does the shadow of the stick across the flat surface. Marks on the surface show the passing of hours, and perhaps, minutes.

The sundial works well only when the sun is shining. So, other ways were invented to measure the passing of time.

VOICE ONE:

One device is the hourglass. It uses a thin stream of falling sand to measure time. The hourglass is shaped like the number eight --- wide at the top and bottom, but very thin in the middle. In a true "hour" glass, it takes exactly one hour for all the sand to drop from the top to the bottom through a very small opening in the middle. When the hourglass is turned with the upside down, it begins to mark the passing of another hour.

By the eighteenth century, people had developed mechanical clocks and watches. And today, many of our clocks and watches are electronic.

VOICE TWO:

Clock

We all have a twelve o'clock noon each day. Noon is the time the sun is highest in the sky. But when it is twelve o'clock noon where I am, it may be ten o'clock at night where you are.

VOICE ONE:

As international communications and travel increased, it became clear that it would be necessary to establish a common time for all parts of the world.

In eighteen eighty-four, an international conference divided the world into twenty-four time areas, or zones. Each zone represents one hour. The astronomical observatory in Greenwich, England, was chosen as the starting point for the time zones. Twelve zones are west of Greenwich. Twelve are east.

The time at Greenwich -- as measured by the sun -- is called Universal Time. For many years it was called Greenwich Mean Time.

VOICE TWO:

Some scientists say time is governed by the movement of matter in our universe. They say time flows forward because the universe is expanding. Some say it will stop expanding some day and will begin to move in the opposite direction, to grow smaller. Some believe time will also begin to flow in the opposite direction -- from the future to the past. Can time move backward?

Most people have no trouble agreeing that time moves forward. We see people born and then grow old. We remember the past, but we do not know the future. We know a film is moving forward if it shows a glass falling off a table and breaking into many pieces. If the film were moving backward, the pieces would re-join to form a glass and jump back up onto the table. No one has ever seen this happen. Except in a film.

VOICE ONE:

Some scientists believe there is one reason why time only moves forward. It is a well-known scientific law -- the second law of thermodynamics. That law says disorder increases with time. In fact, there are more conditions of disorder than of order.

For example, there are many ways a glass can break into pieces. That is disorder. But there is only one way the broken pieces can be organized to make a glass. That is order. If time moved backward, the broken pieces could come together in a great many ways. Only one of these many ways, however, would re-form the glass. It is almost impossible to believe this would happen.

VOICE TWO:

Not all scientists believe time is governed by the second law of thermodynamics. They do not agree that time must always move forward. The debate will continue about the nature of time. And time will remain a mystery.

(THEME)

HOST:

Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and read by Sarah Long and Bob Doughty. I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for Science in the News, in VOA Special English.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week, we will tell how people who are lonely can spread that feeling to others. We will tell about an experimental treatment for a birth defect. And, we will tell about efforts to create new weapons against the disease malaria.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A newly-published study has shown that loneliness can spread from one person to another, like a disease.

Researchers used information from the Framingham Heart Study, which began in nineteen forty-eight. The Framingham study gathers information about physical and mental health, personal behavior and diet. At first, the study involved about five thousand people in the American state of Massachusetts. Now, more than twelve thousand individuals are taking part.

Information from the Framingham study showed earlier that happiness can spread from person to person. So can behaviors like obesity and the ability to stop smoking.

VOICE TWO:

Having a social connection with a lonely person increased the chances that another individual would feel lonely. In fact, a friend of a lonely person was fifty-two percent more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. A friend of that person was twenty-five percent more likely. The researchers say this shows that a person could indirectly be affected by someone's loneliness.

The effect was strongest among friends. Neighbors were the second most affected group. The effect was weaker on husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters. The researchers also found that loneliness spread more easily among women than men.

VOICE ONE:

The new study involved researchers from the University of Chicago, Harvard University and the University of California at San Diego.

A report on the findings was published this month in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The New York Times newspaper reports that, on average, people experience feelings of loneliness about forty-eight days a year. Yet the study found that having a friend who is lonely can add about seventeen days a year of loneliness. It also found that every additional friend can decrease loneliness by about five percent, or two and a half fewer lonely days.

VOICE TWO:

Loneliness has been linked to health problems like depression and sleeping difficulties. The researchers believe that knowing the causes of loneliness could help in reducing it.

The researchers did not study how loneliness spreads. However, Professor Cacioppo says existing research offers some possibilities. Lonely people are often mistrustful of others. This behavior spreads from one person to another, along with the emotion responsible for it.

The study suggests that people can take steps to stop the spread of loneliness. They can do this by helping individuals they know who may be experiencing loneliness. The result can be helpful to the whole social group.

(MUSIC)

Baby with a cleft lip

Researchers at the University of Southern California say they have found a way to heal a birth defect in animals before they are even born. A team from the U.S.C. School of Dentistry described its experiments in the publication Development.

Cleft palate and cleft lip are two of the most common birth defects in human beings. They can affect up to one in seven hundred babies around the world. Cleft lip is a separation in the upper lip. It can be a small or large opening that reaches up to the nose. Cleft palate is a separation in the top of the mouth.

VOICE TWO:

Cleft abnormalities usually develop early in pregnancy. They also are quickly recognized at birth. Many babies with cleft lip or palate have difficulty feeding. Other concerns include an increased risk of ear infection, hearing loss and problems with their teeth. Older children with cleft may have problems speaking.

Doctors can perform a surgical operation to repair either abnormality after the baby is born. The surgery can sometimes be complex, and may require more than one operation to correct.

VOICE ONE:

Now, the University of Southern California researchers say their work may make it possible for doctors to heal cleft palate before birth. The researchers carried out experiments with fetal mice. They say levels of a protein called Shh need to remain largely unchanged in a developing fetus for the palate to develop correctly. Too much or too little of the protein can cause a cleft condition.

Two genes are responsible for Shh levels. The Msx1 gene increases production of the protein. A gene called DIx5 decreases it. Both genes are necessary for the healthy development of the palate, teeth, skull and other facial structures.

VOICE TWO:

The researchers produced mice with a defect in the Msx1 gene. The resulting lack of Shh proteins caused palates to begin forming in the fetal mice. The researchers then took steps to suppress the DIx5 gene. This caused an increase in the protein, and the palate began to regrow.

When the animals were born, their palates were undamaged. The palates were structurally a little different than those of other mice, but they worked normally. And, the newborn mice were able to feed without problems.

The U.S.C. team says it hopes future research will help prevent or treat cleft conditions in people.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Scientists continue to seek better weapons against malaria. Each year the number of cases is in the hundreds of millions worldwide. Around a million people die, most of them in Africa. Economic losses from the disease represent an estimated one percent of the African economy each year.

George Dimopoulos is an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

GEORGE DIMOPOULOS: "Forty-two percent of the earth's population lives in areas where malaria transmitting mosquitoes exist. All of these people are in risk of being infected with malaria. The sad thing is that the majority of people that are killed by malaria are children because their immune system is not strong enough to ward off this infection."

Malaria is spread by some mosquitoes

Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium. The parasite enters people through the bite of infected mosquitoes. Malaria can be treated, but in many areas the organisms have become resistant to different drugs.

George Dimopoulos and his team are studying ways to make mosquitoes resist infection by the parasite. There are hundreds of kinds of mosquitoes in the world. Most do not spread malaria. Some of the insects have disease-fighting systems that kill Plasmodium.

GEORGE DIMOPOULOS: "We are particularly interested in these type of immune reactions that are responsible for killing the malaria parasite. Because we think once we understand how they work, we could be able to manipulate the mosquito genetically and convert mosquitoes that can transmit malaria into mosquitoes that cannot transmit malaria."

VOICE ONE:

The researchers have developed a way to make genetic changes in the three mosquito species known to spread malaria. The changes cause their systems to attack the parasite, blocking its development. Other researchers are working on ways to spread these genetically-engineered insects among mosquito populations.

Professor Dimopoulos says there is still a long way to go, but current malaria research is highly promising.

A new vaccine is in final testing. The vaccine has already proven effective at preventing the disease in half of those vaccinated -- which is more than ever before.

VOICE TWO:

Work is also being done at the Malaria Institute at Macha in Zambia. Researchers there are developing an easier way to identify malaria. The test uses saliva instead of blood to confirm the infection.

Current efforts in malaria control are mainly based on the use of insecticide sprays and treated bed nets. But George Dimopoulos says malaria needs to be attacked with drugs, with vaccines, with bed nets -- with whatever researchers can find.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by June Simms and Brianna Blake, who was also our producer. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And, I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. This week, we will tell about efforts to protect the burial place of Egypt's King Tutankhamen. And we will tell about what imaging tests found in ancient human remains.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Experts from the United States are working to return the final resting place of King Tutankhamen to its full beauty. The Getty Conservation Institute is cooperating with Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities on the project.

Tutankhamen is often called Tut. His tomb is in the Valley of the Kings on the west side of the Nile River at Luxor.

King Tut ruled Egypt more than three thousand years ago. He became Pharaoh when he was about nine years old. He was probably the son or grandson of Amenhotep the Third, a major ruler. Tut's mother or stepmother may have been Queen Nefertiti.

VOICE TWO:

Thousands of people visit King Tutankhamen's tomb every day. The rich beauty of the tomb is well known. But experts say his burial place needs scientific attention.

Tim Whalen directs the Getty Conservation Institute, which is based in Los Angeles, California. His team will study problems with paintings on walls of the burial room and other areas. Mister Whalen says the tomb is currently in what he called pretty good condition. He says the final goal of the work is to develop a long-term plan to operate and protect the tomb for years to come.

Jeanne Marie Teutonico is the associate director of the Getty Conservation Institute. She will direct other experts in scientific restoration during the five-year project.

The study and repair work is expected to cost the G.C.I. about one million, five hundred thousand dollars. Egypt has not yet said how much financial responsibility it will take for the project.

Experts examining the wall paintings in King Tut's tomb

One goal of the project is to record the condition of the tomb and the wall paintings in the burial room. One of the most beautiful paintings shows the underworld ruler Osiris. He is reaching his arms around King Tutankhamen. Osiris seems to be welcoming the king to the spirit world.

After more than three thousand years, parts of the paintings still look clear and bright. But they also contain brown, damaged areas. The damage worries archeologist Zahi Hawass. He is Egypt's vice minister of culture and secretary general of the Supreme Council of the Antiquities. Mister Hawass says that scientists have not yet been able to tell what caused the brown spots. He hopes answers will be found.

Miz Teutonico's team will study materials used in the paintings in an effort to solve the mystery. The team will examine records of conditions over the years. It also will attempt to find possible environmental reasons for the damage.

VOICE TWO:

The damaged areas were present when Howard Carter discovered King Tut's tomb in nineteen twenty-two.

With Tut's remains, the British archeologist also discovered priceless gold jewelry and other objects. Shining treasures filled the tomb, including a solid gold mask of Tutankhamen's face.

Mister Hawass says Carter's team damaged the King's remains. The team raised his mummy to reach more jewelry and artifacts. Some archeologists, however, defend Carter. They say he permitted this because he knew tomb-robbers would steal the treasures.

The team from C.G.I. is seeking to learn the effects of thousands of visits to the tomb each day. People bring heat with them. They also add wetness to the dry air. The team wants to know what this does to the ancient artifacts. When the C.G.I. team members have answers, they will make a plan to protect the tomb. Training for the team members and others will continue throughout the project.

King Tut's tomb

Tut's final resting place is one of the smallest of the rulers' tombs in the Valley of the Kings. That may be because he died before his twentieth birthday.

Workers in ancient Egypt had made little progress in preparing burial rooms for the king.

Some people believe that Tut's death was unnatural. Unconfirmed stories say the king was murdered. In two thousand five, doctors used medical imaging tests to examine his remains. But they found no evidence to support the idea that King Tut's life had ended in violence.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Earlier this year, doctors used computer X-ray tomography, also known as CT scans, to examine Egyptian mummies for heart disease. The doctors studied the remains of twenty people who died long ago. The results from these unusual patients surprised experts. It seemed the ancient Egyptians could have suffered from atherosclerosis, much as people do today. Such thickening and narrowing of the blood passages can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

Some of the mummies had signs of atherosclerosis in the inner walls of up to six arteries, the passages that lead blood away from the heart. But it is not known if the condition caused any of their deaths.

VOICE ONE:

The twenty mummies were about two thousand to three thousand five hundred years old. They were chosen for examination from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, where they are kept. The study also included two other mummies that were tested earlier.

Medical doctors from the United States and Egypt reported on the results. The report appeared recently in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Randall Thompson was one of several American doctors who cooperated with an Egyptian heart expert on the study. Doctor Thompson works at the Saint Luke's Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. He said the ancient peoples' remains had remained in very good condition over the centuries. The CT scans produced images of their whole bodies.

Doctor Thompson said sixteen of the mummies had enough heart or blood vessel tissues remaining for the doctors to examine. Of those, five had thickened and narrowed places in the arteries. In another four, the CT examination showed abnormal areas where the arteries should have been.

A mummy having a CT scan

Experts in ancient Egyptian studies also took part in the mummy project. They estimated the ages at which the ancient Egyptians died. Age appears to have played a part in the disease.

The most severe cases of atherosclerosis were in people over age forty-five. At the same time, only two of the eight ancient people who died at an earlier age showed signs of the disease.

A woman identified as Lady Rai was the earliest Egyptian with the condition. She lived more than three thousand three hundred years ago. She is believed to have been an aide to Queen Ahmose Nefertiri. The experts in Egyptian studies say this meant that Lady Rai lived about two hundred years before King Tutankhamun.

VOICE ONE:

The experts were able to tell the names and occupations of most other mummies in the study. They learned that those they could identify held high places in their societies, like Lady Rai. Most had served as religious officials or advisers for Egypt's rulers.

It was not possible to know exactly what they ate. But the experts said that it was not unusual for ancient Egyptians to eat duck, geese and beef. Doctor Thompson said the ancient people may have used salt to help keep their meat fresh. He said it was possible that they had high blood pressure. But he also said there is no way to know that.

VOICE TWO:

The study got its start in two thousand seven. At that time, American heart expert Gregory Thomas was visiting the Museum of the Antiquities with Egyptian heart expert Adel Allam. Doctor Thomas works at the medical school of the University of California at Irvine. Adel Allam works at the Al-Azhar Medical School in Cairo.

The two men saw the name of the pharaoh Merenptah in the museum. Information about the pharaoh said he died at about age sixty. It said he suffered from joint problems, bad teeth and atherosclerosis.

The doctors wanted to know how this could be known. They decided to carry out a study. Doctor Thomas helped Doctor Allam organize the mummy study to find out what modern methods could show about heart disease in ancient patients. Doctor Thomas gathered other experts, and he and Doctor Allam led the research.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Mario Ritter. Today, we will tell about the two thousand nine Nobel Prizes for discoveries in science. We also will tell about progress against acquired immune deficiency syndrome, better known as AIDS.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Nobel Prizes for Chemistry, Physics and Physiology or Medicine are to be presented in Sweden this week. The winners were chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. They will receive their prizes at ceremonies in Stockholm on December tenth. The winners in each area of science will share a prize valued at one million four hundred thousand dollars.

Nobel week is a busy time in the Swedish capital. The winners make speeches, meet with reporters and attend parties. But the most important event is when the King of Sweden presents the honorees with their awards.

Elizabeth Blackburn

Among those expected to accept their prizes are Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak. They share the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. This year, it is presented for solving a problem in biology.

The three honorees are working in the United States. Elizabeth Blackburn does her research at the University of California in San Francisco. Carol Greider works at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland. Jack Szostak works from the Harvard University Medical School, the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

VOICE ONE:

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences says it is honoring the researchers for showing how telomeres and the enzyme that makes them protect chromosomes.

A telomere is a structure of genetic material. Telomerase is the enzyme in the body that builds the telomeres. A chromosome contains molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA. This material carries the genetic information that makes us who we are. A telomere is at each end of a chromosome. Telomeres are necessary for a cell to divide.

The identification of telomeres about twenty years ago helped scientists understand how cells operate. But it was a finding that did not at first seem important to everyday life. Scientists now know that telomeres are involved in two subjects of widespread interest – aging and cancer.

VOICE TWO:

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were involved in the findings. Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak discovered the exact order of genetic information that protects chromosomes from ruin. They found that cells age if telomeres are shortened. For example, the first genetic copy of a sheep had shortened telomeres. The cloned animal started to suffer from arthritis at an age that some experts thought was unusually early for a sheep.

Miz Blackburn and Carol Greider identified the enzyme telomerase. Cells do not die as fast if a lot of telomerase is produced, so aging is slowed. But studies suggest that cancer cells may use telomerase to divide in abnormal ways.

The winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine are all American citizens. Mister Szostak came to the United States from England. Miz Blackburn was born in Australia and is also an Australian citizen.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Another woman, an Israeli, is a winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She is Ada Yonath of the Weitzmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

She is sharing the prize with two male researchers. They are Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University in England, and Thomas Steitz of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Mister Ramakrishnan is a British citizen, and Mister Steitz is an American.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is honoring all three researchers for studies of the structure and operation of a kind of cell called a ribosome. The Academy said the three were chosen for having shown what a ribosome looks like and how it operates at the atomic level.

VOICE TWO:

The researchers demonstrated how information in pieces of DNA is translated into the thousands of proteins contained in living matter.

Each researcher worked independently. They made maps that placed hundreds of thousands of atoms in the ribosomes. Some of their work involved X-rays produced by particle accelerators, devices that bring atomic particles into high energies.

The Royal Swedish Academy says the DNA in cells contains the designs for how people, plants and bacteria look and operate. But if there were nothing beyond the DNA in cells, life could not exist.

VOICE ONE:

Ribosomes change the design into living matter of all kinds. They make proteins including oxygen-carrying blood substances, antibodies to protect against disease, and substances that break down sugar.

Many antibiotic medicines currently in use block bacterial ribosomes from action. Bacteria cannot survive without bacterial ribosomes. Each Nobel Prize winner showed how ribosomes tie or bind with antibiotics. The Academy says new medicines could result from the work of the Nobel Prize winners in chemistry.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The Nobel Prize in Physics is going to three scientists who brought the light of knowledge to the subject of light. Half the prize money will go to Charles K. Kao. He did his award-winning work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China and at the Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in Britain.

The other two winners are Willard Boyle and George Smith. They did their research at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. Mister Boyle and Mister Smith will share the remaining prize money equally.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Kao discovered how to transmit, or send, light signals over long distances through optical glass fibers. He learned to get light to go far enough down a glass fiber to pass on signals. The signals can travel great distances. His work has made possible the development of communications carried around the world by the Internet.

When Mister Kao began his research twenty years ago, fiber optic materials already existed. But they were short by comparison with today. Mister Kao's work helped result in the fact that, if lined up, the current optical cables would make a fiber more than nine hundred sixty-five million kilometers long.

A CCD image sensor built by engineers at Bell Labs

Mister Boyle and Mister Smith invented the charge-coupled device, or CCD. The device can turn light into electrical signals. It provided technology for telescopes, medical images and digital cameras. The Royal Swedish Academy says the researchers' work has made possible great developments in those areas.

For example, doctors are able to use better instruments to examine organs in the body. And, many people now use cameras that do not require film.

Mister Kao was born in Shanghai, China. He is a citizen of the United States and Britain. Mister Boyle was born in Canada and is a citizen of Canada and the United States. Mister Smith is an American.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

December first was World AIDS Day. A new report about AIDS and the virus responsible for the disease provided some reason to celebrate.

Experts say the number of new H.I.V. infections has fallen by seventeen percent since two thousand one. H.I.V. is short for the human immunodeficiency virus. The experts say estimates of new H.I.V. infections are down by about fifteen percent in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. And, new infections have decreased almost twenty-five percent in East Asia. In Eastern Europe, the number of new H.I.V. infections has leveled off. But new infections appear to be rising again in some countries.

VOICE TWO:

The numbers come from a report by the UNAIDS program and the World Health Organization. It says H.I.V.-related deaths appear to have reached their highest level in two thousand four. Since then, deaths have fallen by around ten percent as more people have received treatment.

Experts credit the good news in the report, at least in part, to prevention programs. Yet treatments and population growth mean that more people than ever are living with H.I.V. The latest estimates say almost thirty-three million five hundred thousand have the virus. There were two million AIDS-related deaths last year, and two million seven hundred thousand new infections.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Doug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Mario Ritter. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Doug Johnson. November twenty-fourth marked the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of one of the most influential books ever written. Naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" in eighteen fifty-nine. The book was an immediate success in the scientific community. Today, evolution forms the basis for the modern science of biology.

(MUSIC)

Charles Darwin

Evolution can be defined as change in groups of living things over time. Small changes take place in each generation of organisms. Those with useful changes survive to reproduce. Changes that do not aid survival disappear. This is the idea of natural selection. Over long periods of time, these small changes result in the creation of new species. They are the reason for the many different kinds of life on Earth.

The idea that species change was not new even in Darwin's time. The idea dates back to ancient Greece. In the late eighteenth century, Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, suggested that species evolved from their ancestors. He even thought that competition helped drive change.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Lamark attempted a fuller explanation. He suggested that individual organisms changed in reaction to their environment and passed on these traits to the next generation.

VOICE TWO:

Darwin had been working on his theory for over twenty years when he published "On the Origin of Species." Yet it was the work of naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace that pushed Darwin to finally release his theory. Wallace had studied plants and animals in South America and the South Pacific. In eighteen fifty-eight, he sent Darwin a short study he had written containing ideas about evolution. Darwin was shocked by its similarity to his own work.

In July of that year, Darwin's friends Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker had studies by both men presented to the scientific group called the Linnean Society of London. But the first explanation of evolution in public caused little reaction.

A year later, Darwin would complete his detailed study of evolution through natural selection. With its publication, Darwin gained important supporters like Thomas Huxley who were willing to defend his ideas.

(MUSIC)

Evolution, however, did not explain everything about how species evolved. It is important to remember that many of the greatest biological discoveries had yet to be made when Darwin published "On the Origin of Species."

WARREN SCHMAUS: "When Darwin first proposed his theory in eighteen fifty-nine, he had no concept of a gene, no concept of a chromosome, no concept of mutation, and certainly no concept of things like DNA and RNA."

Professor Warren Schmaus of the Illinois Institute of Technology says the union of evolution and genetics only started around the nineteen thirties. Also, in Darwin's time, the age of the Earth was estimated only in the millions of years—too short a time some said for evolution to work. Not until the nineteen fifties did scientists, using radioactive dating, place the age of the Earth at over four billion years.

But natural selection has stood the test of time as a basis for the science of biology. Professor Schmaus notes that, before Darwin, naturalists only collected and named species.

WARREN SCHMAUS: "I mean it's hard to even understand how biology was a science as we would recognize it today. I mean, where are the scientific explanations before Darwin?"

VOICE TWO:

To celebrate Darwin and his idea, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington created a special exhibit. "Since Darwin: The Evolution of Evolution" opened in September. It uses objects from the museum's collection to show how Darwin helped us understand the history of life on Earth. The goal is to show that evolution is not an old, accepted idea, but continues to be the basis for new discoveries, itself changing with modern science.

People from all over the world have visited the exhibit. Many people found the objects and displays helped explain a subject that is hard to understand.

VOICE ONE:

Jim and Irene Mikkelson were visiting Washington from Charlotte, North Carolina when they stopped by the museum. Mister Mikkelson called the exhibit educational.

JIM MIKKELSON: "I never really realized that that meant that every living thing really came as an evolutionary development of the first seeds of life."

VOICE TWO:

Aravinda Pillalamarri lives in both India and the United States. She brought her daughter Khiyali to the exhibit and was surprised to find how much she already knew.

ARAVINDA PILLALAMARRI: "What I find interesting is how much of evolution she really takes for granted. For her the idea that birds have come from dinosaurs is just common knowledge and there's nothing surprising in that at all."

VOICE ONE:

Keith Leonard attends George Mason University in northern Virginia. He visited the exhibit to research Darwin's big idea.

KEITH LEONARD: "It's based on scientific observation which I think is important. And sort of the same ideas have been confirmed over and over again. I think trying to understand our world is a really complicated endeavor and it's important to have a sort of solid rational approach like science does."

VOICE TWO:

Most visitors spent a long time looking at the display called "The Tree of Life." Darwin explained the evolutionary process as the branching of a tree with complex species developing from simpler ones.

John Kress, a botanist and curator with the Smithsonian, says the team that created the exhibit had a different idea. He says the display was designed to look like a map of the local Washington Metro train system instead of a tree. The reason? All life is connected. Now we know that genetics makes this connection even deeper and we are linked to our ancestors by DNA.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Evolution is a theory, a word that is often used to describe an educated guess. But it is a scientific theory based on repeated observations, experiments, measurements and discoveries. A scientific theory represents the best explanation of how the natural world works.

There is almost no disagreement over the main ideas of evolution in the scientific community. But the idea that species have evolved from simpler forms is less accepted by the public. A Gallup Poll opinion study taken last February found that twenty-five percent of Americans reject evolution. Thirty-nine percent accept it and the rest have no opinion.

VOICE TWO:

Many important American court cases have dealt with evolution. The most famous took place in Tennessee in nineteen twenty-five. The trial found high school teacher John Scopes guilty of violating a state law banning the teaching of evolution. Later cases ruled that teaching religious creation stories in public schools violates the First Amendment of the Constitution that calls for separation of church and state.

More recently, religious groups have supported the idea of intelligent design in public schools. This is the idea that an intelligent force created all forms of life. In two thousand five, a group of high school students brought legal action against a Pennsylvania school district. Dover area schools had required that intelligent design be taught along with evolution. A United States District Court said intelligent design was not science and could not be separated from religious belief.

VOICE ONE:

But there have also been efforts to bridge the differences between religious belief and evolutionary science in recent years. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, has attempted to do that. He is a geneticist who led the effort to map all the human genetic material, DNA.

Francis Collins started an organization called the BioLogos Foundation. It is meant to support the idea that traditional Christian beliefs can coexist with science and evolution. In two thousand six, his book, "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief," became a national best-seller.

Hummingbirds and this flower, Heliconia bihai, provide an example of coevolution

One hundred fifty years after "On the Origin of Species" first appeared, it remains one of the most influential and debated books ever written. But it is only a beginning. John Kress of the Smithsonian says that, while science accepts evolution, debate continues.

JOHN KRESS: "We do have debates among ourselves over the exact process. And I think this is what science is about. We continually test our ideas; we continually conduct experiments to see if we can gain new insights into how life evolved and that's what really science is all about."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Doug Johnson. Visit our Web site at voaspecialenglish.com to find a link to the works of Charles Darwin. And join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And, I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we will tell about efforts against the H1N1 virus, often called swine flu. We will give a possible explanation for why some people may have an increased risk of developing diseases like diabetes and asthma. And we will tell about a study that confirms the importance of first impressions.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The H1N1 influenza virus continues to spread. Currently, the virus is most active in the northern half of the world. But experts say it has become the leading flu virus in all countries.

No one really knows how many people have gotten sick. H1N1 was first reported in Mexico in April. Countries are no longer required to test and report individual cases. But close to five hundred million confirmed cases were reported to the World Health Organization as of November first.

The W.H.O. offices for the Americas and the Western Pacific reported two out of three of those cases. The agency says more than six thousand people worldwide have died because of H-one N-one.

The Saudi Arabian Health Minister gives his 8-year-old daughter the swine flu vaccine in Riyadh

W.H.O. special adviser Keiji Fukuda reported earlier this month that the virus has acted in some ways like seasonal flu. Most people recover without any need for interventions like antiviral drugs.

But in other ways, H1N1 is different. It remained at unusually high levels in several countries during their summer months. And, unlike seasonal flu, younger people have suffered many of the serious cases and deaths from the virus.

In the United States, cases of suspected influenza are at higher numbers than usual this early in the flu season. Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say hospital treatment for likely H1N1 is most common among children up to four years old.

VOICE ONE:

Health officials around the world are concerned about vaccine production. Wealthy countries have promised to donate ten percent of their H1N1 vaccine to poor countries. But there is a worldwide shortage.

The traditional way to make flu vaccine is to grow the virus in chicken eggs. Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health says the shortage is an issue of biology. He says the companies that make vaccines cannot really do much when they have a virus that does not grow well.

VOICE TWO:

Officials in Saudi Arabia are preparing for the Hajj, which starts this week. The event normally brings about three million Muslims from one hundred sixty countries to the city of Mecca.

Disease experts are concerned that H1N1 could spread easily among the Muslim pilgrims. Saudi officials have a campaign to give vaccines to health workers. They are also urging countries to vaccinate pilgrims making the trip. And they are advising against travel by children, pregnant women and other groups at highest risk.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Swedish researchers have found that babies born by Caesarean section experience changes to the genes in their white blood cells. A published report says the genetic changes could be linked to stress levels during this method of giving birth.

The report says the changes could explain why persons born by Caesarean section are more likely to get diseases like diabetes and asthma later in life. Those diseases affect the immune system – the body's natural resistance to disease.

VOICE TWO:

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden tested blood from the umbilical cords of thirty-seven newborn babies. The researchers tested the blood again three to five days later. They examined DNA-methylation in the white blood cells. DNA methylation shows chemical changes in a person's deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.

The study found that sixteen babies born by C-section had higher DNA-methylation rates immediately after they were born than the other babies. Three to five days later, the rates were about the same. The reason for this is unclear.

VOICE ONE:

Earlier animal studies showed that emotional or mental tension around birth affects methylation of the genes. Experts say babies are unprepared for birth when a doctor performs a C-section. As a result, those babies can have higher stress levels than those born without the help of the operation.

In other births, emotional or mental tension increases slowly as the woman's labor progresses. This helps the baby to start breathing and get settled in the new environment outside the mother.

Professor Mikael Norman of the Karolinska Institute helped to write the report. He says C-section births have been linked to an increased risk of allergic reactions, diabetes and leukemia later in life. The study appeared earlier this year in the publication Acta Paediatrica.

VOICE TWO:

The researchers say the discovery could be important to a debate about Cesarean-section deliveries. Births by C-section are increasing worldwide. It is currently the most common surgical operation among women of reproductive age.

America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says caesarean births rose to nearly thirty-two percent of all births in two thousand seven. This was the eleventh time in eleven years that rates have increased. But some experts believe that many of the C-sections are not medically necessary.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Many people have learned as children that first impressions are important. Parents and other adults often say that people judge you by the way you look.

Now, American and British researchers have confirmed that judgments based only on how someone looks are important. They found that appearance tells a lot about your personality -- the traits or qualities that make you the person that you are.

The researchers included Laura Naumann of Sonoma State University in California, and Simine Vazire of Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. They were joined by Sam Gosling of the University of Texas at Austin and Peter J. Rentfrow of Britain's Cambridge University. The results of their study will be published next month in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

VOICE TWO:

We will call the subjects in the study, the judges. That is because they judged the personality of people they had never met. The judges examined pictures of one hundred twenty-three people. The people in the photographs had been told how to stand. They looked into the cameras with a neutral facial expression. The same people also were photographed the way they themselves wanted to stand. Those who wanted to smile could smile.

Then the judges attempted to decide what the people were like. The researchers compared the judges' opinions with the way the people who were photographed rated themselves. Three people who knew those in the photographs well also provided information about their personality and behavior.

VOICE ONE:

The judges looked for ten traits in the people in the pictures. The qualities included extroversion, or interest in other people and one's environment. Another important trait was self-esteem: Does the person feel good about himself or herself?

The judges also looked for signs of likeability, openness and agreeability. Other traits considered in the study were loneliness, and religious and political beliefs. Other considerations were emotional control and conscientiousness -- the quality of being guided by a sense of right and wrong.

VOICE TWO:

The researchers said the judges could identify some personality traits even when people were pictured in controlled positions. They could recognize traits like extroversion and self-esteem. But it was hard for the judges to decide about most other traits under the controlled conditions.

When the people smiled and stood looking natural and energetic, however, judging their personalities was easy. Then the judges' choices were correct for nine of the ten personality traits.

Researcher Laura Nauman noted that we live in a time of social media, and personal photographs are everywhere. She says it is important to understand how appearance communicates personality. If you want people to see you as warm and friendly, she says, just smile.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by June Simms, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Today, we will tell about a plan to fight a leading killer of children in developing countries. We will tell about a new way to recognize harmful minerals in rocks and soil. And we will tell about a major study of laughter.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Diarrhea kills one million five hundred thousand children each year. That represents one in five child deaths worldwide. The only disease that kills more children under age five is pneumonia.

Experts say diarrhea causes more child deaths than the diseases AIDS, malaria and measles combined. New findings show it also kills more than a million young people and older adults every year.

Therese Dooley works for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.

THERESE DOOLEY: "In addition to the deaths, there's about two-point-five billion -- and I want to emphasize, about two-point-five billion cases of diarrhea among children every year."

VOICE ONE:

But a new report says sixty percent of those in developing countries do not get the suggested treatment. UNICEF and the World Health Organization wrote the report. It was published in the medical journal The Lancet.

A doctor inspects a diarrhea patient at a hospital in Allahabad, India

Diarrhea causes fluid loss and reduces the body's supply of zinc. This mineral is needed for normal growth and development. For the past five years, UNICEF and the W.H.O. have suggested zinc supplements to treat diarrhea. They also recommend fluid replacement solutions made from what are called low-osmolarity oral rehydration salts.

Yet zinc supplements remain largely unavailable in the developing world. The fluid replacement solutions can also be difficult to find.

A leading cause of diarrhea in children is the rotavirus. Public health officials are now advised to include the rotavirus vaccine in all national immunization programs. But the vaccine is still not available in many developing countries.

VOICE ONE:

The report says new ways to expand the use of treatments are now being developed. Proposals include, for example, supplying treatment kits through community health workers or special campaigns.

Experts say children with diarrhea should continue to eat, and babies should continue to breastfeed.

To help prevent diarrhea, the report suggests that children receive both the rotavirus and measles vaccines. It also calls for improving supplies of clean water in developing countries.

Another prevention measure is hand washing with soap.

Diarrhea can be easy to prevent. Campaigns to fight childhood diarrhea had some success during the nineteen seventies and eighties. UNICEF and the W.H.O. hope this new plan will help return the issue to worldwide importance.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Asbestos is the name for several fibrous minerals. The long, thin fibers are strong, and can work well to reduce temperature changes. They are also resistant to fire.

Because of these qualities, people have been using asbestos in products for many years. Asbestos was a favorite of builders and manufacturers during the twentieth century. Some people praised it as a wonder material.

In recent years, however, asbestos has become feared as a threat to human health. Asbestos has been linked to serious health problems, including two kinds of cancer. In some countries, costly repairs were made on many buildings to remove the material. All new uses of asbestos were banned in the United States in two thousand seven.

A home undergoing the removal of asbestos in Libby, Montana

Still, asbestos develop naturally in rocks and soil in some areas. The material can harm people who do not know it is there.

For more than a century, scientists in California have made maps of rocky areas that might contain asbestos. They did their research on the ground. But scientists are reporting that some asbestos in the earth can now be found quickly by sensing devices from the air.

Gregg Swayze works for the United States Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado. He led the team of scientists. They developed a new method of making maps of hard-to-reach areas. Their test flights took place in two thousand one. A report about the study appeared recently in the publication Geology.

VOICE TWO:

Each kind of mineral has its own structure and chemicals. Fibrous minerals like asbestos are no exception. The light absorbed, or collected, by an asbestos surface can be recognized by an appearance all its own. So can the light that the surface reflects, or reproduces.

Many minerals in the asbestos family can absorb light with a wavelength measuring two-point three micrometers. When the asbestos is seen in light near that wavelength, the minerals look darker than those around them.

The researchers examined areas in the California counties of El Dorado and Plumas from the air. The areas were suspected or known to have rocks and soil containing asbestos. The team's sensor devices were set on differing wavelengths. The researchers were able to identify asbestos even in places eighty-percent covered by dry grass.

VOICE ONE:

But Mister Swayze notes limits on the asbestos searches from the air. He says water also holds some of the major wavelengths that identify asbestos. For this reason, he says, air searches would need to be done in areas where the climate is dry or plants lacking altogether.

For now, however, the method offers the promise of making a map of asbestos easier and faster than earlier ways.

Recognition of the harm asbestos can do and the ban on its new uses did not take place until recently. But people have suspected it for centuries. More than two thousand years ago, the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder observed its harmful effects. Pliny and the Greek geographer Strabo both noted that slaves making cloth with the material developed lung problems.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

But some people worry much more than others about being the target of laughter. These people are frightened. They suffer from an emotional disorder called gelotophobia. That long name comes from the Greek language. The word "Gelos" means "laugh," while "phobos" means fear.

VOICE ONE:

Victor Rubio is an expert on human behavior at the Autonomous University of Madrid. He says people laugh at others for many different reasons. He says being laughed at causes a fear response in the victim. That fear leads the victim to avoid social situations. Sadly, gelotophobia limits the way they lead their lives.

Mister Rubio was among researchers in a huge international study about laughter. The researchers wanted to understand the difference between normal shyness and true gelotophobia. Another goal was to measure the fear of being laughed at within different cultures. A team from the University of Zurich led ninety-three researchers from many countries in search of answers.

The researchers questioned more than twenty-two thousand people. They used questions provided in forty-two languages. Their findings were reported in the scientific publication "Humor."

VOICE TWO:

Some of the people questioned said they felt unsure of themselves in social situations. But they hid their feelings. Others said they avoided social situations where they had been laughed at before. People also admitted to differing levels of fear that they themselves were the targets of other people's laughter. The researchers measured and compared all these reactions.

Fear of being laughed at, being made fun of, is a common emotion. But the researchers learned that these feelings differed from nation to nation. For example, the study found that people in Turkmenistan and Cambodia are likely to hide insecure feelings when they are around others' laughter. But people in Iraq, Egypt and Jordan who feel they have been victims before may avoid such situations.

People in Finland were the least likely to believe that people laughing in their presence were making fun of them. Only eight and one half percent of Finns said that was true. In Thailand, however, eighty percent of those questioned said they believed they were objects of laughter.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by June Simms and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Learning English MP3

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Doug Johnson. Today we tell about the American plant scientist Norman Borlaug. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to increase food production around the world. His work to battle world hunger is credited with saving millions of people from starvation.

(MUSIC)

Norman Borlaug

Norman Borlaug traveled the world to help people develop better ways to produce food. This might explain why he is probably better known overseas than in the United States.

Borlaug worked in fields to show farmers new ways to grow crops like wheat and rice. He also worked in the laboratory to create new versions of wheat that could resist disease.

Borlaug became known as the "Father of the Green Revolution." Some people say he saved more lives than anyone else in history. Yet one American newspaper says he described himself simply as a "corn-fed, country-bred Iowa boy."

VOICE TWO:

Norman Ernest Borlaug was born to Norwegian-American parents in rural Iowa on March twenty-fifth, nineteen fourteen. He grew up on a farm. He began his education in a one-room country schoolhouse.

Family members say young Norman was interested in plants. They say he often asked why some plants grew better in different areas of the farm.

Norman's family urged him to continue his studies at a time when many farm boys left school to find a job. He later worked on farms, earning fifty cents a day to pay for college during the Great Depression.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Borlaug attended the University of Minnesota, where he completed a study program in forestry. During the Depression, he witnessed people going hungry in the central United States. This deeply influenced his interest in agricultural sciences and better ways to produce food.

As a young man, Borlaug worked for a short time on forestry projects in Idaho and Massachusetts. He later returned to the University of Minnesota to study plant pathology. After those studies were completed, he worked as a researcher at a laboratory owned by the DuPont chemical company.

VOICE TWO:

During this period, many experts warned of mass starvation in the developing world where populations were expanding faster than crop production.

In nineteen forty-four, Borlaug left his job with DuPont, and began a project to increase Mexico's wheat production. He became the head of the newly-formed Cooperative Wheat Research and Production Program in Mexico. The program received financial support from a private group, the Rockefeller Foundation.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The farming conditions Borlaug found in Mexico were extremely bad. The soil was not good for growing crops, and disease was destroying the plants. Over the next twenty years, Borlaug worked with Mexican scientists to develop crops that were able to resist disease. This was done by crossbreeding different kinds of wheat to make stronger, more resistant ones. He and the scientists also developed plants that produced higher quantities of grain.

Borlaug worked with wheat genes to shrink the plant while keeping the grain large. Using the same amount of land, the new wheat variety could produce three to four times as much food. This method of shrinking plants would become a major part of the Green Revolution.

Mexico imported sixty percent of its wheat in the early nineteen forties. By nineteen fifty-six, the country produced enough wheat to feed its population. By nineteen sixty-three, Mexico began exporting wheat.

VOICE TWO:

Working with researchers throughout the world, Borlaug began to offer his methods in areas where people were threatened with starvation. He began to receive urgent requests from poor countries where population growth was more than the food supply could feed.

Borlaug's first stop was Asia. He and his team had great success in Pakistan and India. Local farmers could grow four times more wheat than before. Pakistan was able to feed its own population by nineteen sixty-eight. Six years later, India also became self-sufficient. Borlaug also brought his methods to the Middle East and South American countries like Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen seventy, Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts toward world peace through increasing food supply. At the time of the announcement, Borlaug was working in farmland in Mexico.

When he heard the news, he thought it was a joke. It is said that he traveled the eighty kilometers to Mexico City to meet with reporters and arrived with dirt on his hands. Later that year, Borlaug traveled to the home of his ancestors, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

President George W. Bush in 2007 presenting the Congressional Gold Medal

Borlaug is one of only five people to receive all three honors. The others are Martin Luther King Junior, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Elie Wiesel.

VOICE TWO:

One of the lasting effects of Norman Borlaug is the World Food Prize, which he established in nineteen eighty-six. The award recognizes the work of individuals who have helped human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

Shortly after Borlaug's death, billionaire Bill Gates spoke at the World Food Prize symposium in Iowa.

BILL GATES: "In the middle of the twentieth century, experts predicted famine and starvation. But they turned out to be wrong, because they did not predict Norman Borlaug. He not only showed humanity how to get more food from the Earth, he proved that farming has the power to lift up the lives of the poor."

VOICE ONE:

Norman Borlaug's work lives on through the Borlaug Fellowship Program. The Department of Agriculture supervises the program. It brings foreign agricultural scientists to the United States each year and places them with American scientists.

Later in his life, Borlaug turned his attention to Africa. He and former American President Jimmy Carter worked with the Sasakawa Africa Association to help increase the quality and production of corn on the continent.

But not everyone considered Borlaug a hero. Environmental activists criticized his intensive methods, including use of fertilizers and pesticides. These products are used to help plants grow and protect them from insects.

Borlaug suggested that Western critics had never known real hunger. He also wondered if they had ever watched their children go hungry.

Borlaug's desire to feed the world is what drove him. He was a firm believer that the job of feeding the world could not be done without fertilizers and pesticides. Borlaug and those who followed his lead argued that older methods of sustainable farming could not produce enough food to prevent hunger in poorer areas of the world.

In nineteen seventy-one, he criticized opponents of the insecticide DDT, which was later banned in the United States.

NORMAN BORLAUG:"I am very proud to be an American but I am also frightened by this hysteria. [If we] remove DDT the next will be all insecticides, after that it will be all the weed-killers and the fungicides and then the fertilizers, if the hysteria prevails. And when this happens, sir, the U.S. will be importing food, only there won't be any place from where to import it."

VOICE TWO:

But later in life, Borlaug urged farmers not to overuse chemical products.

VOICE ONE:

Up until his death in September two thousand nine, Borlaug was still working on agricultural projects. He was a professor of international agriculture at Texas A and M University in Texas. The university established an institute in his name.

Six months before his death, Norman Borlaug spoke to VOA at his ninety-fifth birthday party. Borlaug said he was worried about the world's ability to feed itself. He said that the work to improve crop production must continue.

Borlaug suffered from lymphoma. Health problems linked to the disease led to his death. Borlaug's family released a statement shortly after he died. It said they wanted his life to be an example for making a difference in the lives of others, and for working toward the goal of ending suffering for all mankind.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Doug Johnson.

And I'm Barbara Klein. You can download this program and others from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in VOA Special English.

Learning English MP3