SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - July 30, 2002: Study of Centenarians / How Sleep Improves Learning / New York
Requires Abortion Training for Some New Doctors
VOICE ONE:
This is Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Bob Doughty with Science in the News, a VOA Special English program about recent developments
in science. Today, we tell about people who live to be one-hundred years old. We tell about how sleep improves
learning. We tell about required training for some doctors in New York City. And we tell about a plan to bury
nuclear waste in the state of Nevada.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
Scientists are trying to find out how some people live to be one-hundred years old and older. They say the
brothers and sisters of people who are at least one-hundred years old have a much greater chance of reaching that
age than the general population.
Thomas Perls of the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts led the study. He and other
researchers studied the family health histories of more than four-hundred families with at least one member who
to lived be one-hundred. People who are at least one-hundred years old are called centenarians.
VOICE TWO:
The researchers compared the death rates of the brothers and sisters in the study with the death rates for
Americans born in nineteen-hundred. The researchers said the brothers of centenarians were seventeen times
more likely to reach one -hundred years old, compared with the general population. The sisters were eight times
more likely to reach that age.
There are currently about fifty-thousand centenarians in the United States. Doctor Perls said about eighty-five
percent of them are women. Fifteen-percent are men. However, the men are in better physical condition than the
women. He said the centenarian men have fewer diseases than the women and are more independent.
VOICE ONE:
Researchers believe successful aging depends on many things, including genes.
They believe centenarians may have genes that protect them against deadly diseases
and enable them to live longer. They have not identified those genes. But they say
they have found an area on one chromosome where such anti-aging genes may exist.
The findings of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
American scientists have discovered a good reason to sleep a little longer in the morning. The scientists found
that a little extra sleep helps people learn better. They demonstrated that people who learn a new skill, and then
sleep well, are better at performing the skill the next day. The publication Neuron reported their findings.
Matthew Walker of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his team
studied the effects of sleep on the ability to learn to do simple skills. They tested
The U.S. Administration on
Aging honored Harold H.
Fisher, a 100-year-old
architect in Michigan, as
America's oldest worker in
2001.
sixty-two people who carried out a number of small experiments. The people were
trained to perform a simple skill with their fingers. They were asked to push a series
of numbers on a computer keyboard as quickly as possible. They used the hand they
do not normally use for such activities.
VOICE ONE:
The people were trained in the morning, and then tested twelve hours later. The
scientists found that their speed and performance did not improve greatly. Yet the results were different when the
people were trained at night and tested the next day. After a good night’s sleep, their performance improved by
about twenty percent.
The researchers looked closely at the sleep activity of the people in the study. They found the improvement
seemed to be directly linked to a kind of sleep at the end of a person’s normal sleeping period. Doctor Walker
says this is the kind of sleep that many people do not experience if they get up early in the morning.
The findings could help musicians, doctors or anyone else who is learning difficult skills that have to be repeated.
The findings may help answer other questions, such as why babies sleep so much. Doctor Walker says the
intensity of learning new skills and information may increase the brain’s need for many hours of sleep.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
New York City has changed its policy for training new doctors to perform operations to end unwanted
pregnancies. Starting this month, New York’s public hospital system requires that doctors training to care for
women learn how to perform abortions.
The training will include the latest methods to end unwanted pregnancies, including use of a
new pill. Doctors who oppose abortion may refuse the training for moral or religious reasons.
No other American city requires that doctors who treat women receive abortion training as part
of their advanced education.
VOICE ONE:
The organization Planned Parenthood says more than one-million American women have
abortions each year. Officials say that abortion is one of the most common kinds of operations
performed in the United States.
However, experts say eighty-four percent of local areas in the United States have no doctors trained to provide
abortions. They say the lack of such doctors forces many women to travel more than eighty kilometers to find a
doctor who will perform an abortion.
VOICE TWO:
Experts say medical training programs that offer abortion have increased around the country in recent years.
Women’s rights activists say the new policy in New York’s public hospitals may cause other hospitals to
require doctors who treat women to have abortion training. They also hope that the training will increase the
number of doctors able to perform the operation around the country. However, anti-abortion activists are opposed
to the operation because they say abortions kill unborn children. Some activists have threatened doctors who
perform the operations.
One New York anti-abortion group warned that there would be severe results when doctors trained in New York
begin to perform abortions around the country.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
President Bush has approved a project to bury nuclear waste material under Yucca Mountain in the state of
Nevada. The project calls for burying more than seventy-thousand tons of radioactive nuclear waste material.
The material includes used nuclear fuel from power centers and waste from the
production of nuclear weapons. The waste is now stored at more than one -hundredthirty
power centers in almost forty states. However, these power centers have little
storage space left.
The federal government owns Yucca Mountain. No one lives there. It is in an
extremely dry area more than one-hundred-forty-five kilometers northwest of Las
Vegas, Nevada.
The dispute about burying nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain has continued for twenty years. Bush
Administration officials say the nuclear waste burial project is scientifically acceptable. They also say placing all
of the country’s nuclear waste in one place would help protect against terrorist attacks in other parts of the
country. Supporters of the plan say it is important for the future of the nuclear power industry.
VOICE TWO:
However, there is much opposition to the plan. Opponents include environmental groups and Nevada state
officials. They say the area is near inactive volcanoes and has experienced earthquakes. Movements in the earth
could spread the radioactive material. Opponents say the rock might not be able to hold the waste and keep it
from entering water underground.
Opponents also say the dangerous nuclear waste would have to be transported by trucks and trains across about
forty states. They fear accidents or threats from terrorists could endanger the population in many areas.
Opponents are trying to block the plan through legal action in the courts.
Now the Energy Department must request and receive permission for the project from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. This process could last for five years. The Energy Department must provide evidence about the
safety of the project. Supporters of the project hope it will begin in two-thousand-ten. However, opponents say
they will continue to fight against it.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Cynthia Kirk, George Grow, Bob Brumfield and Jerilyn
Watson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice
of America.
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