VOASE0807_Health Report

07 August 2007

Researchers Develop New Test to Predict Alzheimer’s Disease
Trouble with the sense of smell can be one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people around the world. American researchers say the disease will affect more than one hundred million people worldwide by the year twenty fifty. That would be four times the current number.

Researchers and doctors have been studying Alzheimer's patients for a century. Yet the cause and cure for the mental sickness are still unknown. However, some researchers have made important steps towards understanding it.

Several early signs of the disease involve memory and thought processes. At first, patients have trouble remembering little things. Later, they have trouble remembering more important things, such as the names of their children.

There are also some physical tests that might show who is at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. The tests look for proteins in brain and spinal cord fluid. The proteins appear to be found only in people with the disease. The protein tests correctly identify the presence of the disease in about ninety percent of patients.

Now, a much simpler physical test to predict Alzheimer’s risk has been developed. Researchers found that trouble with the sense of smell can be one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s. Using this information, they developed a test in which people were asked to identify twelve familiar smells. These smells included cinnamon, black pepper, chocolate, paint thinner, and smoke.

The study continued for five years. During this period, the same people were asked to take several tests measuring their memory and thought abilities. Fifty percent of those who could not identify at least four of the smells in the first test had trouble with their memory and thinking in the next five years.

Another study has shown a possible way to reduce a person’s chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease in old age. Researchers in Chicago, Illinois found that people who use their brains more often are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Those who read a newspaper, or play chess or word games are about three times less likely to develop the condition.

Researchers say they still do not know what causes Alzheimer’s disease. But they say these findings might help prevent the disease in the future.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Erin Braswell. You can download scripts and audio from our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOASE0807_Explorations

07 August 2007

The Galapagos Islands Are Added to UNESCO's Endangered List
The islands are threatened by too many visitors and invasive species.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the unusual creatures that live there.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A Galapagos Giant Tortoise

The nineteen islands that make up the Galapagos lie along the equator one thousand kilometers west of Ecuador. The islands are named for the giant tortoises that live there. Galapagos has been called "a living museum and showcase of evolution." The animals on the islands influenced British nature scientist Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution by natural selection.

In nineteen seventy-eight, the islands were the first place named to the World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Recently, however, UNESCO added the islands to its World Heritage in Danger list. The main reason is the increase in the number of visitors to the islands.

The World Heritage Committee said increased tourism, immigration and invasive species threaten the animals of the Galapagos. Many of these animals are found nowhere else in the world. The committee noted that the number of days spent by passengers on ships in the area has increased by one hundred fifty percent in the last fifteen years. The number of visitors each year has doubled in five years and grows almost twelve percent every year. More than one hundred forty-five thousand people visited the islands last year.

The islands' increased tourism has brought thousands of workers from Ecuador to seek jobs. Some workers have brought non-native animals like dogs, cats, pigs and goats. These animals compete for food with the islands' native animals. Some also attack the native animals. Ecuadorian President Rafael Corea declared the islands at risk in April. He has promised more restrictions on tourism and population.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Mystery always has been part of the Galapagos. In fifteen thirty-five, a ship carrying the Roman Catholic Bishop of Panama came upon the Galapagos accidentally. Tomas de Berlanga named the Galapagos group the Enchanted Isles. He was surprised to see land turtles that weighed more than two hundred kilograms and were more than one meter long. He said they were so large each could carry a man on its back. Bishop Berlanga also noted the unusual soil of the islands. He suggested that one island was so rocky it seemed like stones had rained from the sky.

VOICE ONE:

Ecuador took official possession of the islands in eighteen thirty-two. The British nature scientist Charles Darwin is mainly responsible for the fame of the Galapagos Islands. He visited the islands in eighteen thirty-five. He collected plants and animals from several islands. After many years of research, he wrote the book “The Origin of Species” in eighteen fifty-nine. He developed the theory of evolution that life on Earth developed through the process of natural selection.

The book changed the way people think about how living things developed and became different over time. Darwin said the Galapagos brought people near “to that great fact -- that mystery of mysteries -- the first appearance of new beings on earth”.

One hundred years later, in nineteen fifty-nine, the Ecuadorian government declared almost all of the islands a national park. The Charles Darwin Foundation was formed the same year to study and protect the plants and animals on the islands.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

More than one hundred twenty-five landmasses make up the Galapagos. But only nineteen are large enough to be considered islands. Scientists have been wondering for years about the position of the Galapagos in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists used to think that the islands were connected to the South American mainland and floated out to sea slowly.

Today, most scientists think the islands were always where they are now. But they think the islands once were a single landmass under water. Volcanic activity broke the large island into pieces that came to the surface of the sea over time.

VOICE ONE:

But scientists wonder how animals arrived on Galapagos if the islands were always so far from the mainland. Scientists think most Galapagos plants and animals floated to the islands. When rivers flood in South America, small pieces of land flow into the ocean. These rafts can hold trees and bushes. The rafts also can hold small mammals and reptiles. The adult Galapagos tortoise clearly is too big for a trip hundreds of kilometers across the ocean. But, turtle eggs or baby turtles would be small enough to float to the islands.

VOICE TWO:

The Galapagos Islands are home to many unusual birds, reptiles and small mammals. Some of the animals live nowhere else on Earth. The tortoise is the most famous

The Marine Iguana

Galapagos reptile. But the marine iguana is also unusual. It is the only iguana in the world that goes into the ocean. The marine iguana eats seaweed. It can dive at least fifteen meters below the ocean surface. And it can stay down there for more than thirty minutes.

Several strange birds also live on the Galapagos. One of them is the only penguin that lives on the equator. Another is the frigate bird. It has loose skin on its throat that it can blow up into a huge red balloon-like structure. It does this to attract females that make observation flights over large groups of males.

VOICE ONE:

The Galapagos also are noted for a bird that likes water better than land or air. The cormorant is able to fly in all the other places it lives around the world. But the Galapagos cormorant has extremely short wings. They cannot support flight. But they work well for swimming.

The islands also have a large collection of small birds called Darwin’s finches. Charles Darwin studied the finches carefully when he visited the Galapagos in eighteen thirty-five. He separated the birds by the shapes of their beaks. He discovered that finches that lived in different places and ate different foods had different shaped beaks.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

But the most famous animals on the Galapagos Islands are the thousands of giant

Lonesome George

tortoises. And the most famous of these is the one that scientists call Lonesome George because he is the last of his kind. He has been called the rarest creature on Earth. At one time, the islands were home to about fifteen different kinds of land turtles. The largest island, Isabela, has five different kinds of tortoises. But, Lonesome George is not one of them. He comes from a smaller island called Pinta.

Scientists found George in nineteen seventy-one. Humans and non-native animals had caused much damage to the environment on his island. Some animals and plants had disappeared. Lonesome George was the only tortoise found on Pinta.

VOICE ONE:

Scientists took the tortoise to the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz Island. They wanted to help him find a female tortoise for mating to produce baby tortoises. The scientists had been successful in similar efforts for thousands of other tortoises.

The researchers placed George in the same living area as females from the nearby island of Isabela. Scientists thought George would be more closely related to the females from Isabela than to other Galapagos tortoises. However, George has not been able to mate successfully with the female tortoises. No eggs have been produced.

VOICE TWO:

Scientists have been studying the genetic material of tortoises on the islands and around the world. They have not found one with DNA like George’s. However, earlier this year, scientists from Yale University in the United States made an important discovery. They identified a male tortoise on Isabela Island that is an offspring of a female from Isabela and a male from Pinta. That means this tortoise has half his genes in common with Lonesome George. Scientists believe there might be a female carrying Pinta genes that could be a mate for George.

However, another scientist has noted that even if such a female is found, George has shown little interest in mating with female tortoises. George is between seventy and eighty years old. But some tortoises live longer than one hundred fifty years. If Lonesome George fails to become a father, the Pinta Island tortoises will disappear when he dies.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Caty Weaver. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Transcripts and archives of our shows are at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

VOASE0806_Science In the News

06 August 2007

How Sigmund Freud Changed What People Thought About the Mind
Freud influenced the science of mental health.

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VOICE ONE:

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

VOICE TWO:

Sigmund Freud

And I'm Bob Doughty. The work and theories of Sigmund Freud continue to influence many areas of modern culture.

VOICE ONE:

Today, we explore Freud's influence on the treatment of mental disorders through psychotherapy.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Sigmund Freud was born May sixth, eighteen fifty-six, in Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. He lived most of his life in Vienna, Austria. Early in his adulthood, Freud studied medicine. By the end of the nineteenth century, he was developing some exciting new ideas about the human mind. But his first scientific publications dealt with sea animals, including the sexuality of eels.

VOICE ONE:

Freud was one of the first scientists to make serious research of the mind. The mind is the collection of activities based in the brain that involve how we act, think, feel and reason.

He used long talks with patients and the study of dreams to search for the causes of mental and emotional problems. He also tried hypnosis. He wanted to see if putting patients into a sleep-like condition would help ease troubled minds. In most cases he found the effects only temporary.

Freud worked hard, although what he did might sound easy. His method involved sitting with his patients and listening to them talk. He had them talk about whatever they were thinking. All ideas, thoughts and anything that entered their mind had to be expressed. There could be no holding back because of fear or guilt.

VOICE TWO:

Seating area where Freud questioned his patients

Freud believed that all the painful memories of childhood lay buried in the unconscious self. He said his part of the mind contains wishes, desires and experiences too frightening to recognize.

He thought that if these memories could somehow be brought into the conscious mind, the patient would again feel the pain. But this time, the person would experience the memories as an adult. The patient would feel them, be able to examine them and, if successful, finally understand them.

Using this method, Freud reasoned, the pain and emotional pressure of the past would be greatly weakened. They would lose their power over the person's physical health. Soon the patient would get better.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Sigmund Freud proposed that the mind was divided into three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. Under this theory, the superego acts as a restraint. It is governed by the values we learn from our parents and society. The job of the superego is to help keep the id under control.

The id is completely unconscious. It provides the energy for feelings that demand the immediate satisfaction of needs and desires.

The ego provides the immediate reaction to the events of reality. The ego is the first line of defense between the self and the outside world. It tries to balance the two extremes of the id and the superego.

VOICE TWO:

Many of Freud's theories about how the mind works also had strong sexual connections. These ideas included what he saw as the repressed feelings of sons toward their mothers and daughters toward their fathers.

If nothing else, Freud's ideas were revolutionary. Some people rejected them. Others came to accept them. But no one disputes his great influence on the science of mental health.

Professor James Gray at American University in Washington, D.C. says three of Freud's major ideas are still part of modern thinking about the mind.

One is the idea of the unconscious mind. Another is that we do not necessarily know what drives us to do the things we do. And the third is that we are formed more than we think in the first five years, but not necessarily the way Freud thought.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Doctor Freud was trained as a neurologist. He treated disorders of the nervous system. But physical sickness can hide deeper problems. His studies on the causes and treatment of mental disorders helped form many ideas in psychiatry. Psychiatry is the area of medicine that treats mental and emotional conditions.

Freud would come to be called the father of psychoanalysis.

VOICE TWO:

Psychoanalysis is a method of therapy. It includes discussion and investigation of hidden fears and conflicts.

Sigmund Freud used free association. He would try to get his patients to free their minds and say whatever they were thinking. He also had them talk about their dreams to try to explore their unconscious fears and desires.

His version of psychoanalysis remained the one most widely used until at least the nineteen fifties.

VOICE ONE:

Psychoanalysis is rarely used in the United States anymore. One reason is that it takes a long time; the average length of treatment is about five years. Patients usually have to pay for the treatment themselves. Health insurance plans rarely pay for this form of therapy.

Psychoanalysis has its supporters as well as its critics. Success rates are difficult to measure. Psychoanalysts say this is because each individual case is different.

VOICE TWO:

More recently, a number of shortened versions of psychological therapy have been developed. Some examples are behavior therapy, cognitive therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. Behavior is actions; cognition is knowing and judging.

Some patients in therapy want to learn to find satisfaction in what they do. Others want to unlearn behaviors that only add to their problems.

In these therapies, patients might talk with a therapist about the past. Or patients might be advised to think less about the past and more about the present and the future.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Other kinds of therapy involve movement, dance, art, music or play. These are used to help patients who have trouble talking about their emotions.

In many cases, therapy today costs less than it used to. But the length of treatment depends on the problem. Some therapies, for example, call for twenty or thirty visits with a therapist.

How long people continue their therapy can also depend on the cost. People find that health insurance plans are often more willing to pay for short-term therapies than for longer-term treatments.

VOICE TWO:

Mental health experts say therapy can often help patients suffering from depression, severe stress or other conditions.

For some patients, they say, a combination of talk therapy and medication works best. There are many different drugs for depression, anxiety and other mental and emotional disorders.

Critics, however, say doctors are sometimes too quick to give medicine instead of more time for talk therapy. Again, cost pressures are often blamed.

Mental health problems can affect work, school, marriage, and life in general. Yet they often go untreated. In many cases, people do not want others to know they have a problem.

VOICE ONE:

Mental disorders are common in all countries. The World Health Organization says hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are affected by mental, behavioral, neurological or substance use disorders.

The W.H.O. says these disorders have major economic and social costs. Yet governments face difficult choices about health care spending. The W.H.O. says most poor countries spend less than one percent of their health budgets on mental health.

There are treatments for most conditions. Still, the W.H.O. says there are two major barriers. One is lack of recognition of the seriousness of the problem. The other is lack of understanding of the services that exist.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, left Vienna soon after troops from Nazi Germany entered Austria in nineteen thirty-eight. The Nazis had a plan to kill all the Jews of Europe, but they permitted Freud to go to England. His four sisters remained in Vienna and were all killed in Nazi concentration camps.

Freud was eighty-three years old when he died of cancer in London on September twenty-third, nineteen thirty-nine. Anna Freud, the youngest of his six children, became a noted psychoanalyst herself.

Before Sigmund Freud, no modern scientist had looked so deeply into the human mind.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written and produced by Brianna Blake. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. You can download transcripts and audio archives of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Listen again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.

VOASE0806_Agriculture Report

06 August 2007

Working Magic in the Garden With Beans
Advice from the University of Illinois Extension.

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Beans are a popular choice for home gardens.

The University of Illinois Extension service says bush bean plants need the least amount of work. They stand without support.

Green bush beans used to be called string beans because of fiber material along the pods containing the seeds. Now green beans are called snap beans because plant breeding reduced the fibers.

Unlike bush bean plants, pole beans need supports to climb. But they need less space than bush beans because they twist around poles or sticks. Because the plants are tall, a person can stand while harvesting the beans.

The University of Illinois Extension says beans should not be planted until all danger of a freeze has passed in the spring. Cold weather could damage them. Planting beans every two to four weeks until early August will provide a continuous harvest.

Small weeds and grasses around beans plants need to be controlled, but be careful not to harm the plants. The root systems are not very strong or deep.

Seeds should be planted at a depth of two and one-half centimeters. Make sure the soil is not too wet or the seeds could develop poorly.

Bush beans should be planted five to ten centimeters apart. And there should be at least forty-five to sixty centimeters between the rows.

Pole beans should be planted ten to fifteen centimeters apart in rows that are about seventy-six to ninety centimeters apart. Or you could plant them in hills with four to six seeds per hill.

The hills should be seventy-six centimeters apart and with seventy-six centimeters between rows.

The University of Illinois specialists say to harvest beans when the pods are firm and have reached their full length. Do not wait until the seeds inside are fully developed. Bean plants produce more beans if pods are continually removed before the seeds are mature.

But wait until the plants are completely dry before picking beans. Picking beans from wet plants can spread bean bacterial blight, a disease that damages the plants.

The specialists at the University of Illinois Extension say beans should be moved to different areas of the garden each year. This is because diseases that affect beans can stay in the soil and infect the next bean crop.

Not only are beans a healthy food, they are also good for the soil. Other plants take nitrogen out of the soil, but beans and other legumes replace it.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To learn more about agriculture, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.