Radio Show

GoldLab Symposium at CU May 14 and 15

Host Intro: Leslie Dodson interviews Kathleen Tierney. Kathleen is a nationally recognized expert on disasters and author of "Facing the Unexpected -- Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States." Kathleen joins us today to talk about the disastrous oil spill encroaching on the Gulf Coast. Kathleen is director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder – and she works with teams of hazard scholars around the world to help coordinate and strengthen communication about hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

And then, Shelley Schlender interviews biotech pioneer Larry Gold about his upcoming symposium, Time:  The Crucial Fourth Dimension of Personlized Medicine.  In this symposium, leading scientists, providers, insurers and politicians convene to report, debate and predict.  According to the seminar, anyone interested in scientific innovation and its impact on the future of health care should attend.

Groups Featured in this report include:
Gold Lab Symposium, 303-735-6718, colorado.edu/mcdb/goldlab


Full Text:

[ 1 ]  I’m JOEL PARKER
[ 2 ]  And I’m LESLIE DODSON.  This is How On Earth for Tuesday May 4th, 2010
[ 1 ] Coming Up:  A look at the Gulf Coat oil spill with CU’s National Hazards Director Kathleen Tierney, and a special conference on the science of healthcare, with Biotech Pioneer Larry Gold.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  {WAIT FOR THEME MUSIC TO END, THEN…}  [-LLD ] We begin with a look at some of the recent news in science.    [ 1 ]  STORY 1:

Mosquitoes that are undeterred by the widely used insect repellent known as DEET may be passing the trait to their offspring, according to a study. Linda Field, of the Rothamsted Research group in the United Kingdom, and her team came to this conclusion by first, singling out the 14 percent of female mosquitoes that were attracted to human arms that had been treated with DEET. The researchers bred those females to males of unknown sensitivity, then checked their offspring using the DEET-sprayed arm test.  The number of female mosquitoes that were undaunted by DEET rose than 50 percent in that single generation, according to the authors. As for why, the authors suspect that the mosquitos have a smell receptor in their antenna, that adapts to DEET over generations.
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[LLD ] STORY 2:
A new study OUT OF Columbia University suggests that post-traumatic stress disorder changes a person’s immune system. RESEARCHERS analyzed MORE THAN  14,000 genes by using DNA from 100 Detroit residents’ blood samples… and  THEY found unique gene expression signatures in individuals who suffered from POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER – OR P-T-S-D.
Compared to UN-DIAGNOSED subjects, people with P-T-S-D exhibited 6-TO-7 TIMES more unusually expressed genes. Further tests revealed that the unusually expressed genes were predominantly immune system related.
Among the undiagnosed subjects, people who reported multiple traumatic events exhibited greater changes in gene expression than individuals who reported only a single traumatic experience.
               
[  ] STORY 3:
And we wish good hunting to CU researchers who will be chasing tornadoes from May through June 15th.  They’re part of the largest and most ambitious effort ever made to understand tornadoes, and they’ll be in a team of more than 100 scientists and 40 support vehicles going after twisters throughout the Midwest.
The project, VORTEX2--Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes--is in its final season and includes scientists from more than a dozen universities and government and private organizations from around the world.
The questions driving VORTEX2 are simple to ask but hard to answer, says lead scientist Josh Wurman of the Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR) in Boulder, Colo.  The questions are:  How, when, and why do tornadoes form? 
Why are some violent and long-lasting while others are weak and short-lived? 
What is the structure of tornadoes? 
How strong are the winds near the ground? 
How exactly do they do damage? 
How can we learn to forecast tornadoes better?
Current tornado warnings have only a 13-minute average lead time, according to the researchers, and a 70 percent false alarm rate.  The goal of VORTEX 2 is to make tornado warnings more reliable, with as much as 30, 45 or even 60 minutes of warning before an actual tornado touchdown.

/MUSIC BREAK – WIZARD OF OZ CYCLONE MUSIC

LESLIE DODSON - WELCOME BACK TO HOW ON EARTH.
Kathleen Tierney joins us now. Kathleen is a nationally recognized expert on disasters and author of "Facing the Unexpected -- Disaster Preparedness and Response in the United States."

Kathleen joins us today to talk about the disastrous oil spill encroaching on the Gulf Coast. Kathleen is director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder – and she works with teams of hazard scholars around the world to help coordinate and strengthen communication about hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

She’s working alongside colleagues in New Orleans to plan research on the spill's impact on Gulf fishing communities.


YOU’RE FAMILIAR WITH SOME OF THE MOST DEVASTATING NATURAL EVENTS IN HISTORY – HURRICANE KATRINA, TSUNAMI, ETC.  WHAT IS YOUR ASSESSMENT OF THIS DISASTER.?


BECAUSE OF THE EXXON VALDEZ AND HURRICANE KATRINA, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF “ HAZARD SCHOLAR” S AND EXPERIENCED DISASTER RECOVERY EXPERTS TEAMING UP RIGHT NOW TO COMMUNICATE ABOUT AND  STUDY THIS DISASTER.
WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES FOR THEM? LOCAL PEOPLE AND THE REST OF US TO KNOW RIGHT NOW?


YOU SAY THIS ISN’T “DISRUPTION” FOR COMMUNITIES -- IT’S DESTRUCTION OF COMMUNITIES. EXPLAIN

4. YOU’RE SKEPTICAL ABOUT B-P’S PUBLIC STATEMENTS ABOUT THE SPILL – THAT BOOMS AND BOATS WILL WORK .  
WHAT ARE YOUR CONCERNS ABOUT THE LIMITATIONS OF AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY TO MITIGATE THIS DISASTER?


4. B-P HAS COME OUT AND SAID IT WILL PAY FOR CLEAN-UP (READ BBC REPORT)
….BUT IT ALSO SAYS THE SPILL IS NOT ITS FAULT/RESPONSIBILITY.
WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT B-P’S WILLINGNESS OR READINESS TO BEAR THE FULL FINANCIAL BUFDEN OF THIS SPILL?

(LAWYERS AREN’T BORN YET WHO WILL BE WORKING THIS CASE.)



MUSIC BREAK – DNA MUSIC

SHELLEY INTERVIEW WITH LARRY GOLD about "Personalized Medicine:  What Does it Really Mean?
GoldLab Symposium May 14 and 15 8:30 AM - 6 PM
goldlabsymposium@colorado.edu to reserve a seat

For more information:  colorado.edu/mcdb/goldlab

--------------------------------------------------[ 1 ] That’s all for this edition of How on Earth.  Tim Morton wrote our theme music.
Tom Wasinger produced it.  Additional Music – they Cyclone Song, from the Wizard of Oz, and “DNA” from Ludovico Einaudi

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