SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Scientists Withdraw Suggestion of Link

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Scientists Withdraw Suggestion of Link / Dirty Conditions and Children / Mysterious Dark Energy
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Broadcast: Tuesday, March 16, 2004

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty¹. On our show this week -- new developments about a British study that frightened many parents.

VOICE ONE:

A study measures the effects of dirty conditions on child growth.

VOICE TWO:

Plus ... the mystery of dark energy.

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VOICE ONE:

 
Graphic² Image
Six years ago, a British study suggested the possibility of a link between autism and the M.M.R vaccine³. Autism is a brain disorder⁴ that appears in young children. It affects communication and the ability to relate to people and environments. The M.M.R. vaccine is a medicine given to millions of children to prevent three diseases: mumps⁵, measles⁶ and rubella.

Thirteen scientists did the study. Their report appeared in the British medical magazine The Lancet. But The Lancet has now published a letter from ten of those scientists. One of the others could not be reached. The ten withdrew the suggestion of a possible link between autism and the M.M.R. vaccine. They said they wish to make clear that they never stated that the vaccine caused autism.

VOICE TWO:

The ten scientists did not include Andrew Wakefield who led the study. Recently he has been criticized for accepting money from lawyers for a group of families of autistic children. The families wanted a separate study done to support legal claims against companies that make the vaccine.

Doctor Wakefield says his work for the families was no secret and created no conflict of interest with his study. He is reported as saying he still believes a possible connection between autism and the vaccine needs further investigation⁷. Lawyers for Doctor Wakefield have demanded an apology from The Lancet.

VOICE ONE:

Public trust in the M.M.R. vaccine has dropped in large part because of the nineteen-ninety-eight study. The ten scientists said they recognize there have been major effects on public health. Some parents in Europe and the United States have refused the vaccine for their children. Doctors say this is a serious risk. Mumps, measles and rubella can all make people very sick.

Since the study, other studies have shown no link between autism and the vaccine. Some critics say a lot of money has been wasted trying to prove that the nineteen-ninety-eight study was false. But others have called the study "poor science." They note that only twelve children took part.

In a commentary, The Lancet points out that the vaccine issue was only one observation. The study dealt with bowel⁸ disease in autistic children. The scientists reported a possible link between bowel disease and autism. The letter just published does not dismiss that part of the study.

VOICE TWO:

Last November, the United States government announced a ten-year plan to study autism. Scientists know that genetics play a part, but not much beyond that is known.

Autism research does not have a very long history. In nineteen-forty-three, a researcher named Leo Kanner wrote about a condition that he found in eleven children. He described it as "extreme autistic loneliness." He said the children were unable to relate themselves in the normal way to people and situations "from the beginning of life."

Leo Kanner was a medical doctor at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. His specialty⁹ was mental health in children. In nineteen-thirty-five, he wrote what is described as the first medical book on child psychiatry¹⁰.

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.

Unsafe water supplies and dirty conditions can slow the growth of children. This is the finding of public health researchers from Johns Hopkins University. Their study appears in The Lancet.

They studied two-hundred-thirty children in Peru from birth until three years of age. This is what they found:

By age two, children from homes with the worst conditions were one centimeter shorter than those with the best conditions. They also had fifty-four percent more cases of diarrhea. The researchers examined the babies once a day and measured them once a month.

VOICE TWO:

But better water supplies alone did not guarantee good health. For example, some families kept water in large containers outdoors. Others kept small storage containers inside their homes. Small containers can be filled more often.

But children in homes with the small containers had more cases of diarrhea. The researchers say this is because the containers are usually kept uncovered. So the water can get dirty more easily. The large containers outside are normally kept covered.

The researchers found that other conditions could also affect the growth of children. Some of the children were from homes with a water connection, but not a good system for waste removal. These children were almost two centimeters shorter than those with the cleanest conditions at home.

The study ended in nineteen-ninety-eight. Doctor William Checkley led the study. He says safe water and good sanitation¹¹ are basic human rights.

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VOICE ONE:

American space scientists say Albert Einstein may have been right after all about what space is mostly made of. They say they have found the best evidence yet that some form of energy pushes at an unchanging rate throughout the universe. Scientists today call this dark energy.

Einstein had a different name for such a force. He called it a cosmological constant. The German-born American physicist¹² had a theory that this force balanced the pull of gravity. Without it, everything in the universe would crash together in the middle. Gravity would prevent the opposite. It would keep objects from spreading apart forever.

VOICE TWO:

Einstein developed this idea in support of a general belief that the universe was static, unchanging. However, he rejected the idea following a discovery by Edwin Hubble in nineteen-twenty-nine. The American astronomer¹³ found that the universe was expanding.

Albert Einstein later called the cosmological constant theory his "greatest blunder." Yet now, the space telescope named after Edwin Hubble has gathered information to suggest this was no mistake.

VOICE ONE:

Astronomers¹⁴ used the Hubble Space Telescope to examine stars that exploded thousands of millions of years ago. These stars are called supernovas. The scientists measured light from the supernovas. Such measurements tell much about conditions at different points in the history of the universe.

Adam Reiss [reese] led the research at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Mister Reiss says dark energy appears to stay the same even as the universe expands. He says any change is extremely slow, if at all. He says the universe has at least thirty-thousand-million years left. This is even if Einstein's cosmological constant theory is wrong.

VOICE TWO:

So that is good news. Yet the researchers were not able to offer any new information about one question: What is dark energy?

The only thing most scientists seem sure of is that they are not sure. Whatever it is acts in a way opposite to gravity. Gravity pulls things together. Dark energy pushes them apart.

What if dark energy ever grows stronger than gravity? Then, it could tear all things apart. Stars, planets, even individual atoms would be destroyed. Scientists call this the "big rip."

VOICE ONE:

But some question all this. An international team recently announced evidence that might conflict with the dark energy theory. The researchers studied X-rays recorded by the European satellite observatory¹⁵ XMM-Newton.

They looked at X-rays from groups of galaxies¹⁶ thousands of millions of years old. They say there are ten times more of these clusters now. Alain Blanchard is a scientist at the Astrophysical Laboratory in France. Mister Blanchard says these results require a high density¹⁷ of matter in the universe. He says that would leave little room for dark energy.

Adam Reiss tells us he is not worried about these findings. He studies supernovas. But he says most scientists who study galactic clusters report findings that are similar to his own. That is, a universe filled mostly with a mysterious force they call dark energy.

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VOICE TWO:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jill Moss¹⁸ and Caty Weaver¹⁹. Cynthia Kirk produced our program. This is Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for more news about science, in Special English, on the Voice of America.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

3 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

4 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

5 mumps   

n.腮腺炎

参考例句：

• Sarah got mumps from her brother.萨拉的弟弟患腮腺炎，传染给她了。
• I was told not go near Charles. He is sickening for mumps.别人告诉我不要走近查尔斯， 他染上了流行性腮腺炎。

6 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。

7 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

8 bowel   

n.肠(尤指人肠)；内部，深处

参考例句：

• Irritable bowel syndrome seems to affect more women than men.女性比男性更易患肠易激综合征。
• Have you had a bowel movement today?你今天有排便吗？

9 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

10 psychiatry   

n.精神病学，精神病疗法

参考例句：

• The study appeared in the Amercian science Journal of Psychiatry.这个研究发表在美国精神病学的杂志上。
• A physician is someone who specializes in psychiatry.精神病专家是专门从事精神病治疗的人。

11 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

12 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

13 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

14 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

16 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

17 density   

n.密集，密度，浓度

参考例句：

• The population density of that country is 685 per square mile.那个国家的人口密度为每平方英里685人。
• The region has a very high population density.该地区的人口密度很高。

18 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

19 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。