SCIENCE IN THE NEWS

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
By

Broadcast: Tuesday, March 30, 2004

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty¹.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, learn about some medical heroes.

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VOICE ONE:

 
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The French chemist Marie Curie was the first person ever to win two Nobel prizes. The first was in physics, the second in chemistry. Marie Curie worked to increase the understanding of radioactivity. She discovered the highly radioactive element radium. She also helped develop the use of X-rays during the First World War.

Marie Curie was born in Poland in eighteen-sixty-seven. She worked with her husband, Pierre. Both handled radioactive materials for years without protection. As a result, both suffered health problems. Pierre was killed in a road accident in nineteen-oh-six. Marie Curie died in nineteen-thirty-four of a blood disorder³ caused by radiation.

Their daughter Irene also won a Nobel Prize for discoveries with her husband about radiation. She died of leukemia, cancer of the blood.

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VOICE TWO:

At the start of the twentieth century, the United States Army had a Yellow Fever Commission. The Army wanted medical experts to study yellow fever and find a way to stop the disease. One team worked in Cuba to test the idea that mosquitoes spread yellow fever. In August of nineteen-hundred, the group began to raise mosquitoes and infect them with the virus.

Nine Americans permitted the infected insects to bite them. Nothing happened. Then two more let the mosquitoes bite them. Both men developed yellow fever.

VOICE ONE:

 
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A doctor named Jesse William Lazear recognized something. The mosquitoes that had bitten the last two men had been older than the others. Doctor Lazear proved that mosquitoes did carry yellow fever. However, he too was bitten and died.

No one is sure just how Doctor Lazear was bitten. He said it happened accidentally as he treated others. Some said he placed the mosquito on his arm as part of the experiment. Medical historians say he may have reported the bite as an accident so his family could get his life insurance money.

VOICE TWO:

The team in Cuba was led by Walter Reed, the Army doctor and scientist noted⁴ for his work on infectious diseases. The death of Doctor Lazear shocked Walter Reed and the others on the team. But they continued with their work.

More people let themselves be bitten by mosquitoes. Others were injected with blood from victims of yellow fever. Some people in this test group developed the disease, but all recovered to full health.

Members of the research group praised the work by Jesse Lazear. They called it a sacrifice to research that led the way to one of the greatest medical discoveries of the century.

VOICE ONE:

The research had answered the question of how yellow fever spread. Now the question was how to protect people. The researchers had a theory. They thought that people who were bitten by infected mosquitoes, but recovered, were protected in the future.

To test this idea, the team in Cuba offered one-hundred dollars to anyone who would agree to be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Nineteen people agreed. The only American was Clara Maass. She was a nurse who worked with yellow fever patients in Cuba.

 
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Clara Maass was bitten by infected mosquitoes seven times between March and August of nineteen-oh-one. Only one of the nineteen people developed the disease until that August. Then, in that month, seven people got yellow fever. Clara Maass died six days after she was bitten for the seventh time.

VOICE TWO:

Cuba and the United States both made postage stamps in honor of Clara Maass. Today, a hospital in her home state of New Jersey⁵ is called the Clara Maass Medical Center.

The experiment showed that the bite of an infected mosquito is not a safe way to protect people from yellow fever. Medical historians say the death of Clara Maass also created a public protest. This reaction ended experiments with humans in yellow fever research.

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VOICE ONE:

 
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Joseph Goldberger was a doctor for the United States Public Health Service. In nineteen-twelve, he began to study a skin disease that was killing⁶ thousands of people in the American South. The disease was pellagra.

Doctor Goldberger traveled to the state of Mississippi where many people suffered from pellagra. He studied the victims and their families. Most of the victims were poor. The doctor came to believe that the disease was not infectious, but instead related to diet.

He received permission from the state governor to test this idea at a prison. Prisoners were offered pardons if they took part. One group of prisoners received their usual foods, mostly corn products. A second group ate meat, fresh vegetables and milk. Members of the first group developed pellagra. The second group did not.

VOICE TWO:

But other medical researchers dismissed the findings. For the South, pellagra was more than simply a medical problem. There were other issues involved, including Southern pride.

So Doctor Goldberger had himself injected with blood from a person with pellagra. He also took liquid from the nose and throat of a pellagra patient and put them into his own nose and throat. He even swallowed pills that contained skin from pellagra patients.

An assistant also took part in the experiments. So did Doctor Goldberger's wife. No one got sick. Later, the doctor discovered that a small amount of dried brewer's yeast⁷ each day could prevent pellagra.

Joseph Goldberger died of cancer in nineteen-twenty-nine. He was fifty-five years old. Several years later, researchers discovered the exact cause of pellagra: a lack of the B vitamin known as niacin.

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VOICE ONE:

 
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Doctor Matthew Lukwiya died of the Ebola virus in December of two-thousand. He was the medical administrator⁸ of Saint Mary's Hospital in the Gulu District of northern Uganda. The hospital was the center of treatment for an outbreak of Ebola. The virus causes severe bleeding. There is no cure. Health workers can only hope that victims are strong enough to survive.

Doctor Lukwiya acted quickly to control the spread of infection. He kept the people with Ebola separate from the other patients. He ordered hospital workers to dress in protective clothes.

One day he had to deal with a patient who was dying of Ebola. The man had been acting⁹ out of control. Doctor Lukwiya knew him well. The patient was a nurse who worked at the hospital. He was coughing and bleeding. Doctor Lukwiya violated one of his own rules. He wore no protection over his eyes.

Ugandans mourned the death of Doctor Lukwiya. He was forty-two years old. Saint Mary's is one of the best hospitals in east Africa. Matthew Lukwiya was an important influence in the community. Medical experts say his work during the outbreak in two-thousand helped stop the Ebola virus from spreading out of control.

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VOICE TWO:

 
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Our final medical hero is Carlo Urbani. He was a disease expert from Italy. He worked in Vietnam for the World Health Organization.

On February twenty-eighth, two-thousand-three, the Vietnam-France Hospital in Hanoi asked for help to deal with an unusual infection. Doctor Urbani recognized it as a new threat. He made sure other hospitals increased their infection-control measures.

On March eleventh, Doctor Urbani developed signs of severe acute respiratory syndrome¹⁰. Four days later, the World Health Organization declared it a worldwide health threat.

Carlo Urbani was the first doctor to warn the world of the pneumonia¹¹ we now know as SARS. He died of it on March twenty-ninth, two-thousand-three. He was forty-six years old.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Cynthia Kirk was our producer. This is Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Faith Lapidus. Listen again next week for more SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English.

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 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。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

6 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

7 yeast   

n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫

参考例句：

• Yeast can be used in making beer and bread.酵母可用于酿啤酒和发面包。
• The yeast began to work.酵母开始发酵。

8 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

9 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

10 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

11 pneumonia   

n.肺炎

参考例句：

• Cage was struck with pneumonia in her youth.凯奇年轻时得过肺炎。
• Pneumonia carried him off last week.肺炎上星期夺去了他的生命。