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This week on Science Today, caregiving was a theme – from helping out dementia patients and those who look after them; to giving rice crops in polluted China the best chances to thrive. And even a story about how a college dining hall’s desire to care for the planet, led to an interesting way to cut down on food waste. First, did you know that one in 10 people age 65 and older suffer from dementia? And that the disease takes a toll only on patients, but their caregivers, too. We spoke to psychologist Robert Levenson of UC Berkeley. His new study showed that rates of depression among caregivers are about four times higher than non-caregiving adults in the same age group. And that a depressed caregiver contributes to a faster decline of the loved one with dementia. "If you are being cared for by a quite depressed person, you are going to live, on average, by about 14 months less than if you are being cared for by a person who is not very depressed. This is a significant shortening of life." And at UC Davis,

Male fetuses may be more sensitive than females to maternal smoking, before and during a woman’s pregnancy. Chemicals in tobacco may lead to increased vulnerability of developing lymphocytes and cause genetic damage or what scientists call deletions. That’s according to a study by Adam de Smith, an associate researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. "Male fetuses grow quicker than females. So we think perhaps there could be a higher rate of turnover of immune cells in male fetuses compared with females. Those male immune cells are more prone to developing these deletions." Inflammation in mothers’ bodies during pregnancy, possibly exacerbated by tobacco smoke exposure, might also trigger genetic mutations. "It has been shown that there are differences between the inflammation that’s found in mothers carrying male fetuses compared with females. I believe it is a higher inflammation with a male fetus. So that’s another potential mechanism for increasing the number of deletions."

There’s good ozone, and there’s bad ozone. The good is high up in the stratosphere and the bad, a mixture of sunlight and nitrous oxide, is near the surface of the Earth. This pollution affects not only human health, but also plant growth. A research team led by Colin Carter of the University of California, Davis, has made a key discovery about how surface ozone impacts rice production. "There’s a critical period during the growing season where you have a day of extremely high ozone, that it can reduce the yield up to 1 percent, just one day. So we measured across the country that yields could be reduced by two percent or more, which doesn’t sound like a large number, but it is when you consider the fact that China is the world’s largest producer of rice and the world’s largest importer. By identifying this critical stage of development, Carter hopes their data can inform better regulatory policies in China to alleviate the damaging effects of ozone pollution on rice yields and ultimately, the global market

As America is becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse, researchers are trying to pin down the features of preschools to benefit all children. According to a new study by Bruce Fuller, professor of education at the University of California, Berkeley, African-American children get the most out of a high-quality, rigorous curriculum. “The biggest effect from academic-oriented preschool, the largest punch is felt by poor African American kids. They are ahead by three to four months relative to children that stay at home. ” The results for children from Latino families came out differently. "We did find modest social development on Latino kids from quality preschool, but we didn’t find same cognitive growth. Whether that’s a shortage of bilingual teachers, whether the quality of these programs for Latino kids is weak, we really are not sure.” Fuller says the study adds to the growing debate on what types of preschools should be nurtured in America to improve our pre-K education.

It’s time for the weekly roundup again; first – when you think about preschool, you may think it’s all about quality. And while that’s certainly true, we learned that quantity of time spent in pre-K education is just as important. Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the UC Berkeley says this is especially the case for kids from low-income families. “If kids were growing up in poor households, a lot of these parents were working swing shifts, grave yard shifts, or they can’t afford high quality children’s books. So it is probably a resource problem. But when young kids are growing up in these more impoverished settings, then a quality pre-school can pack a much bigger punch." The same study found that middle-class kids showed no change in their academic performance if they stayed in preschool a whole day vs. half a day. And over at UC San Francisco, we learned more about the study linking maternal smoking with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer. Adam de Smith says that

Over 5 million Americans, which is one in 10 people, age 65 and older suffer from dementia. The disease takes its toll not only on patients, but on their caregivers, too. “Probably the most common thing these days is that the care of patients with dementia largely falls on a spouse or family members. Among caregivers the rates of depression are about 4 times as high as they are among non-caregiving adults at that age group. So it really is a dramatic increase." That’s psychologist Robert Levenson of the University of California, Berkeley. His new study shows that if a family caregiver is stressed or depressed, it contributes to a faster decline of the loved one with dementia. “If you are being cared for by quite depressed person, you are going to live on average by about 14 months less than if you are being cared for by a person who is not very depressed. This is a significant shortening of life." By 2030, rates of dementia will rise to 8 million, making this a pressing national public health challenge.

If you want to have better stereoscopic vision, you may want to try your hand at dressmaking. Really. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are enrolling participants in a study run by neuroscientist Adrian Chopin. They found previously that dressmakers had better stereovision than other professionals. “If there is a specific pattern of a stereoscopic vision, we may use it as a form of training, to be tested by a training study. So we have people come in, they are not dressmakers. And then we will train them in dressmaking. ” The researchers will test participants’ stereoscopic vision before and after the training trying to spot any signs of improvement. “That will have an excellent clinical implication because right now it is very expensive when people are trying to treat amblyopia. They may have to come see an optometrist and it is very expensive and takes a lot of time.” Chopin says it is way cheaper to sharpen your stereovision with just threads and needles.

The amount of time spent in pre-K education is important, especially for kids from low-income families. This, according to education professor Bruce Fuller of the University of California, Berkeley. “If kids were growing up in poor households, a lot of these parents were working swing shifts, grave yard shifts, or they can’t afford high quality children’s books. So it is probably a resource problem. But when young kids are growing up in these more impoverished settings, then a quality pre-school can pack a much bigger punch." Their study also found that middle-class kids showed no change in their academic performance if they stayed in pre-school for a whole day versus half-day. “If the teachers are very intentional about introducing cognitively challenging tasks, getting around in circle time digging into kids books, teaching kids how to count in colorful blocks, you can sort of get a big boost of that in 3 to 4 hours. After that kids might be outside on playground or the teachers getting tired. ” So,

Mothers who smoke during pregnancy and after birth put their children at increased risk of a common type of childhood cancer. This, according to a new University of California, San Francisco study. Adam de Smith says their work is the first to find an association between maternal smoking and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. “In the mothers who are exposed to tobacco smoke, there was a higher rate of deletion in the fetal cells that was likely caused by a particular mechanism. It is an innate mechanism in our immune system, which functions to create antibodies to particularly create diversity in our antibodies. And we think when this mechanism goes wrong, or goes into overdrive and has abnormal effects, it can increase the risk of causing deletions in genes around across the genome.” Deletions are genetic mutations that can lead to cancer and other diseases. “We think that the tobacco smoke maybe increasing the abnormal effects of this immune mechanism, that lead to increased deletions. And this maybe thro

Hi there, hope you’re all having a nice summer – in case you’ve missed some of our stories, he’s a bit of a recap. First, atmospheric scientist Veerabadhran Ramanathan of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is looking for a million climate warriors. To get the message out about climate change, Ramanathan is teaming up with 50 University of California academics in various disciplines to propose a hybrid course taught by about 20 faculty that combines videotaped lectures in a class that’s devoted to discussing solutions. "These are people who can roll up their sleeves and try to solve the problem. So, I’m on my own pathway to create those million climate warriors in the UC system." The goal is to pilot these classes first on nine UC campuses and then expand the coursework to other colleges. And on the subject of classes – are you a parent struggling wondering whether or not to send your child to preschool? For four years, Bruce Fuller, a professor of education at UC Berkeley tracked the acade

When it comes to composting, there are different phases. There is pre-consumer waste, like scraps from prepping food, and then there’s post-consumer waste, or table scrap refuse, which needs to be separated from the other trash. Jill Horst, director of dining services at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says composting on their campus has evolved over the years. "We started small and we just did pre-consumer waste to compost and we really wanted to do post-consumer because we were trying to divert as much as possible from the landfill." By partnering with a local company, Horst says the campus now has a compost compactor to scrap everything in the dining hall. "So right now, we divert 90 percent of our waste from the landfill, so 90 percent of our waste is going to this composting company up that street. It is huge." And it’s in keeping with the University of California’s efforts to be carbon neutral by 2025.

If you have a good stereovision, you could be a perfect fit for jobs that require action, speed and precision, according to neuroscientist of the University of California, Berkeley, Adrian Chopin. “If you are part of a baseball team or a basketball team, it will be easier if you had stereovision. If you already have a good stereovision but that you want to be better, one way to go there is to be a military person." But in his study Chopin mainly targets people with a condition called amblyopia – when vision in one of the eyes is reduced. This often leads to a loss of stereoscopic vision. “When we train people to have a better stereoscopic vision, we put them in front of a computer. We project on a screen lines of different depth. The task is just to say do you see the line in front or behind the other line, for example." Chopin says, over 10 percent of people around the world are stereo-impaired, but the rest of us see the world in 3-dimensions and can benefit from improved stereoscopic vision.

We can lose our sense of smell because of a disease, injury, or simply - aging, but doctors don’t pay a lot of attention to this problem, according to neuroscientist John Ngai at the University of California, Berkeley. “Most people that write to me or call me, and say I've lost a sense of smell and I would ask them, what does your doctor say? And the doctor says no big deal don't worry about it, right? In fact, there aren't even any good, widely-used standardized tests for smell.” That’s because scientists still don’t really know how to repair the olfactory cells responsible for the sense of smell. But Ngai hopes his new research on stem cells could help find answers. “Now the challenge is to really start digging in to see, can we actually alter what these cells do. We've identified some pathways and manipulated them genetically, and shown that this can affect how the stem cell behaves in terms of, do I make a neuron? Do I not make a neuron? And then the question is, if I actually do, for example, increa

Should you enroll your children in preschool if you can provide a good early education for them at home? Parents struggling with this choice can find useful tips in a new study by Bruce Fuller, professor of education at the University of California, Berkeley. “We have known over the last half century that quality preschools can boost the early learning of children from poor families, but much less is known about the long-term effects of preschool on children from middle class families.” For four years, Fuller tracked the academic performance of over six thousand children up to 5 years of age and found that kids from middle-class families did benefit from preschool. “Those benefits tended to come from exposure to more academically intense preschool programs." Especially, in classes focused on developing verbal communication and early math skills. So maybe parents who prefer home education before their children hit elementary school age, should give pre-K a second thought?

When it comes to getting the message out about climate change, it’s one thing to get political leaders onboard, but you also need public support. In fact, atmospheric scientist Veerabadhran Ramanathan of the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography says he’s hoping for ‘climate warriors’. "These are not just flag bearing, which is important, but people who can roll up their sleeves and try to solve the problem. So, I’m on my own pathway to create those million climate warriors in the UC system." Ramanathan has teamed up with 50 systemwide academics in disciplines like engineering, technology, social science and humanities – to propose a hybrid course taught by about 20 faculty that combines videotaped lectures in a classroom devoted to discussing solutions. The goal would be to pilot it first on nine UC campuses, and then expand the coursework to other colleges. "We are thinking of ‘cradle to grave’ approach; getting people to understand the scientific method and the need

If you had to guess who has the sharpest vision, you may think of a surgeon or a dentist, but probably not a dressmaker. But according to University of California, Berkeley neuroscientist Adrian Chopin, it’s dressmakers who have the best stereoscopic vision. “In general we see in 3D. In our mind the environment is in 3D. However, it does not necessarily feel in 3D. So that’s feeling of depth that we call stereopsis is very strongly coming from stereoscopic vision, which means a difference of viewpoint between these two eyes.” But how do we use it in our daily lives? “It is very important in grasping objects, that’s because you need high precision when you put your finger on an object, not to crash it or not to miss it. We also need it for driving, especially when you are at night. Chopin and his team are working on developing tools, like computer games, that could help people with sight disorders to improve their stereoscopic vision skills.

Over 40 million liters of donor blood are collected annually all over the world, but it is not enough to meet blood transfusion demands. On top of that, these donations don’t last long. Blood cannot be stored for more than just a couple of days. So blood centers are in constant demand for new donors. But according to Mark Looney, a professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco this is not the only problem with donated blood. “It seems like we are in an antiquated era of collecting blood from strangers, collecting mature cells from strangers and giving them as a transfusion." According to Looney, foreign blood can bring along viruses and bacteria to a recipient’s body. That’s a big risk. And that’s why researchers are looking for new ways of getting blood to patients. “So if we could come up with a more effective approach, maybe something that is cell based, than maybe it is going to be the way of the future.” Looney says engineered blood cells from patients’ own bodies could be a

If you are a parent and a smoker, your children’s DNA may be affected, even if you quit smoking before conception. Adam de Smith an associate researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, has found that prenatal smoking by either parent can cause what’s called a genetic deletion in their children. De Smith: 7:40 It is a chunk of DNA that’s missing from a chromosome. The health effects are really to do with a particular area or region of DNA that is deleted. If this region includes important genes, than it usually lead to a health effect.” The researchers looked at the gene deletions in the immune system, which can cause acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common type of childhood cancer. “Thankfully, nowadays cure rates are upwards of 85-90 percent. Even though they have survived the cancers, they go on to health issues in later life. For example, increase risks of heart disease, pulmonary disease and also increased secondary cancer rates. Ideally, we would like to prevent childhood leuk

New ways of studying stem cells allow scientists to better understand how they turn into other types of cells. Neuroscientist John Ngai at the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered a revolutionary method to look at stem cells. He explains that studying these in the past was limited to looking at the entire population of cells at once. “My analogy would be if you come to Memorial Stadium on a big game day and you want to get an idea of how many Stanford fans there are and how many Cal fans there are and where they are sitting. The old way would only allow us to look at the entire stadium and to get an average of red hats and blue hats, and you might get an idea of what fraction of people are wearing read versus blue, but you wouldn’t have a precise definition of numbers, locations or anything like that. So the revolution for us has been the ability to interrogate what genes are being expressed not in the entire tissue but on a cell-by-cell basis.”

The longer a woman is able to reproduce, before she reaches menopause, the less her risk to have heart failure. That, according to a study by Nisha Parikh, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “This is a very interesting study and a very important study." It is based on medical records of over 160 thousand women gathered by the Women’s Health Initiative in the 1990s – up until 2014. The initiative was set up to address major heath issues causing morbidity and mortality in postmenopausal women. “Over the years the Women’s Health Initiative has been funded by NIH as well as the national Heart Lung and Blood institute. There was a lack of studies on women’s health. And it really represented the first systematic study of women.” Parikh is now planning to expand this research and hopes to discover what exactly drives the association between the menstrual cycle and heart disease.