Voa Science Report - New Telescope to Search for Life Beyond Earth

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ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith . This week, we will tell about an effort to search for intelligent life beyond our universe. We will tell a method shown to increase attention and reduce tension. We will also report on new concerns about the health children in Africa. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: The search for life in the universe took a step forward last month the opening of the Allen Telescope Array in Hat Creek, California. The telescopes were partly made possible by a of twenty-five million dollars from Paul Allen. He helped start the computer software company Microsoft. He joined with the Astronomy Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley and the SETI Institute to provide money for the project. total cost of the project is already fifty million dollars. Currently, there are forty-two radio telescopes working at the Creek observatory. The signals they receive are combined to create what is equal to a single, very large telescope. TWO: Objects in space release radio waves that can be collected and studied. Astronomers can make pictures of objects radio wave information. These pictures can show structures not observed in other wavelengths of light. The telescope will be to observe objects like exploding stars, black holes and other objects that are predicted but have not yet been . Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute says this is the first telescope whose main purpose is to search for from intelligent life in space. What makes the Allen Telescope Array unusual is that it can collect and study from a wide area of the sky. In addition, the forty-two telescopes can study information about several projects at same time. That means studies of large areas of the sky can be made faster than ever before. VOICE : The Allen Telescope Array uses parts that are not specially made. But they are easily available, including telecommunications technology. helps keep the cost down. Each telescope is about six meters across. Some officials estimate the Allen Telescope Array be completed in three more years. Three hundred fifty individual radio telescopes are planned. The SETI institute is based Mountain View, California. The organization supports the search for other life forms in the universe. The new abilities of Allen Telescope Array will make searching for stars similar to the sun much faster. An earlier search by SETI, Phoenix, studied about eight hundred stars to a distance of two hundred forty light years. The project ended in thousand four. With the Allen Telescope Array, astronomers hope to gather thousands of times more information in the search life beyond our planet. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: Recent studies have shown that performing intensive meditation for long periods can to improve attention. They also showed meditation reduces emotional or mental pressure and makes it easier to deal with activities. Meditation is a kind of guided thought. People who meditate often spend months or years in training. But American study found that people can get the same helpful effects in five days if they use a process integrative mind-body meditation. The process combines rest, controlled breathing, mental imagery and mindfulness training. In earlier studies, such activities been shown to improve attention, emotion, and social behaviors. VOICE ONE: Researchers at the University of Oregon developed integrative training. The researchers taught it to forty university students in China. They compared the results of the training to results of deep rest in another group of students. The study found that the students in the trained group better than the others on measures like attention and emotion. The researchers also measured levels of the natural hormone . Cortisol has been called the worry hormone. The body produces it when we are afraid. The study found cortisol were much lower in the mind-body trained group than in the other group. VOICE TWO: Michael Posner is an on attention at the University of Oregon. He helped to write a report on the study. Professor Posner says was surprised by the findings. He says he thought they might have resulted from where the study was carried . He says many people in China are already believers in intensive meditation. But he says Chinese university students have about traditional Chinese medicine. The report on the gains of short-term mind-body training is published in Proceedings of the Academy of Science. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You are listening to the VOA Special English program IN THE NEWS. With Lapidus, I'm Bob Doughty in Washington. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Health officials in Sudan have launched a campaign to vaccinate million children after a case of polio was reported there. United Nations and Sudanese agencies are carrying out the . Sudan had been polio-free since two thousand five. The new case of wild poliovirus was confirmed in South Darfur months ago. Health officials also announced in September that Nigeria has had almost seventy new cases of polio since thousand five. Those cases, however, were caused by the polio vaccine itself. VOICE TWO: There are two kinds of vaccine. The one given by injection contains killed virus, which cannot cause polio. The one given by mouth contains but weakened virus. In very rare cases, the virus can change and cause polio. The way to stop the now is more vaccinations. But officials worry that people in northern Nigeria may, once again, fear the vaccine. In years, local leaders spread stories that Western nations had poisoned the vaccine with the virus that causes AIDS. (MUSIC) ONE: Recently, major science publications around the world produced what was called a "Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Development." The Council of Science Editors organized the project. The Council said it involved two hundred thirty-five scientific journals thirty-seven countries. The group said the goal was to increase interest and research in the subject and to spread results as widely as possible. It said the journals published more than seven hundred fifty stories involving eighty-seven countries. web site of the Council of Science Editors released a partial list of the stories. The group has urged journals that published the articles to make them available free to the public. VOICE TWO: This is the third scientific journals have joined together to report on a single issue. The first time was in nineteen ninety-six-. That when thirty-six journals published articles about worldwide threats from diseases. In nineteen ninety-seven-, ninety-seven journals joined together to report the issue of aging. The editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, organized the two earlier . JAMA published several articles for the newest one. The research examined how knowledge about effective health interventions can be to use locally to help poor people. VOICE ONE: Other widely read journals that published articles included Science, Nature The Lancet. The project also included journals on medicine and biology from the Public Library of Science. That organization its journals free of charge on the Internet. America's National Institutes of Health held an event to launch the Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development. Experts from the NIH... and the Council of Science Editors chose seven for recognition. The subjects included childbirth safety, AIDS, malaria treatment and the effects of influenza on children. Seven years , the United Nations recognized the link between health and development in the Millennium Development Goals. But many experts believe targets for health improvements will not be reached at current rates of progress. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: This SCIENCE IN NEWS was written by Soo Jee Han, Mario Ritter and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Faith . VOICE ONE: And I'm Bob Doughty. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglishcom.. Join us again at this next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

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