UC Science Today

While it might be too late for seniors to learn to play a musical instrument, singing in a choir could be an easy and effective way for older adults to stay sharp. University of California, San Francisco’s Julene Johnson is currently running a study on the health benefits of seniors singing in choirs. She’s focusing on choirs because they’re easy for almost anyone to join.

"Singing in a choir is very accessible. And by that I mean you have your instrument, your voice, in your body. You don’t have to buy a musical instrument; you don’t have to take a few beginner lessons to get yourself up and going. You can essentially join a choir, whatever your musical background is."

Johnson says that implementing community choirs could also be relatively cheaper compared to other creative arts programs.

"We’re also doing a cost effective analysis with the idea that singing in a community choir might be a cost-effective way to promote health in the community. And the nice thing is, it’s something that can be easily translated into different cultures, into different centers, and places in the city."

While it might be too late for seniors to learn to play a musical instrument, singing in a choir could be an easy and effective way for older adults to stay sharp. University of California, San Francisco’s Julene Johnson is currently running a study on the health benefits of seniors singing in choirs. She’s focusing on choirs because they’re easy for almost anyone to join.

"Singing in a choir is very accessible. And by that I mean you have your instrument, your voice, in your body. You don’t have to buy a musical instrument; you don’t have to take a few beginner lessons to get yourself up and going. You can essentially join a choir, whatever your musical background is."

Johnson says that implementing community choirs could also be relatively cheaper compared to other creative arts programs.

"We’re also doing a cost effective analysis with the idea that singing in a community choir might be a cost-effective way to promote health in the community. And the nice thing is, it’s something that can be easily translated into different cultures, into different centers, and places in the city."

While it might be too late for seniors to learn to play a musical instrument, singing in a choir could be an easy and effective way for older adults to stay sharp. University of California, San Francisco’s Julene Johnson is currently running a study on the health benefits of seniors singing in choirs. She’s focusing on choirs because they’re easy for almost anyone to join.

"Singing in a choir is very accessible. And by that I mean you have your instrument, your voice, in your body. You don’t have to buy a musical instrument; you don’t have to take a few beginner lessons to get yourself up and going. You can essentially join a choir, whatever your musical background is."

Johnson says that implementing community choirs could also be relatively cheaper compared to other creative arts programs.

"We’re also doing a cost effective analysis with the idea that singing in a community choir might be a cost-effective way to promote health in the community. And the nice thing is, it’s something that can be easily translated into different cultures, into different centers, and places in the city."

While it might be too late for seniors to learn to play a musical instrument, singing in a choir could be an easy and effective way for older adults to stay sharp. University of California, San Francisco’s Julene Johnson is currently running a study on the health benefits of seniors singing in choirs. She’s focusing on choirs because they’re easy for almost anyone to join.

"Singing in a choir is very accessible. And by that I mean you have your instrument, your voice, in your body. You don’t have to buy a musical instrument; you don’t have to take a few beginner lessons to get yourself up and going. You can essentially join a choir, whatever your musical background is."

Johnson says that implementing community choirs could also be relatively cheaper compared to other creative arts programs.

"We’re also doing a cost effective analysis with the idea that singing in a community choir might be a cost-effective way to promote health in the community. And the nice thing is, it’s something that can be easily translated into different cultures, into different centers, and places in the city."

Large bodied fish like bumphead parrot fish are the largest coral reef plant eaters – performing important scraping and removing functions that keep coral reefs healthy. But overfishing has reduced these vital seaweed eaters by more than half. According to Jennifer Smith of the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, that’s because a lot of places don’t have proper fishing regulations.

"All of these parrot fish, which are super important for coral reef health, they sleep at night by making a little cocoon around themselves and then kind of wedging themselves onto the bottom of the reef. And so people who are avid fisherman obviously know that strategy and so they can go on suba at night and just shoot them all with spear guns and in a few hours, wipe out an entire population across one reef."

While Smith realizes some countries need to subsist on the fish, her study calls for better management and conservation strategies for the coral reef ecosystem across the Pacific and Caribbean.

Large bodied fish like bumphead parrot fish are the largest coral reef plant eaters – performing important scraping and removing functions that keep coral reefs healthy. But overfishing has reduced these vital seaweed eaters by more than half. According to Jennifer Smith of the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, that’s because a lot of places don’t have proper fishing regulations.

"All of these parrot fish, which are super important for coral reef health, they sleep at night by making a little cocoon around themselves and then kind of wedging themselves onto the bottom of the reef. And so people who are avid fisherman obviously know that strategy and so they can go on suba at night and just shoot them all with spear guns and in a few hours, wipe out an entire population across one reef."

While Smith realizes some countries need to subsist on the fish, her study calls for better management and conservation strategies for the coral reef ecosystem across the Pacific and Caribbean.

Large bodied fish like bumphead parrot fish are the largest coral reef plant eaters – performing important scraping and removing functions that keep coral reefs healthy. But overfishing has reduced these vital seaweed eaters by more than half. According to Jennifer Smith of the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, that’s because a lot of places don’t have proper fishing regulations.

"All of these parrot fish, which are super important for coral reef health, they sleep at night by making a little cocoon around themselves and then kind of wedging themselves onto the bottom of the reef. And so people who are avid fisherman obviously know that strategy and so they can go on suba at night and just shoot them all with spear guns and in a few hours, wipe out an entire population across one reef."

While Smith realizes some countries need to subsist on the fish, her study calls for better management and conservation strategies for the coral reef ecosystem across the Pacific and Caribbean.

Large bodied fish like bumphead parrot fish are the largest coral reef plant eaters – performing important scraping and removing functions that keep coral reefs healthy. But overfishing has reduced these vital seaweed eaters by more than half. According to Jennifer Smith of the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, that’s because a lot of places don’t have proper fishing regulations.

"All of these parrot fish, which are super important for coral reef health, they sleep at night by making a little cocoon around themselves and then kind of wedging themselves onto the bottom of the reef. And so people who are avid fisherman obviously know that strategy and so they can go on suba at night and just shoot them all with spear guns and in a few hours, wipe out an entire population across one reef."

While Smith realizes some countries need to subsist on the fish, her study calls for better management and conservation strategies for the coral reef ecosystem across the Pacific and Caribbean.

Humans have been broadcasting radio and television signals into deep space for about a hundred years. And if anyone is listening, they might send something back. Dan Werthimer directs the University of California, Berkeley’s search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, and he says that our broadcasts have already gone past thousands of stars.

"The early radio shows and early television have gone past 10,000 stars. The nearby stars have seen the "Simpsons" and the distant stars have seen "I Love Lucy," and "Ed Sullivan." So we're sending off all of this radio and television, and radar, and maybe E.T. does something like that, or if we're very lucky, maybe they send us a deliberate signal."

Werthimer says that unlike radio and television signals, laser signals are for point-to-point communication, and receiving one could mean that E.T. knows where we are. His team has recently started looking for these signals in infrared.

"These are colors that you and I can’t see, but they’re very good for interstellar communication and we’re hoping E.T. might send us a laser signal."

For several years, there’s been a big push to have alternatives to animal testing of drugs. Scientist Rashi Iyer of the Los Alamos National Laboratory says it’s a very slow and expensive process, so they’re developing the ATHENA system, which simulates human organs.

"It’s artificial human organs that is a bench top platform that you can use to screen drugs. There are two strengths. One is that you’re actually developing a system that simulates a human system. So we hope that our lung, for example, would breathe; liver that metabolizes; a heart that pumps. The other strength is you get very deep analysis and also in real-time. So, if you do a drug exposure you know exactly where your system is crashing."

The Los Alamos Lab, or LANL, is the lead institute in this collaborative effort.

"LANL is primarily responsible for the lung; Harvard is doing the heart system and LANL and Vanderbilt are engaged in the kidney development and all the integration. At the end of every organ completion it gets integrated at LANL."