Foggy forecasts. If there is one common weakness among television weather forecasters, it may be their propensity to "overforecast" changes in the weather, according to UC Davis atmospheric science students who tracked the accuracy of five Sacramento-area television weather broadcasters. "Most broadcasters were expecting changes in the weather to be greater than they actually were," says Richard Grotjahn, a professor of atmospheric science who directed the study. The main purpose of the exercise was to help students better understand the science of weather forecasting.
Toast to health. Components of wine thought to help protect against heart disease now appear to delay the onset of cancer. In a newly published study, a team of UC Davis researchers fed dehydrated and dealcoholized red wine--known as "wine solids"--to laboratory mice that were predisposed to develop cancerous tumors. The mice receiving the wine solids in addition to their standardized amino-acid diet had a 25-day or 40 percent delay in the onset of tumors compared to mice receiving no wine solids, according to study co-author Susan Ebeler, an assistant professor of viticulture and enology.
Writing for lefties. In most people, all language abilities such as reading, writing and speaking are controlled by one side of the brain--usually the left hemisphere. But scientists from UC Davis and Dartmouth College have shown for the first time that in some left-handed people writing may be controlled completely and independently from the right hemisphere of the brain. Based on the study of a left-handed woman who had undergone brain surgery to control her severe epilepsy, the findings also indicate that human brains did not develop specifically to use written language, but instead have adapted older brain operations for reading and writing. The lead author of the study was Kathleen Baynes, an assistant professor of neurology at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience.
Chemical contamination. Evidence is mounting that manufactured chemicals may interfere with the endocrine system in people and in wildlife. Scientists believe the chemicals, known as endocrine disrupters, cause developmental, behavioral and reproductive damage. Though many of the chemicals in question undergo toxicological testing, current methods don't adequately assess the risks, says D. Michael Fry, a researcher with UC Davis' Center for Avian Biology and a member of an advisory committee for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Current federal testing required to determine chemicals' potential carcinogenicity is not appropriate for determining chemicals' potential endocrine-disrupting effects, he says.
Cancer clues. A new approach that examines prostate cancer for a particular genetic abnormality is more sensitive than current screening methods and may lead to a better understanding of the disease, say researchers at the UC Davis Cancer Center. Using the new approach, the UC Davis team, in collaboration with colleagues at Georgetown University, found that abnormalities in the p53 gene are much more common in prostate cancer than previously thought and their presence may be an indication of how the cancer will respond to radiation therapy or chemotherapy. In a number of cancers, p53 abnormalities are associated with a poor response to standard cancer therapies.
