Science 2006: The Year in Medicine, Space and the Environment
( ĐÃ ĐÓNG GÓI KÈM AUDIO)

Transcript of radio broadcast:
02 January 2007
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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Mario Ritter.

VOICE TWO:
And I’m Bob Doughty. This week, we talk about last year. VOICE ONE:
We tell about some important science stories of two thousand six -- discoveries in medicine, space and the environment.
Concerns about climate change
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VOICE TWO:
grew in 2006 as scientists
reported that ice was melting at the North and South Pole

Some of the biggest science stories last year were in health and medicine. And two of them came late in two thousand six. First is a major finding about the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

In December, AIDS researchers announced findings about adult male circumcision. Two studies in Africa found that circumcised men had about half the risk of getting HIV from sex with women as uncircumcised men had. The studies took place in Kenya and Uganda.

HIV rates are generally lower in areas of the world where the removal of the foreskin from the penis is common in babies or young boys.

The findings of the African studies were so clear that the United States National Institutes of Health decided to end both studies early. All the men involved now are being offered circumcision.

The researchers said male circumcision could also lead to fewer infections in women where HIV is spread through heterosexual sex. Health experts say they hope circumcision will become one of the basic tools to fight HIV and AIDS. But they expect some cultural and economic barriers. Some people have also expressed another concern about circumcision. They say it might make men think they do not need to do anything else to prevent HIV infection.

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VOICE ONE:

Another major health story last month concerned breast cancer. The news came from cancer
researchers at the University of Texas in Houston. They had found a sharp decrease in newly found breast cancer rates between two thousand two and two thousand three. It was the first such drop in




seventy years. And it followed a huge decrease in the number of older women treated with female hormones to ease conditions caused by a natural decrease in such hormones.

For years doctors treated these conditions of menopause with the hormones estrogen and
progesterone. But in two thousand two a large study showed hormone replacement therapy seemed to increase the risk of breast cancer. The use of hormone replacement therapy then dropped by fifty percent.

The researchers at the University of Texas say overall rates of new breast cancers dropped seven percent the next year. And they said breast cancer that is linked to estrogen decreased by at least twelve percent. However, health experts say the findings do not prove that hormone replacement therapy causes breast cancer.

VOICE TWO:

There was also news about a new vaccine to prevent another cancer in women -- cervical cancer. United Nations health officials called for the wide use of the vaccine against the human papilloma virus, or H.P.V. H.P.V. causes seventy percent of all cervical cancers. It is a leading cause of cancer deaths in women in developing countries.

The vaccine could prevent more than two-thirds of deaths from cervical cancer around the world. Officials say the vaccine is safe and effective for females between the ages of nine and twenty-six.

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VOICE ONE:

Not all the science news last year was medical. In August, more than two thousand members of the
International Astronomical Union met in the Czech capital, Prague. They agreed to a new definition of planet. They also agreed that Pluto did not meet the terms of the new definition. So, now the solar system has eight planets instead of nine.

But do not cry for the former ninth planet. The astronomical union says we should not think we have lost a planet but that we have gained a new kind of space object: the dwarf planet, Pluto.

VOICE TWO:

Astronomers and physicists were also interested in some information provided by the Hubble Space Telescope last year. It provided some light on the mysterious force known as dark energy. The Hubble examined stars that exploded billions of years ago. The findings: dark energy has been present for most of the history of the universe.

Dark energy is a mysterious force that causes the universe to expand at an increasing rate. Scientists do not know much about dark energy. But they say it makes up about seventy percent of the energy in the universe. It appears to balance the force of gravity.

Most physicists consider dark energy to be the force that Albert Einstein called the cosmological constant. It prevents gravity from pulling all matter together in a cosmic crush. This latest study shows dark energy was present in