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Home > UC Science Today > The weekly roundup - Oct 8th
Podcast: UC Science Today
Episode:

The weekly roundup - Oct 8th
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 00:02:02
Publish Date: 2016-10-05 19:00:00
Description: This week on Science Today. It’s been over a year since the city of Berkeley, California implemented a ‘soda tax’ and a team of UC Berkeley public health researchers took the opportunity to see how it has impacted consumption. Kris Madsen of the School of Public Health says they found a 21 percent drop in the consumption of soda and other sugary beverages in the Berkeley’s low-income neighborhoods, which is an encouraging sign in the fight against obesity, especially in areas hit hard by the consequences of obesity and diabetes. "It’s the kind of evidence that we really want because what we’re trying to find are tools that can change people’s behaviors. Education alone has not been effective but if this is a really effective tool, then it’s a tool we need to use." And on the subject of tools, UC San Francisco physicians are using holograms, or 3D images formed by the inference of light beams from a laser, in about 20 percent of their CT colonography cases. Dr. Judy Yee says the goal is to appeal to patients to prevent disease. "But also, to make it easier for the radiologists who interpret these studies to make it engaging and easier and as accurate, if not more accurate." Speaking of accurate studies, it’s been over 40 years since atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography predicted how the earth’s climate would change by 2010. And while his accurate model continued to show further warming, Ramanathan says we can still ‘bend the curve’ in this chart if we take collective measures now. "We have the science and we have the technology. This is where the intitiatives taken in California could shine a brightest light possible on this problem … to mitigate climate change by using solar fuel cells and waste gas can provide like a beacon for the nation and for the planet to follow." Learn more about these and other research findings at the University of California. Subscribe to Science Today on iTunes or Stitcher. You can also find us on Soundcloud and Facebook. I’m Larissa Branin, thanks for tuning in. Subscribe to Science Today: iTunes: apple.co/1TQBewD Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/science-today Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ucsciencetoday Stories mentioned in this roundup: https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/soda_tax https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/future_holograms https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/bend_curve
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