SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This is
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m SHIRLEY Griffith.
MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter. Today, we tell about an American study
of heart attack survivors. We tell about a scientist recognized for his
work in plate tectonics. And we tell how modern-day musicians rated some
of the most famous instruments ever made.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Learning about the death of a loved one can be among
life’s most stressful events. A recent study showed that the risk of heart
attack increases in the days and hours after getting news of such a death.
Researchers studied nearly two thousand heart attack survivors. The
subjects were asked whether someone close to them had died in the six
months before their heart attack.
Elizabeth Mostofsky is with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in
Boston, Massachusetts.
ELIZABETH MOSTOFSKY: “We found that the risk of having a heart attack was
twenty-one times higher in the day following the loss of a loved one,
compared to other times. And that risk remained elevated in the subsequent
days and weeks.”
A recent
study shows that the risk of heart attack increases after the death of
a loved one
MARIO RITTER: Elizabeth
Mostofsky says earlier research explored the risk of dying from any cause
over a year or more after the death of a husband, wife or child. The
earlier research did not include the death of other close family members
or friends.
Ms. Mostofsky and her team studied information from the days immediately
after receiving the news. She says several things could explain why the
intense feelings after the death of a loved one could lead to a heart
attack.
ELIZABETH MOSTOFSKY: “Grief causes feeling of depression, anger, and
anxiety, and several studies have shown that these emotions can cause
increased heart rate, higher blood pressure, and blood clotting. And those
in turn, can increase the chances of having a heart attack.”
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Ms. Mostofsky says the family and friends of those
mourning for a loved one should know about the increased risk of heart
attack.
ELIZABETH MOSTOFSKY: “People should be making sure that the bereaved
person is taking care of himself or herself, including taking regular
medications, because they are at that heightened level of vulnerability at
this time in their life.”
Her research paper was published in “Circulation,” the journal of the
American Heart Association.
(MUSIC)
MARIO RITTER: A few weeks ago, we talked about the science of plate
tectonics. Plate tectonics explains why the Earth’s surface moves. It also
tells how those changes cause earthquakes and volcanic activity. Today, we
tell about a scientist who helped prove the theory of continental drift.
Walter C. Pitman, the third, is an adjunct professor of geophysics at
Columbia University. Now in his eighties, he works at Columbia’s
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: When Walter Pitman was a teenager, he enjoyed visiting
his father’s workplace at Bell Labs research center. He remembers asking
the researchers about their work.
WALTER PITMAN: “I worked there in the summertime sweeping floors but I was
in amongst all these people. It was wonderful.”
Walter
Pitman
Walter Pitman studied
electrical engineering and physics in college. He then went to work for an
electronics company. He was not excited about the work, until one project
– doing research on submarines – fueled a love for oceanography.
Mister Pitman returned to school. For his doctoral studies, he went back
to sea on a research vessel. He hoped to gather evidence that all the
continents had once been joined. He thought they had been moving apart on
large plates for hundreds of millions of years.
MARIO RITTER: Walter Pitman helped prove the idea that Earth’s continents
move. He did this by recording and studying magnetic patterns at the
bottom of the ocean.
WALTER PITMAN: “It was electrifying. I didn’t imagine ever being involved
in anything so astonishing and so very, very important to the geologic
sciences at such a young age in my career. I was very fortunate to be
there when it all happened.”
The science of plate tectonics explains how the continents move around the
oceans. It also explains how continents can strike each other and break
apart, creating earthquakes and mountain chains.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Later, Mr. Pitman turned his attention to the surface of
the ocean, and sea level changes. He and William Ryan, another Columbia
University geophysicist, proposed what is known as the Black Sea Deluge
Theory. They suggested that the Black Sea was once a landlocked freshwater
lake. Then about seven thousand five hundred years ago, melting ice from
glaciers raised water levels in the Mediterranean Sea.
WALTER PITMAN: “You’re talking about a huge mass of water coming in to
fill a very small basin. And that water as it would come through the
Bosporus is going to cut the Bosporus deeper. The deeper it cuts, the
faster it flows. The faster it flows, the faster it cuts. There is a
feedback mechanism. So soon you start with a trickle and within a very
short period of time, it’s a roaring, raging flume of water and we’re very
sure that’s what it (the Biblical flood) was, you know.”
MARIO RITTER: Mr. Pitman and other researchers are currently studying the
climate of the Arctic Ocean. And they are exploring its effects on water
cycles over the past two million years. Their research could help
scientists predict the effects of climate change, which is causing sea
levels to rise.
WALTER PITMAN: “I’ve had an incredible, incredibly good time at this kind
of endeavor. There are bad spots, of course there are bad spots. But the
science is always fascinating. You might, you know, stop reading for the
day or something like that and say, ‘Wow, that was so great. I learned
something about how the Earth works.’ That is really pure pleasure.”
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This is the sound of the greatest violin ever made.
(violin music #1 in full then fade gently out completely)
Or maybe it is this one. (violin music #2 in full then fade)
It could be a Stradivarius, or an Amati, or a Guarneri made hundreds of
years ago. But it might also have been made just last year by someone
whose name is not nearly so famous. And that leads us to ask the
following. Can you tell, just by listening, which is the best violin? If
so, what makes it great?
MARIO RITTER: It all began over three hundred years ago in the town of
Cremona in northern Italy. If you wanted to buy a really good musical
instrument, you probably visited Antonio Stradivari, Girolamo Amati, or
Andrea Guarneri. Many people said they made the best violins that money
could buy. Today, many still think of those violins as the greatest of all
time. Those that still exist can sell for millions of dollars.
Itzhak
Perlman playing a Stradivarius violin from the year 1714
For years, scientists and
musicians have sought to discover the secrets of the master violin makers.
They know that most of the time, spruce, willow or maple wood was used.
Some people have thought that chemicals like borax were added to the
wooden parts. Others have said that honey, or even the white of an egg was
painted on the parts before they were put together.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Still other researchers say that a special kind of glue
was used to connect the parts. Some think the secret is in the varnish,
the nearly clear liquid that was used as a final cover to protect the
wood. Or maybe the wood was special because it grew at a time when the
weather was colder than it is today. In the end, no one knows for sure.
And some people say we should not spend a lot of time thinking about the
materials and processes used long ago. They instead think that some modern
violins sound just as good and cost a lot less. Claudia Fritz at the
University of Paris is one of those people. She led a study that was
published in “The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
At a musical competition in Indiana, she asked twenty-one really good
violin players to test six different instruments. She did not tell them
that only three of the violins were very old and costly. Together, the
three were worth about ten million dollars. The other three were made by
modern luthiers, or instrument makers, and cost a hundred times less.
MARIO RITTER: Ms. Fritz asked each of the players to wear welders’
goggles, thick, dark eyeglasses, so they could not see the instruments
very well while holding them. She thought that some people might be able
to identify an old violin by its smell. So she put a little sweet-smelling
perfume on the part of the instrument that fits under a player’s chin.
The test began in a hotel room. All the subjects in the experiment were
permitted to play all six violins, and then say which one they would like
to own. Then each player was given only two violins to test. One was very
old. The other was modern. They were asked which of the two sounded
better. The results of the test led Ms. Fritz to believe that there is no
secret to how the old, great violins were made.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Of the twenty-one players, only eight chose an old
violin as the best. Even a recently made violin was judged to be much
better sounding than the world famous Stradivarius. Ms. Fritz says the
difference between the old and new instruments is only in the mind of the
player. Modern luthiers were happy that she found what they believed.
But some professional musicians think the test had little value. One noted
that violins are meant to be heard in a concert hall, not a hotel room.
MARIO RITTER: Researchers have performed tests like this many times in the
past. But Ms. Fritz says those tests asked average listeners to try to
predict which violin was made by a master. Her test was given to concert
violinists who play at the highest level. They are the ones you would
expect to have the best “ear” for great sound.
There is an old saying that, “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.” If
that is true, then perhaps your opinion of how an instrument sounds to
your ear is really what matters.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Brianna Blake
and Jim Tedder. June Simms was our producer. I’m SHIRLEY Griffith.
MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter. Listen again next week for more news
about science in Special English on the Voice of America.
