Colorful Dinosaur Discovered in China

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Also, a new drug treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, a painful condition that affects one in every 100 people.

BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Today, we will tell about two kinds of dinosaurs. Scientists say one of the creatures was brightly colored. Evidence shows the other was able to fly. We will also tell about a new drug treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. And we will tell about Washington’s famous cherry trees.

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Colorful Dinosaurs

BOB DOUGHTY: Many scientists have long thought that dinosaurs were brown or gray in color. But scientists examining the remains of a dinosaur say they have found evidence it had brightl -colored feathers. The findings were published in Science magazine.

American and Chinese researchers rebuilt the feathers of a flightless dinosaur called Anchiornis huxleyi. The small, two-legged creature lived about one hundred-fifty million year ago. It would have weighed only about one hundred ten grams.

BARBARA KLEIN: The researchers used an electron microscope and fossilized remains of thirty feathers that once covered the animal. The remains were discovered in Liaoning Province in China.

Researchers studied melanosomes in the feathers. These small, color-producing structures formed as the dinosaur was developing. The researchers compared the structures to the melanosomes that control the color of feathers on modern birds. They were then able to identify the colors of the dinosaur feathers.

The researchers say Anchiornis huxleyi appeared to have a dark gray or black body. They found that the top of the ancient creature was light brown in color. And, it had bright white wings. Each of the feathers had black on the end.

BOB DOUGHTY: Richard Prum is an evolutionary biologist at Yale University in Connecticut. He says the melanosomes were in very good condition. He says the dinosaur would be a beautiful creature if it were still alive. It would be similar to a bird called a Spangled Hamburg Chicken.

The discovery is useful to scientists in another way. It helps them better understand not only how dinosaurs looked but also how they behaved. Professor Prum says the colorful feathers were probably useful in getting the attention of a mate.

BARBARA KLEIN: Researchers believe they were about ninety percent successful in recreating the appearance of the dinosaur. They plan to use this method to identify the colors of other feathered dinosaurs. But the professor says it is difficult to find enough feathers from a single dinosaur to recreate all its colors.

Another team of researchers recently reported on the existence of two colors from different dinosaurs. They used the method developed by Professor Prum and his team.

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BOB DOUGHTY: Other scientists may have learned how a dinosaur with four wings was able to fly. American and Chinese scientists say the Microraptor gui probably was not equipped to fly from the ground. Instead, their work suggests that the cat-sized animal started flying from trees.

Researchers from the University of Kansas in the United States and China’s Northeastern University reported their findings earlier this year. A report about the study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

BARBARA KLEIN: The researchers used the fossils of a dinosaur that lived one hundred twenty-five million years ago. But its bones were in very good condition. The researchers made a hardened reproduction of the bones, without changing their positions. Then they added clay to create a model of the dinosaur. Next, they added real feathers cut to the correct size. The result was a re-creation of an ancient Microraptor.

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Professor David Alexander launches the University of Kansas model of the microraptor

The research team built a light-weight model of the animal. This model was designed to glide, or move, in an almost effortless flight. The feathers on the flying model were made of plastic. The scientists carried out a series of test-launches with the wings in different positions. They found that the best position for gliding had the back two wings in a position similar to that of a flying squirrel. The body of that animal looks almost flat as it glides from tree to tree.

BOB DOUGHTY: Other experts have said the Microraptor probably flew with its back wings a little under and in a direction like that of the front wings. But the published report says that would have forced it to fly in a difficult position.

The disagreement about the wings adds attention to a larger dispute. That argument is whether or not birds came from dinosaurs, as most experts agree. But others are like Larry Martin, a University of Kansas member of the research team. He says dinosaurs probably could not get off the ground to fly.

He and other experts believe that birds developed from creatures that were not dinosaurs. They believe ancestors of birds came from animals that lived in trees.

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New Treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis

BARBARA KLEIN: People who suffer from rheumatoid arthritis experience such pain in their joints that even a simple daily activity can be difficult. A new drug is showing signs of halting the disorder and even un-doing its damaging effects.

One in every one hundred people suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. Women are three times more likely to be affected than men. The exact cause of the disorder is unknown. But researchers are examining the body’s autoimmune system. In patients, the body’s natural defenses against disease seem to attack the person they are supposed to protect.

BOB DOUGHTY: Harris Perlman is an associate professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Illinois.

HARRIS PERLMAN: “What happens is your immune response goes haywire and then your body starts to attack itself, so there’s a failure to shutdown. And how the cells shutdown is they actually die…”

BOB DOUGHTY: Harris Perlman says a protein in healthy immune cells causes them to die after they attack an invading virus or bacteria. But in rheumatoid arthritis, that protein is missing in some immune cells. Instead, the protein builds up in the joints and attack cartilage and bone.

The Northwestern University researcher took part in a study that found a way to turn off the immune system in mice with arthritis. He developed what he calls a suicide molecule that acts like the protein which tells cells to self-destruct.

BARBARA KLEIN: Harris Perlman says the suicide molecule halted and even reduced rheumatoid arthritis in seventy-five percent of mice in the study. He believes the treatment could also be effective in human beings. He says the next step is to develop microscopic nano-particles. He says these particles would offer a more exact method of transporting the short-lived drug, called B-H-three mimetic.

Current treatments for rheumatoid arthritis can reduce pain, but they do not work for everyone. They must be taken continuously and include side effects such as an increased risk of infection. Harris Perlman says the best part of the new treatment is that there were no harmful or major side effects. A report about the study appeared in the publication Arthritis and Rheumatism.

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Washington's Cherry Trees

BOB DOUGHTY: Finally, Saturday officially marks the return of spring to northern parts of the world. This winter has seemed more severe than normal in many areas, including Washington, D.C.

Snowfall records for Washington date back to eighteen eighty-four. By early February, this winter had already broken them with one hundred forty-two centimeters of snow measured. But the storms that buried the American capital last month broke more than seasonal records. Heavy snow and high winds damaged some of the city's cherry trees. As the snow melted, workers were busy picking up broken branches, some as thick as fifteen centimeters.

BARBARA KLEIN: Crowds expect a beautiful show as the cherry trees blossom along the edge of the Tidal Basin next to the Jefferson Memorial.

Peak blooming, when the trees are in full flower, may be delayed a little this spring. But the National Park Service says people can expect the usual show of pink and white flowers. The National Cherry Blossom Festival is set for March twenty-seventh through April fourth.

Twelve kinds of cherry trees grow around the Tidal Basin. The first trees were a gift from Japan in nineteen twelve. The Japanese later sent two more gifts of cherry trees.

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BOB DOUGHTY: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Lawan Davis and Jerilyn Watson. Brianna Blake was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about Science in Special English on the Voice of America.

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Rise in Food Gardens in US Brings Crop of Questions for Experts

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In Maryland, an education campaign aims to build on new demand from "recession gardening" and interest in local foods.


This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Call it "recession gardening" or a product of the local foods movement. But, whatever the reason, more Americans are growing some of their own food. Or at least they are trying to.

Many need advice from experts like the master gardeners at the University of Maryland Extension service. The extension service has launched "Grow It Eat It." This campaign is a response to what they call "the huge new demand" for information and help with home gardens. Master gardeners from throughout the state are helping less experienced people learn how to work the land.

Food gardeners can join a network and put their garden on a map on the extension service Web site. The goal: one million food gardeners in Maryland "producing their own affordable, healthy food." The current count of food gardeners is around five thousand statewide.

Nationally, sales of garden supplies increased last year as people started or expanded food gardens. Sales rose thirty percent at Burpee, a major seller of seeds.

Shannon Dill is the extension agent for Talbot County, Maryland. She says the weak economy is not the only reason people are trying to grow their own food to save money.

Prices for fruits and vegetables at the store are up. Shannon Dill finds that growing food at home usually costs less than buying it at stores or restaurants. She also finds that people seem to be staying home more, so they have more time to work in the garden. And, she says, "People like to know where their food is coming from."

But sometimes people choose the wrong plants for the local growing conditions. Or they plant at the wrong time. Or they plant seeds too close together or in poor soil or without enough daily sunlight. Master gardeners can help people avoid mistakes.

Nancy Garrison started the first master gardener program in Santa Clara County, California, almost thirty years ago. She says organic material such as leaf mulch, also called leaf mold, can almost always improve poor soil. Once the soil is improved, she says, then "worms can do a lot of your work for you."

A vegetable garden in front of a house may not seem unusual in rural areas. But a lawyer who lives in suburban Maryland, outside Washington, grew squash, cucumbers and tomatoes on his front lawn last year. How did his neighbors react? He says many of them congratulated him on his garden.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I’m Bob Doughty.

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Songs About Spring Can Be Happy or Sad

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Most of these songs have been around a long time but are still popular today.

BARBARA KLEIN: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we play some favorite songs about spring.

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BARBARA KLEIN: On earlier shows, we have brought you some of our favorite songs about summer, autumn and winter. Now it is spring in the northern part of the world so it is time to celebrate that season. Many people think of this classical music piece when they think "spring." It is Allegro from Concerto Number One "Spring" from the "Four Seasons." Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote it in the seventeen hundreds.

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STEVE EMBER: Spring is a wonderful season to celebrate rebirth and new life. The long, cold winter is over. The weather is warmer and sunnier. The trees again have leaves and the flowers are blooming. The season represents hope, joy and beauty.

However, not all songs about spring are happy. This song by K.D. Lang is about dreaming of spring in cold dark places. She recorded "I Dream of Spring" in two thousand eight.

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BARBARA KLEIN: Unlike the other seasons, there are not many rock songs about spring. Most of the songs about this season were written in the nineteen thirties and forties by famous modern composers. The songs became "standards," popular songs recorded by many singers.

Here is one example, "It Might as Well Be Spring." Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote the song for the movie "State Fair" in nineteen forty-five. Frank Sinatra sings about having "spring fever." This is not a real sickness. It is a feeling of restlessness or excitement brought on by the coming of spring.

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STEVE EMBER: Richard Rodgers also wrote "Spring Is Here," this time with Lorenz Hart. Ella Fitzgerald sings this song about feeling lonely during this season.

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BARBARA KLEIN: Frank Loesser wrote this sad song, "Spring Will be a Little Late This Year." Why has the season been delayed? Because the singer's lover has left her. Sarah Vaughn released her version of the song in nineteen fifty-three.

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STEVE EMBER: By now you may be thinking: "Enough with the sad songs, already!" OK, then how about a cowboy song? Gene Autry was one of America's most famous singing cowboys. He recorded "When It's Springtime in the Rockies" in nineteen thirty-seven.

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BARBARA KLEIN: In most of the United States, spring is a warm and pleasant season. But this is not the case in the northwestern state of Alaska. According to Johnny Cash, it can be extremely cold. He sings "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)."

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STEVE EMBER: We leave you with a sunny song called "Up Jumped Spring." Freddie Hubbard wrote this jazz song and the Billy Taylor Trio performs it.

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BARBARA KLEIN: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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For World's Poor, a Personal Toilet and Source of Fertilizer

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A Swedish company is preparing to sell a self-sanitizing bag called the Peepoo that can also be used to grow food.

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The name sounds funny but the idea is no joke: a personal toilet called the Peepoo. Anders Wilhelmson is the Swedish inventor of the idea. He wants to give poor people in developing countries a simple way to improve their lives.

The toilet is a single-use bag made of environmentally friendly plastics. The inside is treated with urea, a chemical commonly used as fertilizer. A natural reaction kills harmful organisms in the waste. It reduces the waste to fertilizer that Anders Wilhelmson says is safe for growing food.

Anders Wilhelmson: "When the feces is sanitized, all the pathogens are inactivated and killed, it is a valuable fertilizer. It's full of [nutrients] that we need so, you can just bury it in a pot and grow whatever you like."

The hotter the weather, the more quickly the waste breaks down into ammonia to be taken up by plants. Anders Wilhelmson says the sanitation process can take as little as a couple of hours or as long as two to four weeks.

He is an architect and a professor at Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology. He became interested in the idea of sanitation after taking part in a research project on the social and political development of cities. One of the most common complaints he heard in developing countries was the lack of toilets.

He worked with others to design the invention. He launched the project in two thousand five, and the next year started a company called Peepoople.

The company is beginning production in Nairobi. It expects to start selling the bags in August in Kenya and Bangladesh. Full production could reach about half a million bags a day.

Peepoople plans to sell the bags for two to three cents each. Anders Wilhelmson says people can get back ten times what they paid by using the resulting fertilizer to grow vegetable gardens.

The United Nations says more than two and a half billion people around the world do not have good sanitation. Many have no choice but to use the outdoors. Poor sanitation leads to infectious diseases that kill more than one and a half million people a year, mostly young children.

Jack Sim is the founder of the World Toilet Organization, a nonprofit group working to improve conditions.

Jack Sim: "This is quite an unacceptable situation given the fact that we are all living in [the] modern world. And strangely, many of them [own] radio, television, hand phone and no toilet."

He says the "sanitation marketplace" and inventions like this one are the best way to help people meet a most basic need.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. You can find transcripts and MP3s of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

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Rachel Carson, 1907-1964: Environmentalist and Author

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Her Books Helped Launch The Environmental Protection Movement

FAITH LAPIDUS: People America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America. Today, Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt tell about scientist Rachel Carson. Her work started the environmental protection movement in the United States.

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STEVE EMBER: Rachel Carson was born on May twenty-seventh, nineteen-oh-seven in Springdale, Pennsylvania. Rachel’s father, Robert Carson, was a salesman who invested in local land. He purchased twenty-six hectares of land to make a home for his family. The area was surrounded by fields, trees and streaMiss The Carson family enjoyed living in the beautiful, country environment.

Rachel’s mother, Maria Carson, had been a schoolteacher. She loved books. She also loved nature. Rachel was the youngest of three children. Her sister and brother were already in school when she was born. So Missus Carson was able to spend a lot of time with Rachel. She showed Rachel the beauty of nature. She also taught Rachel a deep love for books. Missus Carson became the most important influence on Rachel’s life.

RICH KLEINFELDT: Rachel was a quiet child. She liked to read and to write poems and stories. She was very intelligent. At a very early age she decided she wanted to be a writer someday. Her first published story appeared in a children’s magazine when she was ten years old.

Rachel went to the Pennsylvania College for Women. She studied English because she wanted to become a professional writer. Yet, she felt she did not have the imagination to write creative stories. She changed her area of study from English to science after she took a biology course that she liked. Her professors advised her not to study science. They said there was no future for a woman in science.

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STEVE EMBER: In nineteen twenty-nine, Rachel graduated from college with high honors. She won a financial award to study at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. In nineteen thirty-two, she earned a master’s degree in zoology, the scientific study of animals. She taught zoology at the University of Maryland for a few years. During the summers, she studied the ocean and its life forms at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts. That is when she became interested in the mysteries of the sea.

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RICH KLEINFELDT: Rachel’s life changed greatly in the middle nineteen thirties. Her father died suddenly in nineteen thirty-five. He left very little financial support for Rachel’s mother. It was during the economic decline in the United States called the Great Depression. Rachel now had to support her mother and herself. She needed more money than her teaching job could provide. She began part-time work for a federal government agency, the Bureau of Fisheries in Washington, D.C.

One year later, Rachel’s sister died. Her sister was the mother of two young girls. Rachel and her mother cared for the girls. Rachel now had to support her mother, two nieces and herself. Again, she needed a job with better pay.

STEVE EMBER: A full time job for a biologist opened at the United States Bureau of Fisheries. Rachel Carson was the only woman to try for the position. She had the highest score of all people competing for the job.

Miss Carson got the position in August, nineteen thirty-six. She was chosen to work in the office of the chief of the biology division.

Her first job was to write a series of programs called “Romance Under the Waters.” The series was broadcast on radio for a year. She continued to write and edit publications for the Bureau of Fisheries for many years. The bureau was happy to have a scientist who was also an excellent writer. Rachel Carson provided information to the public in interesting and understandable ways.

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Rachel Carson wrote Pen Against Paper for the American Department of State

RICH KLEINFELDT: In nineteen-forty, the United States Bureau of Fisheries and the Biological Survey joined to become the Fish and Wildlife Service. Miss Carson continued as one of the few women employed there as a scientist. The other women worked as office assistants.

While she was working for the government, Miss Carson wrote at night and on weekends. In nineteen thirty-seven she wrote a report about sea life. It was called Undersea. It appeared in the magazine, Atlantic Monthly. An editor at a publishing house encouraged her to write a book about the sea for the general public. So she did. Her first book, "Under the Sea Wind," was published in nineteen forty-one.

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen forty-eight, Miss Carson began working on another book, "The Sea Around Us." It became her first best-selling book.

Rachel Carson always researched carefully when she wrote. She gathered information from more than one thousand places to write "The Sea Around Us." She also wrote letters to experts all over the world.

STEVE EMBER: "The Sea Around Us" was published in nineteen fifty-one. It was number one on the best-seller list for more than a year. It won the National Book Award. "The Sea Around Us" made Rachel Carson famous. The money the book earned eased her financial responsibilities for the first time in years.

In nineteen fifty-two, Miss Carson was able to leave her job at the Fish and Wildlife Service and spend her time writing. Miss Carson moved to a home on the coast of Maine. There she studied the ecology of the sea. Her next book, "The Edge of the Sea," was published in nineteen fifty-five. It told of the connection of all living creatures in areas where land and ocean meet.

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RICH KLEINFELDT: Rachel Carson’s most famous book, "Silent Spring" was published in nineteen sixty-two. The idea for the book developed from a suggestion from a friend. Rachel’s friend owned a protected area for birds. An airplane had flown over the area where the birds were kept and spread a powerful chemical called DDT. It was part of a project to control mosquitoes. Many songbirds and harmless insects were killed by the DDT.

Miss Carson and other scientists were very concerned about the harmful effects of DDT and other insect-killing chemicals called pesticides. After World War Two, these poisonous chemicals were widely used to control insects. Pesticides were sprayed almost everywhere including agricultural fields and communities. DDT and other pesticides had become popular with the public and the government because they were so effective. Manufacturing these chemicals had become a huge industry.

STEVE EMBER: Rachel Carson tried to get many magazines interested in publishing a report about the subject. However, none would agree to publish anything about such a disputed subject. They said no one wanted to hear that industrial companies could cause great ecological damage.

Miss Carson believed the public needed to know about this important issue. She decided to write a book about it. She collected facts from experts from all over the world. She gathered studies that showed the harmful effects of DDT, including declining bird populations and increased human cancers.

In her book "Silent Spring," Miss Carson questioned the right of industrial companies to pollute without considering the effects on the environment. Miss Carson argued that this kind of pollution would result in ever-decreasing populations of birds and other wildlife. She said this would lead to the loss of the wonderful sounds of nature. The chemical poisoning of the environment, she said, would cause a silent spring.

RICH KLEINFELDT: The chemical industry felt threatened. Industry spokesmen and other critics said the book was non-scientific and emotional. They misunderstood the message of the book. Miss Carson did not suggest that all pesticides be banned. She urged that control of these substances be given to biologists who could make informed decisions about the risks involved.

Support for the book increased. By the end of nineteen sixty-two, there were more than forty bills in state legislatures proposing to control pesticides. Finally, in November, nineteen sixty-nine, the United States government ruled that the use of DDT must stop in two years.

Rachel Carson did not live to see how her book influenced the government’s decision to ban DDT. She died of breast cancer in nineteen sixty-four. She was fifty-six years old.

STEVE EMBER: Two memorials honor Rachel Carson. One is the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine. The other is the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, Pennsylvania, the home she lived in when she was a child. Education programs are offered there that teach children and adults about her environmental values.

Rachel Carson’s voice is alive in her writings that express the wonder and beauty of the natural world. And her worldwide influence continues through the activities of the environmental protection movement she started.

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FAITH LAPIDUS: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Steve Ember and Rich Kleinfeldt. I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

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