| January 30, 1998:
Hour Two: Antarctica / Ringing In the
Ears
| It might not be the kind of place that you'd want to go for your summer vacation if you're into big city life. Antarctica is largely empty of human influences, even though it covers nearly ten percent of the Earth's surface.
Of course, that's the way that most of the researchers like it. Without lots of people around, the researchers can perform delicate experiments that aren't possible elsewhere on Earth - sensitive telescope measurements of the night sky, for instance, without light and heat from people that might distort the images, or measurements of climate change and environmental chemicals that would be thrown off if there were many people around. | 
(photo © Gerald Koojman, Scripps
Institution of Oceanography, UCSD)
(click for larger image) | Last month, the international treaties protecting Antarctica were strengthened as the Environmental Protection Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty was finally ratified, declaring the area to be a "natural reserve devoted to peace and science," and banning activities like mining for at least fifty years. On this hour of Science Friday, we'll look at the science going on around the South Pole, including a live conversation with researchers on hand at one of Earth's most unspoiled wildernesses.
| 
| Plus : the part of your brain that makes your ears ring.
Are you one of the millions of people in the world that hear a constant ringing in your ears? Then you'll be happy to know that researchers have figured out where in the brain that ringing- called tinnitus - originates.
| | Using PET imaging, a technique for mapping activity in the brain, researchers have discovered that the phantom ringing isn't based in the cochlea or other ear parts at all. It actually originates deep inside the central auditory system.
At right:
PET scan image of the brain of a person suffering from tinnitus. The large yellow area at right is the area activated by tinnitus. The smaller yellow areas represent movement involved with clenching of the jaw - a technique that allows some people to change the intensity of the ringing they hear.
(image: Dr. Alan Lockwood, SUNY Buffalo) |  |
Guests:
James Jackson
Assistant Director
Center for Astrophysics Research in Antarctica
Associate Professor of Astronomy
Boston University
Boston, MA
Scott Borg
Program Director
Office of Polar Programs
Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program
National Science Foundation
Arlington, Virginia
Dr. Alan Lockwood
Professor of Neurology, Nuclear Medicine, and Communicative Disorders and Sciences
State University of New York at Buffalo
Research Physician
Veterans Administration Hospital
Buffalo, New York
Dr. Richard Salvi
Professor of Communicative Disorders and Sciences
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Office of Polar
Programs at NSF
Antarctic Meteorology Research
Center
Antarctic Support Associates - the folks
that staff the US station
The New South Polar Times
- a newsletter written by staff at the South Pole
Glaciers
Meteorites
from Antarctica
Duke University's Antarctic
Journal
Planning
to go? Here's the NSF Field Manual for Antarctic Expeditions
Got
those red/blue 3D glasses? Check out this stereo image of Antarctica!
Tinnitus info:
the American Tinnitus Association
University of Buffalo's announcement of the findings |
