Actress Angelina Jolie announces in a New York Times op-ed that she had a double mastectomy to reduce her risk of contracting breast cancer. Should more women follow suit and have preventative surgery? Also, abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell's guilty verdict is shaping abortion debates, wind farms will not be prosecuted for accidental condor deaths, and the Justice Department seizes the phone records of AP journalists. Then, why don't more travellers fly out of small airports, and how will Governor Brown spend the budget surplus? Later, Cyborg Neil Harbisson talks about how he can hear in color.
The science behind Angelina Jolie’s choice of a preventative double mastectomy
The actress made a stunning announcement in a New York Times op-ed that she underwent a double mastectomy to reduce her risk of contracting breast cancer. Jolie said she was a carrier of the “faulty” gene BRCA1.
The gene can be detected with a blood test and can alert patients to a higher-than-average risk of breast and ovarian cancers. What is the BRCA1 gene and how do you test for it? Are the tests reliable? If you are a carrier of the gene, what are your medical options? Is preventative surgery the best way to cut down your cancer risk?
Guests:
Dr. Nova Foster, surgical director of the UCLA Santa Monica breast center
Dr. David Agus, Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California; Director of the USC Westside Cancer Center
Interview Highlights:
Dr. David Agus on what makes the testing process so difficult?
"If there isn't a history of breast cancer in the family and we look at the genes and there's an abnormal letter, we don't always know what it means. So we really only know how to understand it in the context of a family history of breast cancer."
Dr. Agus on why its so expensive to get tested:
"When you start to look at it, there's a company that patented the gene, and there's a Supreme Court case that should be decided in the next month saying 'should they be allowed to patent the gene?' because the test costs over $3,000. People who's insurance companies don't pay for, or don't have insurance, don't have the ability to look at their own gene. To run the test costs several dollars, yet they charge thousands of dollar. So should we be allowed to patent genes and not allow people without the resources to look at their own DNA. There is a cheaper version of the test for people of Ashkenazic Jewish descent because we know exactly where to look and we don't have to sequence the whole gene in those patients."
Dr. Agus on whether pre-existing conditions:
"Bush passed a law called GINA, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, so based on that nobody, whether an employer or insurance company an discriminate based on a preexisting genetic condition. That being said even before that law was passed, there aren't cases in the courts where people have discriminated against, but I'm glad that the protection exists, because it needs to. All of us need to be empowered with knowledge. With knowledge comes the ability to prevent."
Dr. Agus on how men factor into the discussion:
"A man, if he carried BRC1 or 2 has a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer [and male breast cancer], so they themselves need to be aware. They also need to be aware that they will pass it on to their children, so they need to be aware for themselves and their children. If a young girl, a teenager, goes on oral contraceptives and she's BRCA1 positive, you're going to have a dramatic increase in breast cancer before the age of 20, so it's an issue that society hasn't even addressed. These kids aren't old enough to consent to genetic testing, yet obviously if we know we can do things differently in these young girls to hopefully make them live a long and better life."
Dr. Nova Foster on the advances of reconstructive surgery:
"The aesthetics of the reconstructive surgery have made great advances in recent years...Angelina Jolie decided to go with an implant based reconstruction, you can also do reconstruction of the breast with autologous tissue, so you can harvest your own tissue from the tummy area or other areas if the tummy tissue isn't available or appropriate. but certainly the aesthetics of the reconstructed appearance are quite amazing these days and I think she's made a very important point in saying that it in no way diminishes her femininity."
Dr. Foster on why the decision to undergo a double mastectomy is so difficult:
"In our culture breasts are a huge part of one's self-image, and it's a significant thing to contemplate losing your breasts no matter how nice the reconstruction is, it's still a big emotional thing that women have to deal with. You certainly can't underestimate that."
Was the Kermit Gosnell 'guilty' verdict a win for the pro-life or pro-choice movement?
Doctor Kermit Gosnell was found guilty yesterday of murdering three babies and one female patient. He may face the death penalty. Authorities say the three babies were alive when they were delivered, but Gosnell then snipped them with scissors. Gosnell was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for a drug overdose given to the female patient.
Many abortion rights advocates believed Gosnell should have been convicted for his gruesome acts, but they argue that more abortion restrictions would only lead to more illegal practices. Anti-abortion activists say this case highlights what abortion truly is. Politicians have taken note of this case. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to move the Senate to review abortion policies.
Does regulating clinics make them safer or is it a plot to shut them down? Why did so many women go to Gosnell? Would more legislation drive women to questionable facilities? Are there more doctors like Gosnell or is he an outlier?
Guests:
Dr. Anne Davis, consulting medical director for Physicians for Reproductive Health
Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue
California Condors versus Wind Farms
In one corner, we have the California condor, one of the most endangered birds in the world that the Golden State has spent tens of millions of dollars to save from extinction. In the other corner, we have wind farms—a valuable alternative energy source in the state.
The Bureau of Land Management is considering giving a permit to the operators of Terra-Gen Power's wind farm in the Tehachapi Mountains, about 90 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles, which would exempt them from being prosecuted for any turbine-related condor deaths. The Endangered Species Act forbids the killing and harassing of California condors. The decision will be made at the end of May.
Should wind farms be exempted? Is the decision counter-intuitive, given the amount of money California has spent on sustaining the California condor population?
Guests:
Kim Delfino, California Director at Defenders of Wildlife
Ashley Richmond, Director of Siting Policy at The California Wind Energy Association
Justice Department’s secret seizure of AP reporters’ and editors’ phone records
Federal investigators secretly seized the phone records from editors and reporters for the Associated Press. Two months of office, home, and cell phone records were taken without notice – the A.P. is calling the seizure “serious interference with A.P.’s constitutional rights to gather and report the news.” Justice Department regulations require subpoenas for journalist records, and usually news organizations are given a chance to challenge these in court.
While investigators did have subpoenas for the A.P. records, the seizures were not disclosed – the Associated press was not informed until last Friday about the investigations. The A.P. and several other news organizations have spoken out against the Justice Department’s actions, saying that the widespread seizures violate the freedom of the press protected in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Should the federal government have the right to seized records from journalists? Was the nondisclosure in this incident a violation of the freedom of the press? How should these situations be handled in the future?
Guest:
Josh Gerstein, White House Reporter for POLITICO
How are travellers impacted by dwindling airport competition?
If you've had a hard time booking flights at Burbank or Ontario airport lately, we now have hard data to attest to that. A new study from MIT researchers shows that while flights have decreased on the whole since the Great Recession, mid-size airports have been hardest hit. From 2007 to 2012 departing flights at Burbank dropped by 25% and Ontario had a bigger drop of 49%, while LAX experienced just a 7% decrease.
The analysts note, "As a result of a prolonged economic downturn, high fuel prices, and a new breed of airline strategy focused on increased load factors and capacity discipline, about 1.4 million yearly scheduled domestic flights have been cut from the U.S. air transportation system from 2007 to 2012."
Michael Wittman of MIT says "All this is making people in smaller communities feel antsy, because airports are a link to the global economy."
How is it affecting you? Is this new business model of airliners sustainable? How are smaller airports trying to retain airliners?
Guests:
Michael Wittman, Airline Researcher at Research Engineer in MIT’s International Center for Air Transportation - its recent study found a significant decrease in traffic at mid-size airports
Brian Sumers, Airports and Airlines Reporter, Los Angeles News Group
How will Governor Brown spend the state’s budget surplus?
Today, Governor Jerry Brown unveils how he plans to use the estimated $4.5 billion in extra tax revenue the state has collected in the first 8 months of the fiscal year. Some lawmakers want to use the money to restore cuts to social safety-net programs like Denti-Cal and state mental health programs, but Brown is on the record calling for lawmakers to practice fiscal discipline and work to pay down the state's massive debt instead. How should the governor spend this found money?
Guest:
Julie Small, KPCC reporter covering Sacramento
'Cyborg' Neil Harbisson can hear in color
Neil Harbisson was born with achromatopsia, rendering him only able to see the world in grayscale, but with a machine he helped invent called the "eyeborg" he can now hear in color. Harbisson says he was inspired by the idea of expanding his perception: his eyeborg machine perceives a wide spectrum of colors, including some that the human eye can't detect, and translates them into sound.
Each color matches up with a tone and pitch, and using bone conduction in the back of his skull, Harbisson is able to listen to the colors the machine is seeing.
"It's pressuring the bone, so I can hear colors through bone conduction and it's a chip at the back of my head that's transposing light frequencies to sound frequencies," said Harbisson. "Now I want it drilled inside the bone...I presented this as an operation to the hospital and this was accepted last year, so this year it will take place in Barcelona."
Harbisson has been wearing his eyeborg for almost a decade, and over time has adapted it to see more and more. The eyeborg can detect some colors that only insects and birds can see, as well as infrared, which Harbisson says is his favorite color because of its low tone.
The machine transposes the frequency of light that create color 37 octaves lower to create sounds that Harbisson can detect. Each color has a “microtone” -- at first the cacophony was overwhelming and distracting.
“At the beginning it was very chaotic and I couldn’t really distinguish colors in front of me, but after months and after years of hearing colors continuously this just became a new sense, it became something beautiful, and I started to perceive the colors by the sounds," said Harbisson. “It’s like living in a music composition.”
His brain is so used to hearing color all the time that it has become normal for him. Harbisson has developed perfect pitch on his sonochromatic scale and can immediately match a tone to the correct color.
RELATED: Videos of Neil Harbisson on KPCC's visuals blog AudioVision
The eyeborg is permanently attached to Harbisson’s head — originally he was carrying around a heaving computer — and after the eyeborg is surgically implanted he will hear colors with a less pressured form of bone conduction.
Harbisson began to feel as though he was a cyborg after five months of wearing the eyeborg.
“Being a cyborg is feeling like a cybernetic device is no longer an external device but part of your body,” he said. He began to feel as though the eyeborg was “an extension of [his] brain” when he started to have dreams in sound-color, hearing the tones associated with colors in his dreams.
“When I sleep it’s my brain that creates electronic sounds,” Harbisson says. “If I go to sleep if I dream of the sky or I dream of oranges my brain creates electronic sounds of the sky or the oranges. So I dream in color, but it’s the sound of color that I dream of.”
Harbisson, a former music student, has used his expanded senses as a cyborg to contribute to his art. He paints famous speeches and works of music. He has spent time listening to famous faces -- Prince Charles has a nice sound to him -- and looking at beautiful vistas, though Harbisson says his favorite views are at the supermarket, where pure white light enhances bright colors.
None of his other senses are compromised — he hears colors through bone conduction and audio through regular air conduction in his ears — only enhanced. Harbisson says that if someone who could see in color used an electronic eye, “it would be probably be like taking drugs because it would have kind of a psychedelic effect.”
Harbisson points out that while he is using the eyeborg to perceive color, similar technology could be used only for ultraviolets or infrareds -- users would know it was a good day to sunbathe or whether infrared light was being used in the room they were in.
While many are fascinated by the eyeborg and cyborgism, Harbisson says that cyborg rights have a ways to go. Harbisson has often been discriminated against by store owners and law enforcement officers who assume the eyeborg is a camera. There are also developments to be made in the medical field for those wishing to use technology to enhance their senses. Harbisson says that when he has problems perceiving a color he doesn’t know who to go to -- an opthamologist, a neurologist, or a computer programmer.
What is the future of cyborgism? How can people enhance their perception with technology? Neil Harbisson joins us for a conversation about his experience as the world's first recognized cyborg.
Guest:
Neil Harbisson, Cyborgist and Colorologist