VOA Special English

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:


Proteins from the blood of American alligators could provide a new source of antibiotics for fighting human infections
And I'm Steve Ember. This week, we will tell about an American effort against a killer of sorghum crops in Africa. We will tell how blood from alligators may someday prove helpful to people. We will also tell how American doctors removed a diseased appendix through a man's mouth.

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VOICE ONE:

Research scientists may have found one answer to a food production problem that causes crop failure in Africa. The researchers say they have produced a seed that can protect sorghum crops from a weed called striga.

Kassim Al-Katib is a weed expert at Kansas State University in the United States. Mitch Tuinstra is a genetics and plant-breeding expert. He works at Purdue University in Indiana, but formerly worked at Kansas State.

Their target weed has a pleasant looking purple flower. But striga's action is far from pleasant. Striga causes six or seven billion dollars in crop damage every year to African grain sorghum.

VOICE TWO:

In Africa, striga is called witchweed. The plant threatens grains in the eastern and western parts of the continent. Sorghum is important to the local food supply. It can be used in bread and other foods.

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