Season five of Vermont Public Television’s Emmy Award-winning “Emerging Science” spotlights people doing research on problems as personal as chronic pain and as global as climate change.
 
The program airing Oct. 24, “Acupuncture: A Connective Tale” features the research of University of Vermont neurological sciences professor Helene Langevin, who is exploring the role of connective tissue in acupuncture and the importance of connective tissue to overall health. The episode profiles Vicky Dubois of Burlington, Vt., who suffers from the connective tissue disorder scleroderma.

The Oct. 31 program, “Traumatic Brain Injury in Sports,” features research by Kalev Freeman at the University of Vermont’s College of Medicine. It profiles young Kacy Chicoine of Huntington, Vt., whose life has been altered by a series of concussions while playing hockey.

The Nov. 7 program is “Traumatic Brain Injury at War.” It focuses on studies by Matt Friedman of the National Center for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and Tom McAllister of Dartmouth-Hitchcock exploring the association between PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Jom Hammack at UVM studies PTSD at a microscopic level. Sgt. Andrew Reeves, a veteran of the Iraq war who was injured by an improvised explosive device in 2004.  He has been diagnosed with TBI and PTSD.

Programs will be rebroadcast the following Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and the following Sunday at 1 p.m. They will also be available on demand at vpt.org.

Besides the TV programs, the “Emerging Science” project includes Web content and community events. To spark students’ interest in science, VPT is working with Vermont educators to develop classroom materials and lesson plans for middle school and high school.
 
The program was created and is produced in partnership by Vermont EPSCoR and Vermont Public Television, with funding from a National Science Foundation grant. Producer of the programs is Anya Huneke. Executive producer is Dorothy Dickie. EPSCoR, the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, is designed to fulfill the National Science Foundation’s mandate to promote scientific progress nationwide.

PUBLISHED

10-24-2012