Horse Sense and Medicine Mobility
Dina Andrews
mobile veterinarian

After driving her high–tech mobile clinic to the upscale ranches and backyard stables of Malibu, Calif., Veterinarian Dina Andrews sometimes treats her patients with a flashlight between her teeth and a portable x–ray machine at 3 a.m.

Having completed medical school, an internship and her residency, Andrews now works an average of 15 hours a day on patients weighing anywhere from 300 to 1,500 pounds.

Treating large animals in their corrals rather than exposing them to the trauma of transporting them to hospitals has been driving technological advances in large animal veterinary fieldwork. "A lot of what we do is very much life and death," Andrews said. "Where a horse is crashing for whatever reason –– whether it's a neurological disease or a gastrointestinal disorder, which horses are very prone to –– it can be a very, very serious situation. I have saved many lives by getting horses to their feet and getting them stabilized with intravenous fluids.

"We're basically the front line for the horse," she added. "We use the ultrasound daily to scan for pregnancies or to check for muscular problems. And in the future we will have portable lasers. These noninvasive procedures mean the horse doesn't have to undergo any sort of surgery."

Veterinary medicine advances align with, and sometimes precede, advances in human medicine. Whether saving the life of a beloved family pet or a multimillion–dollar racehorse, the promise of molecular biology, scanning technologies, biotech and robot–assisted surgery are just as encouraging for veterinarians like Andrews as they are for human doctors.

Keeping Technology Human
Donna Auguste
multimedia developer/engineer

On a short list of the most inspiring women in America, you would undoubtedly find Donna Auguste. Growing up in Berkeley, Calif., she was surrounded by emerging technologies from an early age. In the early 1990s, she led an elite team at Apple Computer to create something brand new: a personal digital assistant (PDA) they called Newton. Today PDA technology is everywhere. A little later, at US West (now known as Qwest), she was again on the leading edge, developing user interfaces for multimedia television.

In 1996, Auguste and four others worked long hours to build Freshwater Software Inc., which she recently sold. That sale put her in a position to fulfill some lifelong dreams, founding Leave a Little Room (LLR), a philanthropic organization and provider of digital gospel music. The LLR outreach ministry has completed projects in developing countries, including building homes in impoverished areas of Mexico, installing solar electric power and Internet connectivity in remote Tanzanian hospitals and clinics, and shipping textbooks to schools in Tanzania and Kenya as well as installing solar–powered laptops with satellite uplinks for e–mail communication in those schools. Closer to home, she sponsors the Winter Coat program, providing coats to people who need them in the Denver, Colo., area where she lives.

With a passion for using technology to make a difference, Auguste was the inspiration for the Math Learning Institute in Aurora, Colo., which she said is designed to give students of all colors the tools to succeed in an increasingly math–oriented world.

As one of the few black women engineers at the front line of digital technology, Auguste said in a recent interview with USA Weekend.com, "I've always made it a point to do lots of networking among people of color in any area that I'm working. You have to keep the human element at the forefront. If folks are having fun and are enjoying working together as a team, you can get a lot done."

Auguste represents a combination of technology genius and inspirational human values that was unusual in the 20th century. But such people will be in great demand in the 21st, as increasing population and a one–world economy require that we all learn how to "keep the human element at the forefront."

The New Piano Man
James Newton Howard
musician/composer

Sitting before an electronic keyboard and an array of computers, James Newton Howard watches scenes from a movie play on one of the screens. He pauses the movie, plays a few bars on his keyboard, jots some notes and continues rolling the film.

For Howard, who has won three Academy Awards and one Golden Globe for his movie scores, it's just another day at the office.

Howard began studying classical piano as a small child and majored in piano performance in college. But soon after graduating he realized he wouldn't be a classical musician. Instead, he became a rock and roll keyboardist, eventually doing studio recordings for hundreds of albums and performing with artists such as Elton John and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

He was in his 30s when he started writing music for movies such as "The Sixth Sense," "Treasure Planet," "My Best Friend's Wedding," "Space Jam" and many others. "A movie is a blend of all kinds of different elements –– the picture, the acting, the sound effects, the music," Howard said "If you look at a movie in a rough form, it's very hard to watch. I write the music that goes under the chase scenes to make them exciting; the love scenes to make them romantic; and under the scary scenes to make them scary." Howard keeps the music he's written stored in digital files so he can edit them on his computer.

He makes models –– digital representations of the orchestration –– of his music ideas, which he then plays for the director.

"Changing the model on the computer is a lot easier than doing it on a sound stage with a hundred musicians, which can get very expensive and time consuming," he said. Nowhere in the arts is technology having a greater impact than on music and film. Computers will become artists' palettes, musicians' instruments and even directors' cast and crew. Howard, who derives his greatest inspiration from the classics and his greatest tools from technology, said careers often take very unexpected turns.

"Stay open," he advises. "Don't ever be afraid of what you don't know."

Protecting the Reefs
Joan Kleypas
scientific researcher Coral is an animal that hosts millions of plant cells, which contribute such nutrients as oxygen and carbohydrates to the coral while the coral, in turn, secretes byproducts for the plant cells' use.

If humans had that sort of association with plants, humans would never have to eat, said Dr. Joan Kleypas, a research scientist specializing in how environmental factors control coral–reef development on a global scale for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "We could just sit outside and sunbathe and pull in all the nutrients we needed," she said.

Concerned about the high rate of coral–reef destruction around the world, Kleypas studies the effects of climate change on coral. Her primary tools are sophisticated computer modeling programs and low–tech swim fins and snorkel.

Through such work, scientists are more aware of large amounts of coral dying; as ocean temperatures rise, algae living in coral tissues are expelled, turning the coral white. About 30 percent of the time, the coral dies as a result; in the last decade, this has occured at an alarming rate, she said. Chemical changes in the oceans also are harming the coral.

"Coral reefs are undoubtedly the most diverse marine ecosystems we have, containing species that haven't even been described yet," she said. "The reefs build huge structures offshore, which protect both coastlines and the habitat behind the reef."

As a result, disappearing coral ecosystems could have significant consequences. Kleypas is not simply driven by concern for the environment. She has been fascinated with the ocean since she was a young girl. After studying biology and geology, she went to Australia for doctoral training at the Great Barrier Reef, drilling through the reef and pulling core samples to determine the reef's age.

"It involved a lot of diving, a lot of snorkeling," she said. "Sometimes you're in the water so much, you're sick of it. But it was the best time I had in my life; a great experience. "It's like detective work; you're finding out answers to things that no one knows yet. You don't come to work because it's your job; you come to work because you want to find out the answer to whatever you're working on. The future always looks good when you have that ahead of you."

Monitoring and ameliorating humankind's impact on the Earth's atmosphere and oceans will be a growth industry in the 21st century; improvements in satellite–imaging technology and more powerful computers will help scientists build a clearer picture of exactly what those impacts are. Still, there will always be a need for hands–on scientists like Kleypas on the surface –– or under it.

The Science of Movement
Dr. Jill McNitt–Gray
biomechanist, associate professor

With electrodes attached to her legs and feet, a 13–year–old gymnast performs a lightning–fast double somersault and lands on a mat. Every movement she made was videotaped; a machine recorded the information collected by the electrodes regarding the force of her landings. Analyzing information about how people move is the work of Dr. Jill McNitt–Gray, who, along with her students at the University of Southern California, has established an experimental biomechanics research/teaching laboratory.

Biomechanics is a cross between mechanical engineering and physical therapy. It is a new technology designed to help athletes maximize their performance and keep them from injury. "The body is a well–engineered system," McNitt–Gray said. "And we want to understand why it chooses to move the way it does."

Sports equipment manufacturers call on the expertise of biomechanics to help make products –– such as tennis rackets, golf clubs, gymnastics landing mats –– safer and perform better. McNitt– Gray and her team are currently working with U.S. National Team divers and USA Track and Field athletes.

Athletes of the future will need a basic understanding of the physics of movement so they can communicate well with the people who are supporting them –– people who will be using technologies like biomechanics, she said.

Biomechanics is, by nature, a multidisciplinary area incorporating anatomy, physiology, mechanics, electronics, mathematics, and more recently, computer science. But it is an example of how much of the scientific workplace is dramatically changing, with innovative research increasingly going to those who have expertise in variety of fields.

The Wild Life
Robert Mesta
field biologist

As more people live and play in the wilderness, dedicated professionals and sophisticated new technologies assure all species in their natural environments have sufficient habitat and protection.

Working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Field Biologist Robert Mesta combines technology with old–fashioned backcountry tracking to work with and observe birds, such as the California condor.

In 1987, the last California condor was captured and brought in from the wild. The bird was hunted, crowded out of its native habitat by development and poisoned by chemical pollution; the remaining 27 were in captivity. Since then, teams of biologists have helped bring the condor –– a majestic bird whose 9–foot wingspan and flying abilities were thought magical by American Indian tribes –– back to the wild.

Mesta, a Yaqui Indian, coordinated the successful Condor Recovery Program in California. "The problem with the condor is that in the wild, they only lay one egg every two years," he said.

"Like humans, they live a long time and produce only a few offspring. But the adults were not able to maintain their long lifespan, so the species was dying out. In captivity, we were able to get them to lay more eggs, and then through careful incubation, with zookeepers monitoring the chicks day and night, feeding them by hand, we were able to release condors back into the wild."

Now, there are more than 60 condors in the wild. There are another 14 in field pens ready for release, and 103 in zoos and wildlife centers. So field biologists can monitor their future movements, radios are placed on the condors before they are released into the wild.

"The radios weigh less than 60 grams, so they don't feel them," Mesta said. "Our field crew all carry receivers that can pick up signals that come from the radios, and that way we can track their whereabouts at all times."

In the past, some have seen an inherent conflict between technology and nature. But the future of wildlife biology will belong to those who, like Mesta, use highly sophisticated modern tools to preserve humankind's oldest heritage.

Technology of Champions
Gary Vitti
Los Angeles Lakers' athletic trainer

Rehabilitating basketball players on the Los Angeles Lakers has been Gary Vitti's job for 19 seasons. Using new methods in conditioning, dieting, stretching and testing, Vitti is responsible for the care, prevention and treatment of injuries to Lakers players and making sure each athlete is in the best possible condition. His job typically continues when basketball season ends, as he works with players practically year round.

"Twenty or 30 years ago, if an athlete got hurt on the field or in the basketball court, a guy came out with a bucket and a sponge," Vitti said. "Now, you have a very well–educated athletic trainer with an array of computer, diagnostic and therapeutic tools handling such problems." Over the 2002 season, Vitti dealt with injuries to Shaquille O'Neal, Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, Samaki Walker, Mark Madsen and many others. In 2002, he collected his sixth NBA championship ring as the team's trainer. Fans seldom realize the athletic trainer's importance to both game and season outcomes. Effectively maintaining the health of 12 or more players during a grueling season has earned Vitti a reputation as one of the best in the business. His is the longest tenure as athletic trainer in team history.

Taking care of athletes isn't new, but the field of sports medicine is. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, it is expanding to include the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all sports and exercise–related injuries. Sports medicine is about using a team approach, with medical doctors, physical therapists, nutritionists and other professionals collaborating to create fitness programs, exercise regimens and treatment plans for individuals.

The result is that injuries previously sidelining players for the remainder of a season are now diagnosed and healed with amazing speed.

As the science of sports medicine grows out of its infancy over the next few decades, we can expect athletes to become stronger and faster. We can also expect to benefit from the health knowledge gained by sports professionals like Vitti.

Racquel Palmese