The Mr Science Show: Recent Episodes
Marc West
Your weekly prescription of popular science in a social context. Check out www.mrscienceshow.com for more info.
I have started a new podcast called The Pod - I'd love you to have a listen and tell me what you think! Mr Science Show is not gone though, it will continue to exist and I will continue to put up material.
The Pod is about ocean swimming - there is more to ocean swimming than swimming in the ocean - and will cover a whole spectrum of topics. It is likely to be a very sciencey show!
So here's episode one, which is a science-based episode on flesh-eating sea lice! For more information, check out the notes over on The Pod.
A few weeks back, I had a great chat about birthday mathematics with Glynn Greensmith on the It's Just Not Cricket show on ABC Radio. It was great! We discussed how when you are born in the year influences your latter life, some counter-intuitive probabilities regarding shared birthdays, a bit of astrology and whatever else popped into our heads. Audio courtesy of the ABC.
2016 is the International Year of Pulses, which aims to heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition. I spoke to Daniel Tam from the University of Sydney's Faculty of Agriculture and Environment about his research into pulses, including genetic resistance to heat waves and climate change, plant physiology and genetics, crop modelling and why he is known throughout the University as "The Hot Scientist".
Songs in this episode (all Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0)):
- Certain Death (Pulse Mix) by Future Boy;
- Dj Rkod - Pulse (George Ellinas Remix) by George_Ellinas;
- Pulsed Sensations by AudioLogic;
- Pulse by Pitx;
- Pulse by Psychadelik Pedestrian;
- God is hot (feat. MommaLuv SkyTower) by Wired Ant
Happy 2016! This week, I spoke on ABC Radio Central West about some of the science we can expect in 2016:
- 2016 is the International Year of Pulses, which aims to heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition. The Year will create a unique opportunity to encourage connections throughout the food chain that would better utilize pulse-based proteins, further global production of pulses, better utilize crop rotations and address the challenges in the trade of pulses.
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2016 will also see some interesting astronomical events, although it will be hard to beat 2015. My favourite upcoming events are:
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The Juno mission to Jupiter
- The continuing Akatsuki mission to Venus. This mission is a testament to the usefulness of maths: originally, the orbiter could not get into orbit around Venus due to on-board failures, and orbited the Sun for 5 years, until the mathematicians got together and figured out how to get the craft back into orbit around Venus using the remaining working thrusters. After 5 years!
Listen in to this show below on ABC NSW's soundcloud page, or grab the mp3. As always, thanks for Kia!
2015 was a magnificent year for physics. Not only was it the International Year of Light and light-based technologies, it was an outstanding year of astronomical achievement, culminating with the magnificent New Horizons photos of Pluto. It was also 100 years since the Theory of General Relativity was published, and 50 years since the Cosmic Background Radiation was discovered.
Australia also broke a couple of astronomical world records: The most people stargazing across Australia, and in a single location at ANU. One of the organisers of this world record was Tom Gordon, a science communicator at The University of Sydney who runs Kickstart Physics (Instagram), which are physics workshops aimed at year 12 science students and teachers. Tom, along with Christie McMonigal and Shane Hengst, runs the STEMPunk podcast, chatting about science communication and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): Communicating scientifically with science communicators.
Who better to talk to about this splendid year in Physics than Tom?
From a recent chat with ABC Central West, this week we talk:
- The correlation between wedding / engagement ring cost, and marriage longevity
- Does your cat really love you?
Every month I chat with ABC Central West and the science topics of the day, and this week we chatted food, in particular:
- Consumption of spicy foods may lead to a lower risk of death (and a little about correlation and causation - I really should do some more correlations of the week)
- Brain evolution needed carbs
- 3D Printed food
Do you remember Cold Fusion? Remember when electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons claimed to have achieved nuclear fusion in a bottle on a table in their lab in Utah? That was so 80s! Cold Fusion was quickly debunked and, apart from its appearance in a 1997 Val Kilmer Movie (The Saint), most people forgot about it. So it may surprise you to hear that Cold Fusion research continues to this day, with some “interesting” participants and some extraordinary and surprisingly persistent claims. The most recent International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF-19) was the largest yet reflecting a climate of renewed interest.
Dr. Timothy J. Surendonk has a passion for cold fusion, and in this podcast episode, tells its story, of the new players, recent events, and particularly the curious story of the “e-cat.” It isn't heavy on technical science, but rather a more entertaining talk that just might challenge the way you relate to science.
This Christmas break, I have been mucking around with science experiments for my kids. Here is the first of a few easy experiments you can try at home.
The following video shows you how to make a home-made lava lamp. It is very simple - grab a cup (or bottle or vase or flask), fill it about a third full of water and two thirds full of oil. The oil floats on the water as it has a lower density. Add some food colouring (you can do this at the start directly to the water, or after you have added the oil - this has the added benefit of showing you that the food colouring does not dissolve in the oil, so it drops through the lower density oil to the water below).
You may already have Alka Seltzer in your medicine cabinet - it is an over-the-counter pain reliever containing Citric acid and Sodium bicarbonate (also known as baking soda). Split the alka seltzer tablets into about 4 bits, and add them to make your lamp. The reaction that is occurring is:
Citric Acid + Sodium bicarbonate → Sodium citrate + Carbon dioxide + Water
C6H8O7 + 3NaHCO3 → Na3C6H5O7 + 3CO2 + 3H2O
Or more simply:
3H++ 3HCO3- → 3CO2 + 3H2O
Note, if you don't have alka seltzer, you can try baking soda, but add some vinegar to the original water mix, as vinegar is acidic and provides the H+.
When you add the alka seltzer to the water, the citric acid and sodium bicarbonate start to dissolve, which allows the reaction to start and is why they don't react in solid form in the tablet.
The reaction produces gaseous carbon dioxide, which has a lower density than both water and oil, and hence rises through the layers. When the gas bubbles exit the water into the oil, they trap and pull up a small amount of water with them. When the bubbles reach the surface, they burst and the water falls back through the oil. It's worth looking at this closely, as you will observe coloured water droplets that don't have quite enough CO2 stuck to, or dissolved within, them to make it all the way to the surface, and so they float around, buffeted from side to side by other, more vigorously moving, droplets.
Here's some more over at CSIRO.
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation undertakes research and development in nuclear science and technology. This has wide application including nuclear medicine, atmospheric monitoring, materials engineering, neutron scattering and climate change research.
ANSTO is also very active in science communication, and one of their major community engagement projects is Fact or Fiction, a 90 minute show where the audience watch clips of classic sci-fi hits before voting on whether the technology featured is actual science fact or pure science fiction. Once the audience voting has been conducted, an ANSTO scientist critiques the science featured in the film. They have also run a Fact or Fiction Survey, the results of which are illustrative of the general public understanding of science in everyday life. Another effort ANSTO is conducting is Neural Knitworks, where knitted neurons join together to create a textile brain installation.
I spoke with Rod Dowler from ANSTO's Discovery Centre about their science communication efforts, and in particular, Fact or Fiction.
Over the Easter break, I spoke with Lish Fejer on ABC 666 Canberra on her Experimentarium segment. We spoke on various things to do with science blogging and podcasting, and matters Easter related including:
- Royal Jelly (the Royals were in town, a great link if ever I've seen one),
- Determining the speed of light using your microwave and left-over Easter chocolate.
To learn more about Royal Jelly, tune into Episode 137: Can your environment change your DNA in which I spoke at length with Professor Ryszard Maleszka from The Australian National University’s College of Medicine, Biology and Environment about the molecular differences in over 550 genes in the brains of worker and queen bees that are a result of the queen bee eating royal jelly at a young age.
On determining the speed of light using a microwave, see the post Instascience by Tom Gordon in which he uses paper. We used chocolate and it worked pretty well, albeit very messily. You will enjoy trying this at home, and failing just gives you another shot! Note in the broadcast I mentioned that the speed of light was 2.97 x 108 when it's actually 2.99792 x 108 (please forgive such a grievous error...).
Complex network analysis is an area of network science and part of graph theory that can be used to rank things, one of the most famous examples of which is the Google PageRank algorithm. But it can also be applied to sport. Cricket is a sport in which it is difficult to rank teams (there are three forms of the game, the various countries do not play each other very often etc.), whilst it is notoriously difficult to rank individual players (for how the ICC do it, see Ep 107: Ranking Cricketers).
Satyam Mukherjee at Northwestern University became a little bit famous when The economist picked up his work (more famous than when we picked it up!) and he has published extensively on complex network analysis as applied to cricket rankings. I had a very interesting chat with Satyam about his various works concerning the evaluation of strategy, leadership, team and individual performance, and the papers we discuss in the podcast are listed below. One of the more interesting findings was that left-handed captains and batsmen are generally ranked higher than their right-handed counterparts, whilst this is not true for left-handed bowlers.
In part 2 of the Spiderman series, Dr Boob looks at the amazing properties of spider silk and how Peter Parker might harness various technologies to appropriately use it.
It's the final show from Dr Boob for a while and we will miss him greatly! But he's not disappearing completely - show him you care over on twitter - @doctor_boob
This is our last Science of superheroes for a while so we thought we'd look at one of the big guys. Over two episodes, Dr Boob examines Spiderman and in episode one, he specifically looks at how to manipulate Peter Parker's DNA using a virus to transport engineered DNA into his cells. It is by changing his genetic structure that we can allow him to have his superhero abilities, which for Spiderman are largely exaggerated spider traits as well as something called a "Spidey sense".
I recently attended the 20 year anniversary of the Sydney University Faculty of Science Talented Student Program. That was an intimidating event! The evening was hosted by Adam Spencer and featured an in-conversation with Professor Bryan Gaensler, Dave Sadler (Bryan's former mathematics high school teacher) and Alison Hammond, a current TSP student. The kind people at the Sydney Uni Faculty of Science have allowed me put the audio up here, so a big thanks to them - all attribution, love and praise should be sent their way. It was a very interesting evening to hear what encouraged one of Australia's most well-known scientists into astrophysics, along with the always witty Adam Spencer.
The two songs used in this episode are by Keytronic / CC BY-NC 3.0 and Jeris / CC BY-NC 3.0
In the second of a two part series on zombies, this week we go deeper in the dark world of the undead. In part one we managed, through a combination of drugs, to create zombie-like creatures who were sluggish and largely brain-dead. This week we have a shot at recreating the zombies of films such as I am Legend - creatures created through the transmission of a virus, who are filled with rage and enjoy the taste of brains. Topics covered include:
- Mad cow disease and the use of prions to transmit disease,
- Chimpanzees who eat brains,
- Methamphetamines for the creation of rage,
- Mathematical modelling a zombie pandemic and how the zombies could do this sustainably.
Somehow we ended up proposing a "Planet of the zombie apes" movie idea, and a methamphetamine-infused biodome. It might not pass an ethics committee.
Zombies have been fodder for science fiction books and movies for years, but could we actually create one in the lab? And why indeed would you want to do this? Surely the whole "eating brains" concept would mean that making one is probably not in your best interests.
This week on the podcast, Dr Boob takes us on a journey through zombie science fiction, Haitian zombies and zombie-style animals in nature, including a fascinating scenario where ants are hijacked by a fungus. This episode is part 1 - next time we will tackle, among other things, brain parasites, eating brains (cultural, cooking and animals that do it), mad cow disease, the 'zombie' bath salts attacks (face eating), and a mathematical model of a zombie pandemic
We still exist!
This week we're inhabiting the nexus of science, pop culture and science fiction. The topic of discussion is Time Travel and how it is portrayed in the movies. There's a little bit of philosophy, a little bit of physics, a dash of the paranormal, and a lot of Dr Boob, who is once again the driving force of this podcast!
This is part one of a two part series on time travel and the movies - part two will be out shortly.
Is teleportation possible in the real world, or only in the world of science fiction?
In this very special episode, Dr Boob takes the reigns and leads us on a journey through teleportation, whether or not physics allows it and even if it does, can we technologically achieve it? What are the implications if we recreate someone in another spot - what about their soul? Does such a thing exist? And even if you can technologically achieve this, is it possible to reanimate a copy of someone? And what do you do with their original version, if you have simply copied them? This could be considered cloning, which brings in ethical questions.
Perhaps wormholes could be a solution to this problem, but we haven't found any yet - however they are, as physicists like to say, theoretically possible.
Tune in to this very entertaining episode (and I can say this without false modesty as Dr Boob did it all himself). If you'd like to hear more of Dr Boob on this podcast, check out our past joint episodes, mostly on the science of superheroes.
It's an Australian tradition on ANZAC Day to take yourself down to your local pub and play Two-up - an Aussie gambling game in which you toss two coins in the air and bet on the outcome.
In this edition I have a chat to Chris Coleman of ABC Riverina about the maths behind two-up. For a longer read, check out our 2009 article on the topic.
TED is a US based not-for-profit enterprise devoted to the propagation of Ideas Worth Spreading. TED started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment and Design. TedxSydney was a Sydney-based TED event, bringing people together to share a TED-like experience. I ducked out to Carriage Works to catch some of the event, and you can see all the talks over at the TedxSydney youtube channel. Many of these talks were science based, so I'm going to put up some of my favourites over the next few posts.
The following video is from Bryan Gaensler, former Young Australian of the Year, NASA Hubble Fellow and Harvard professor, Australian Laureate Fellow at The University of Sydney, and Director of the Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics. His talk was entitled A new way of looking at the sky.
Beyond Zero Emissions is a not-for-profit, volunteer run organisation whose core goal is to develop blueprints for the implementation of climate change solutions. In partnership with the University of Melbourne's Energy Research Institute, BZE are undertaking the Zero Carbon Australia 2020 Project, which puts together fully costed transition plans for getting Australia to zero emissions in ten years using commercially available technology.
Last year I attended their launch event for the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan which goes into detail about how Australia can reach 100% renewable energy within a decade. Speakers at the launch included former NSW premier Bob Carr, member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and Matthew Wright, Executive Director of BZE. The event was hosted by journalist Quentin Dempster.
In this podcast, with permission from Matthew Wright, I bring you Matthew's speech at this launch which details the science behind their proposal. I also chatted to BZE volunteer Petra Liverani at the recent Say yes to a price on carbon pollution rally in Sydney.
And we're back! It's been a while, but finally it's time for another podcast, so we've made it a long one. Take this episode on a long train ride or car trip, as Dr Boob and I explore the science of the spells of Harry Potter. Attempting to find scientific and engineering solutions to Harry Potter spells is probably the most difficult task we have set ourselves yet, so we would be very interested to hear how you would made the Harry Potter spells a reality. The spells dealt with in this episode are:
- Lumos - Producing light from the end of a wand (A voice activated torch seems a logical solution),
- Aguamenti - Shooting water from the end of the wand,
- Alohomora - Picking a lock at a distance,
- Expecto Patronum - Protection against evil dementors in the form of some virtual creature,
- Sectumsempra - Slicing your opponent open,
- Aparecium - Reading invisible ink,
- Accio - Summoning things to you,
- Expelliarmus - Disarming your opposition of their wand,
- Confundo - Confusing the victim,
- Stupefy - Stunning the victim,
- Invisibility cloak - Covering yourself in a cloak to make yourself invisible,
- Imperio - Forcing your victims to obey your commands,
- Obliviate - Erasing the memories of the victim,
- Legilimens - Telepathy.
Although some of these are quite clearly impossible at the moment, in every case we have come up with a scientific or engineering solution to take us at least part of the way there. Listen in to find out what we came up with, and please write in and let us know where we have gone wrong or what you would do.
Research published in Biological Invasions shows that Australian redback spiders are invading New Zealand and could become established in many urban areas around major ports.
The paper, The invasive Australian redback spider, Latrodectus hasseltii Thorell 1870 (Araneae: Theridiidae): current and potential distributions, and likely impacts,details recorded sightings of redback spiders in New Zealand, then used biological and climatic information to reveal where redbacks could establish. Warm, dry conditions in some eastern areas of New Zealand are suitable for redback spiders to become established, and they are likely to spread further as they are surviving in places with relatively high rainfall. Urban areas, for example, provide shelter from the rain. The spread of redbacks is likely to have arisen from the establishment of new invasions through New Zealand's ports.
There is genetic evidence that redbacks have interbred with the protected, endemic katipo and there is a danger that redbacks could competitively displace katipo or cause extinction by interbreeding. Redbacks are also a public health issue as they have the potential to become established in areas close to urban populations. Successful border control already produces regular interceptions of the redback as well the invasive brown widow and the western black widow. Both these species are related to the redback and have similar habitat and climate requirements. I spoke to lead researcher Dr Cor Vink about this work and how they are developing new approaches and tools to ensure harmful organisms are kept out of New Zealand.
It's scarcely believable that another Christmas has rolled around! I hope that 2010 has been a wonderful year for you.
In this year's Christmas podcast, I've compiled some of my favourite segments from the last few years. First up, I chat to Bianca Nogrady, who assembled a crack team of health experts to look into the health of Santa Claus. Not only does he eat copious amounts of sugar and drink gallons of beer, he is also at risk of altitude sickness, deep-vein thrombosis, jet-lag, zoonotic diseases from exposure to wild reindeer and countless other problems associated with lack of sleep and poor diet. Not to mention all the concerns associated with smoking. However, he does compile the naughty/nice list each year, keeping his mind is active, and unlike many other elderly folk, he gets out of the house and travels. You can read more about the findings of the Santa-team in Bianca's original article Health alert for Christmas visitor, and also at Ep 98: Santa Claus - a fat, diabetic substance abuser?
Next up is a classic out-take from Diffusion Science Radio from the velvet-voiced Matt Clarke discussing the fact that some women are allergic to their partner's sperm. You will also hear the laughing of myself, Darren Osborne, Lachlan Whatmore and Tilly Boleyn (and maybe Ian Woolf). These same folk then join me in an interesting, and irreverent, take on some of the mental aspects of cricket. These recordings were originally released in the episode North Koreans, Mammoths, Invisibility and what did not make it to air on the Diffusion Radio Science Show.
Take care this break, and see you in the new year, when my family will have expanded by one!
A world first study conducted by Menzies Research Institute Tasmania has shown that skipping breakfast over a long period of time may increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes.
The study, Skipping breakfast: longitudinal associations with cardiometabolic risk factors in the Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, followed up a 1985 national sample of 9–15 year old Australian children. The original work looked at whether these children ate breakfast before school. In 2004–2006, the authors of the new research tracked down 2184 participants of the original study (26–36 years of age) and enquired into their breakfast eating habits. This style of study is called a Longitudinal Study.
After adjustment for age, sex, and sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, participants who skipped breakfast in both childhood and adulthood had a larger waist circumference, higher fasting insulin, and higher total cholesterol concentration than did those who ate breakfast at both time points. The researchers conclude that skipping breakfast over a long period may have detrimental effects on cardiometabolic health. I had a great chat to lead researcher Kylie Smith about her study.
Did you know that worker bees and queen bees have exactly the same DNA?
Although they look and behave differently, at birth they have the same genome. Young queen larvae are fed a diet of Royal Jelly, a substance secreted by the worker bees which includes B-complex vitamins, proteins, sugars and fatty acids. This concoction not only feeds the queen bees, it turns on and off various genes with what is known as epigentic effects. Epigenetic effects - meaning "above the genome" - alter gene expression without effecting the genetic code, and are not passed on to future generations. They are the reason why cells in different parts of the body do different things. For example, liver genes are turned on in your liver but not elsewhere, even though every cell in your body contains all your DNA information. For humans, much of this happens before we are born.
The recent report The Honey Bee Epigenomes: Differential Methylation of Brain DNA in Queens and Workers, by Professor Ryszard Maleszka from The Australian National University’s College of Medicine, Biology and Environment and colleagues, details the extensive molecular differences in over 550 genes in the brains of worker and queen bees as a result of queen bee feeding with royal jelly. The work is quite profound as it is a step towards understanding how our environment can change our DNA. There is a growing body of evidence that some epigentic traits may be passed on to following generations, and this could drastically change our understanding of the process of evolution. The work also has implcations for the nature vs. nurture debate, if indeed our nurture actually changes our DNA - that is, our nature. I had a fascinating chat to Ryszard about this study, the future of this work and his opinions on how this may change our understanding of evolution. Please excuse the noise in the recording of the phone call.
It's about time we put out a new podcast!
In this edition, I chat to Associate Professor Robert Brooks, Director at the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, UNSW about sexual selection. Charles Darwin described sexual selection as "struggle between the individuals of one sex, generally the males, for the possession of the other sex" and nature abounds with strange examples of where animal features have evolved way past their survival needs - for example, reindeer antlers, peacock plumes and quite possible human vocabulary - humans and other primates survived quite nicely without a wide vocabulary, why do we now possess one?
Rob is a leading world expert in the area, listen in to find out what he had to say. Listen in to this show here If you would like to hear more about the science of sex, check out The Beer Drinking Scientists episode Let's talk about sex.
Do you sneeze at the Sun? I do. My brother does. Both my parents do. In fact, we are a family of Photic Sneeze sufferers.
The Photic Sneeze Reflex (PSR), also known rather ridiculously as Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helioophthalmic Outburst (ACHOO) Syndrome (how long do you think it took researchers to figure out that acronym...) is a dominant genetic condition affecting around 10% of the population. When a sufferer moves from a region of darkness to a region of bright light - for instance, walking outside and looking at the Sun - multiple sneezes occur. Researchers into the disorder have yet to explain either its mechanism or an evolutionary reason for why it occurs. One theory is that there is a "short circuit" in the brain, with the stimulated optic nerve somehow triggering the sneeze reflex.
Professor Louis Ptáček runs the Laboratories of Neurogenetics at the University of California, San Francisco. The aim of the lab is to study familial disorders with strong genetic contributions, and thus localise and identify genes that cause human disease. Other conditions in which he is interested include migraine and epilepsy, and an intriguing condition whereby certain sounds cause seizures. He considers PSR to generally be a midly annoying condition, unless you are a combat pilot, where sneezing at the Sun could indeed be life threatening. I had a really interesting chat to Louis about PSR, and I've left the recording a little longer than usual, as we were really able to explore some fascinating ideas involved with PSR - it was a great chat.
This topic came in as part of my call for questions for Science Week, so thanks @lisushi for the question! I'll be putting up more blogs and podcasts to answer the other questions that came in over the next few weeks.
With climate change seemingly falling off the agenda of Australia's major political parties in the lead-up to the 2010 federal election, I wanted to see whether this inaction reflected the views of the community. I headed down to Paddington Markets, on Oxford St in Paddington, Sydney for some vox pops. This area falls within the federal seat of Wentworth, whose member is perhaps the only member of the Liberal Party willing to act on climate change, Malcolm Turnbull. It borders the seat of Sydney, whose sitting member is Labor's Tanya Plibersek. Apparently we have much work to do. I made this video during a course on Video on the Web I am taking at Metroscreen. As it's vox pops you might think I have edited it down to this one-sided take on the topic, however this really does reflect the views of those I interviewed. I was very surprised, given Oxford Street's forward-thinking reputation.
In the tradition of UK newspapers, this blog/podcast has decided to throw its (rather small) weight behind a political party at each Australian federal election. And this time around, the decision is easy.
The 2010 Australian federal election is the most vision-less election in which I have had the privilege of voting. Without going too much into my own political leanings, what sways me in a federal election are a party's social policies. And the only party with progresive social policy in this election is The Greens. They are the only party that may actually move us forward (to coin a popular phrase...)
Tonight I attended a Greens function at which Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown spoke, and I was lucky enough to grab him for a few minutes to ask him about the science issues that may play a role in the upcoming election. In my opinion, Senator Brown is the most principled man in Australian politics.
The science of superheroes is taking a green and nasty turn this week as we discuss the largest superhero of them all, The Hulk. Join myself and our regular superhero expert Dr Boob as we delve into the science of how we might realise The Hulk in the lab. It was one of the more entertaining interviews I have done for the podcast.
The Hulk is alter-ego of Dr Bruce Banner, who allegedly bares a striking resemblance to Dr Boob. Banner is a reserved physicist who involuntarily transforms into The Hulk when triggered by a strong emotion such as anger, fear, terror or grief. The Hulk himself is a massive green monster who gets stronger the angrier he gets. He also has bullet-proof skin.
The Hulk’s origin story includes depends on whether we are looking at the comic book Hulk, the Hulk of the two recent movies, or The Incredible Hulk of the TV series (in which it is David Banner, not Bruce Banner, who metamorphoses into The Hulk).
The 2003 movie version "Hulk" includes many of the topics we discuss in the podcast. The movie starts with genetics researcher David Banner – Bruce Banner’s father - working with the military to “improve” human DNA. The opening credit sequence depicts experiments with jellyfish and starfish DNA, and Banner’s notepad mentions bioluminescence. This suggests that the Hulk gets his green colour from jellyfish DNA as some jellyfish bioluminesce at around 450 nm, which is at the blue/green end of the spectrum. In 1961, Osamu Shimomura extracted green fluorescent protein and another bioluminescent protein, called aequorin, from Aequorea victoria while studying bioluminescence. He eventually received the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2008 for this work. The mention of starfish is also interesting because, as we found with Wolverine, starfish and sea cucumbers have great healing powers and are able to regenerate lost limbs. Evidently, Banner wanted to splice bioluminescence and improved healing into human DNA.
Banner’s experiments then moved to lizards and monkeys, but unfortunately they all died. Naturally, he then decided if his experiments did not work on animals, he would try them on himself – clearly, ethics committees are not part of superhero science. After conducting experiments on his own DNA, he eventually passes on his mutant DNA to his unborn son Bruce. Once David realises this, he changes his approach and works to cure his son of his genetic afflictions, however the research is shut down and an explosion kills David’s wife. David is taken to a lunatic asylum and Bruce is adopted.
Years later, Bruce has followed his father’s line of work and is conducting military research – Bruce’s area of interest is the use of nanomeds in soldiers. This might include such things as targeted drug delivery for rapid recovery from injury. An experimental accident subjects Bruce to an enormous dose of gamma radiation which “activates” his mutant DNA (possibly combining with the nanomeds) and the building rage/stress transforms him into The Hulk for the first time.
Whether or not this is scientifically possible – well, that’s the topic of the podcast so tune in!
Other issues that we discuss include:
- Gamma radiation and radiation poisoning;
- Genetic transfer and gene therapy – could David Banner change his own DNA in such a way that this change would be copied to his progeny? For more information, check out the Weismann Barrier;
- The Hulk’s size – is it possible to rapidly increase your size? Simple conservation of mass equations would suggest no, and bacteria in a Petri dish generally have a 24 hour doubling time. There are also enormous metabolic requirements involved – we need to have resources available to feed these growing cells and Bruce Banner is not excessively fat. Perhaps to do this we need to accelerate Bruce Banner to the near the speed of light, at which point he may relativistically pick up some mass - however, this is not particularly practical!
- The Hulk’s strength – is it possible to rapidly increase your strength?
- The Hulk's healing properties - could we use some of the science of Wolverine here?
- The materials used to create bullet-proof skin. The toughest skins in the animal kingdom are crocodile, elephant, shark and armadillo; however none are bullet (and knife) proof;
- What materials could we use to make his "one-size-fits-all" pants? You will notice that no matter what size Bruce Banner or The Hulk are, and no matter what the ripped state of his other clothes, his undies always fit.
- And of course, whether The Hulk has irritable bowel syndrome and wears giant green snuggies.
Hope you enjoy this show - we certainly enjoyed recording it, as you will be able to tell by the end! Samples in this podcast are broadcast courtesy of ioda PROMONET.
Professor Chris Gore, head of Physiology at the Australian Institute of Sport, has had over 20 years experience in the science of sport at altitude, including the study of the physiological effects of altitude on the body and designing altitude training regimes for athletes.The effects of altitude have been known for some time, however their effects on sport became prominent during the 1968 Mexico Olympics, which were held at over 2000 metres. At these games, endurance sports suffered whilst records were set in sprint events. Many games in the current 2010 FIFA World Cup are being held at altitude, and all of the highly professional teams have had some form of altitude training before the competition.
I spoke to Chris about the science of sport at altitude, including the physiological effects on the body, the different physics that apply to sports played at altitude, how altitude training works and the ethics of artificial altitude training. This question came in from the guys at Green and Gold Rugby as part of our call for science stories for science week. With the World Cup currently being played at altitude, I thought it best to bring this particular question forward - thanks for the question guys! I will be writing up a more comprehensive story on the topic soon.
Ever wondered what good Twitter actually does? Personally, I love it, but really, is it anything but noise?
One of the pipe dreams for online social media is the ability to track opinions and interests in real time.
In their paper Predicting the Future With Social Media, Sitaram Asur and Bernardo A. Huberman have not only tracked live opinion on movies, but used it to predict their future success. Asur and Huberman, from the Social Computing Lab, HP Labs California, have shown that the rate of tweeting about a movie accurately predicts its opening weekend box office revene.
After examining the rate of chatter from almost 3 million movie tweets, the researchers constructed a linear regression model for predicting box-office revenues of movies in advance of their release. These results outperformed the Hollywood Stock Exchange, a market in which people can buy and sell virtual shares in actors, directors and individual movies and produces unusually accurate predictions of film popularity.
There is a strong correlation between the amount of tweets concerning a forthcoming film, and its opening weekend box office return.
The rate of tweeting about a movie was determined by simply counting the number of tweets containing the movie name. The next step was to predict box office returns beyond the opening weekend, and this was achieved by including "sentiment" as a factor. Sentiment analysis is a fascinating area of linguistic study. Language classifiers were used to label the text associated with the movie tweet as Positive, Negative or Neutral. Adding these as factors into the regression significantly increased the researchers' ability to predict the box office returns beyond the opening weekend.
These results are intuitive - before a movie is released, potential viewers do not know whether they will like the movie and so simply the number of tweets about a movie gives an indicator of movie "buzz" and correlates with the number of people attending the opening weekend. Once a movie is released and people start forming opinions, movie tweets start to contain sentiment. Negative tweets, whilst they have little effect on the opening box office as no one has yet seen the film, have a strong influence on further returns. Likewise for positive tweets.
The question of cause and effect is very interesting. Does a high number of tweets about a movie actually cause a strong box office return, or are they correlated simply because the twitter and movie audience are arguably the same? Another way of asking this question is to ask whether an advertiser could change future box office returns by deliberately tweeting multiple times or with a particular sentiment.
I had a fascinating chat with Sitaram about this work.
The Australian dingo and the New Guinea Singing Dog may be the world's oldest dog breeds.The study, Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication, which was published in Nature and is a major genetic study into the domestication of the dog, was a world-wide effort and had 37 authors - including Dr Alan Wilton, of the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at UNSW. The study found that the dingo and the New Guinea Singing Dog are the most closely related breeds of modern dogs to the original wolves from which all dog breeds come from. They are also the most like the original domesticated dog.
The study looked at 48,000 sites in the dog genome in hundreds of wolves, almost a thousand dogs from 85 modern breeds and several ancient dog breeds. Dr Wilton, a celebrated scientist in the field of dingo research and conservation who won the Unsung Hero of Science Award in 2004, provided the dingo DNA. The data suggest most dogs were domesticated in the Middle East around 10,000 years ago, rather than in Asia as had been previously thought.
Dingoes separated from other breeds of dog when brought to Australia around 5,000 years ago. However, they never made it to Tasmania, which became isolated from the mainland around 12,000 years ago. It is thought that the dingo out-competed the thylacine (Tasmanian Tigers) leading to its extinction on the mainland.
Other ancient breeds include Chow-Chow, Basenji, Akita, Chinese Shar-Pei, Siberian husky and Alaskan malamut.
I had a great chat to Dr Wilton about this work into the domestication - or as I repeatedly say it, domestification... - of the dog and also about his work in dingo studies and conservation.
Is Pluto is set to become an also-ran in the astronomical world?
Already demoted from the exalted planet club, Pluto could be joined by up to 50 other objects in the ever-expanding "dwarf planet" club if the new definitions of dwarf planet, recently proposed by Australian scientists Charles Lineweaver and Marc Norman, are accepted by the International Astronomical Union.
On the other hand, perhaps you would rather regard Pluto as the leading player in the astronomical second division. Rather than being the smallest of the planets, Pluto is set to become the charismatic king of the dwarfs.
The research, entitled The Potato Radius: a Lower Minimum Size for Dwarf Planets, suggests that the number of objects in the solar system classed as dwarf planets could grow by more than a factor of ten. One of the definitions of dwarf planet relates to its ability to exist in hydrostatic equilibrium - that is, the body must have sufficient mass for its self-gravity to pull it into a round shape. This is generally accepted to happen at a radius of around 400 km. Lineweaver and Norman found that the point at which a body loses its rugged and unshapely 'potato' appearance and becomes round depends on what the material that the body is made from. Icy objects form spheres at roughly 200 km radius, whilst rocky spheres form at 300 km. As these radii are considerably less than the generally accepted minimum radius for a dwarf planet - 400 km - the researchers believes that a whole new crop of trans-Neptunian objects should be classified as "dwarf planets."
I had a fascinating chat with Dr Lineweaver about how they went about deriving these numbers, and also about their work defining the shape and mass of other astronomical bodies. Lineweaver derived these radii from first-principles physics, and compared the results to astronomical observation. Bodies are held together by gravitational and electronic forces, and the research showed a strong correlation between the mass and shape of astronomical objects. For example, at a radius of ~ 200 km - 300 km, moons and rocky asteroids transition from a rounded potato shape to a sphere.
The work also looked at other shapes in the Universe, and Lineweaver divided these into five basic shapes - dust, potatoes, spheres, disks and halos. Each of these shapes correlates with the size and mass of the object. Most of the new dwarf planets will be out past Neptune – these are called trans-Neptunian objects. Pluto has a radius of 1,150 km, but it is not the largest known trans-Neptunian object - Eris has a radius of ~1,250 km.
The International Astronomical Union General Assembly, which makes the decisions re astronomical nomenclature, next meets in Beijing in August 2012. No matter what they decide, some people will always call Pluto a planet.
The cane toad in Australia is a text book example of a feral species. As an introduced species, it has no natural predators and out-competes native animals for food and habitat. Things are made worse by the fact that cane toads are highly poisonous - so poisonous that they can kill animals as large as crocodiles.
One species imperilled by the cane toad is the Northern Quoll. The northern quoll has been almost driven to extinction in many parts of northern Australia because they attack the toad and are subsequently poisoned. The poison kills the quolls too quickly for them to learn not to do it again.
In a recent study Conditioned taste aversion enhances the survival of an endangered predator imperilled by a toxic invader in the Journal of Applied Ecology, Stephanie O'Donnell, Jonathan Webb and Richard Shine from the University of Sydney tested whether quolls could be taught to avoid eating cane toads through "conditioned taste aversion" (CTA).
I spoke to Dr Webb about their study and how quolls can possibly be saved from extinction by CTA.
Working with the Territory Wildlife Park, the researchers took a group of quolls and taught half (the "toad-smart" group) to associate eating a cane toad with feeling sick by feeding them a small dead cane toad laced with thiabendazole. The cane toad was too small to kill the quolls with its poison, however the tiabendazole made them feel sick. The second half of the quoll group ("toad-naive") were not fed the cane toad.
The next part of the experiment was to feed the quolls a small, live cane toad in plastic container to see whether or not they attacked it. It was found that the toad-smart group was less likely to attack the toad in the plastic container. It was also found that the toad-smart group survived up to five times longer in the wild than "toad-naive" quolls. The researchers also found that male quolls were far more likely than female quolls to attack cane toads. Dr Webb thinks that aerially deployed 'toad baits' ahead of the cane toad invasion front could educate quolls to avoid attacking cane toads before the toads invade.
Cane toads were introduced to Australia from Hawaii in June 1935 to control the native Cane Beetle. They bred immediately in captivity, and by August 1935 more than 102 young toads were released in northern Queensland. Toads now number over 200 million and have steadily expanded through Queensland, reaching the border with New South Wales in 1978 and the Northern Territory in 1984. It is estimated that cane toads migrate at an average of 40 kilometres per year.
Continuing with our recurring segment The Science of Superheroes, this week we're tackling the mechanically-blessed supervillain Doc Ock, from Marvel Comics. And joining me once again for a journey through superhero scholarship is Dr Boob.
Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius is a scientist who designed a set of advanced mechanical arms to assist him with his nuclear physics research. He controlled the arms via a brain-computer interface. In the movie Spiderman 2, Octavius created the mechanical arms to help him conduct nuclear fusion experiments. The arms had their own artificial intelligence, with an inhibitor chip used such that Octavius could maintain control over them.
The arms attached to a harness that was strapped around his body. In great comic book tradition, a freak experimental accident caused the limbs to fuse to his body, and the inhibitor chip was destroyed. The arms themselves took control as Octavius could no longer control them, and mad-scientist Octavius became evil Doc Ock. Interestingly, the limbs were able to defend themselves whilst Doc Ock was unconscious, implying not only self-awareness, but a capability to sense their surroundings.
In this episode, we come closer than we have come before in our series to figuring out a way to recreate a superhero (or supervillain in this case) in the laboratory. The topics discussed in this podcast include: * Robotics, * The history of artificial limbs, * The history of aritifical intelligence, and how to design limbs that could possibly have self-awareness and a desire (and capability) to defend themselves, * What is nuclear fusion? Is it possible to develop a controlled energy source using nuclear fusion, and if so, could this be the way forward for powering enormous artificial limbs? * What would the limbs be made from? Is it time to turn once again to Adamantium? See our show on Wolverine for more information. * Assuming the AI is difficult to accomplish, how could the limbs be controlled? Two methods include:
- Myoelectric prostheses - a myoelectric prosthesis uses EMG signals from muscles on the surface of the skin to control the movements of an attached prosthesis. These prostheses have been used where arms and legs have been amputated, with the prosthesis attaching to the residual limb. The concept of neuroplasticity is also very important here. Neuro- (or brain-) plasticity is the ability of the brain to change throughout life, to reorganise itself and form new connections between neurons. Artificial limbs have recently been controlled by chest muscles - this is an example of the brain learning how to control muscles in a completely new way.
- Remote control - recent work has shown that objects can be remotely controlled by brain waves (EEG). Naturally, this does not mean one can levitate a chair on the opposite side of the room - the brain needs to be hooked up to a computer which reads the brain signals, interprets them and then controls the connected object in an appropriate way. We discussed this a few years ago in our article Space Invaders Mind Control, Small Testes and Facial Expressions.
It may be an apocryphal tale, but here's an interesting story about how sailors of yore determined if a potential suitor had syphilis.As demonstrated by Victoria Bond and myself, Victoria is feeling my right elbow whilst shaking my hand. The epitrochlear lymph nodes in the elbow get
swollen with syphilis. The story goes that when sailors arrived in a new port, they would greet the girls in this manner to determine if they had syphilis. Another story goes that they did this whilst dancing. Whatever the case, it is true that the nodes swell when suffering from syphilis, although it's not fail safe as there are a number of things that could cause the swelling, including infection. We made this short video demonstration of the handshake when recording Diffusion Science Radio.
While we're on the topic of syphilis, reports
out of the UK this week are laying the blame for a rise in syphilis cases at the feet of social networking site Facebook. This story is the up there with the dangerous
cookie story as one of the more stupid 'science' stories I have read. The Telegraph reported Facebook
'linked to rise in syphilis', however The Sun takes the cake with *Sex
diseases soaring due to Facebook romps*.
The news articles are based on an NHS news release titled *Warning
as syphilis cases increase*. The news release does not mention Facebook, but does mention "social networking sites":
Professor Peter Kelly, Executive Director of Public Health for NHS Tees said syphilis has risen sharply in the last year.
"There has been a four fold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected with more young women being affected," he said. "Syphilis is a devastating disease which can lead to serious health problems to the infected individual, their sexual contacts and an unborn child (in pregnant women). It is easily preventable and treatment is simple and effective. Unprotected sex, especially with casual partners, is the biggest risk for syphilis. Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex. It is important that people avoid high risk sexual behaviours and practise safe sex to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections."
Syphilis cases have increased fourfold in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside. The UK newspapers, independent of the NHS press release, found that Facebook
is very popular in Sunderland. The problem here of course is our old friend "correlation vs. causation" - it is in no way clear that Facebook (or more broadly online social networking) is connected to the rise in syphilis. Syphilis cases have been on the rise for some time now. And even if Facebook is increasing casual sex in these regions, should we really blame it for someone's sexual habits? Other problems include the fact that the sample size is tiny (30 people), there is no mention of other sexually transmitted diseases, and no actual evidence to connect social networking to syphilis is presented - it is a merely a comment. There is a good discussion of this at Bad
Science.
This video is not particularly sciencey - but is bonus material for my lovely iPhone app subscribers.
The vid from 1995 aptly portrays why I followed science and I never went into acting. We made this video about the crime fighters Brad and VD when in Year 11. Those involved have ended up being quite creative - director Nick as a digital producer, and actor Scott as a designer. A good look back on the days of analogue tape. We were clearly influenced by Get Smart.
Liberals, atheists, intelligence, cocaine deaths and the temperature? What do these things have in common?
The answer? Correlation of the Week of course.
This podcast concerns our two most recent Correlations of the Week:
Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent;
Cocaine overdoses and the Weather.
Wadeye is a remote town in Australia's Northern Territory. It has a population of roughly 2500 people, 2200 of whom are Indigenous Australians, and as such is one of Australia's largest indigenous communities. The town is over 200 km southwest of Darwin, and during the wet season the only way in and out of the town is by air, as the roads are completely cut off.
The town has a number of social issues, with gang violence making international headlines in 2006. On average there are 16 people per house and the median age at death is an astoundingly low 46 years. This compares to the medium age at death of a non-indigenous person in the Northern Territory of over 70 years, and over 80 in other states (data here).
Wadeye's remoteness, social issues and cultural differences present a considerable challenge to the provision of quality health care. There is only one general practitioner in town with serious cases referred to Darwin. Victoria Bond (who you may have heard as a regular contributor to the Diffusion Science Radio Show) has taken a posting in Wadeye as part of her medical degree. I chatted to Victoria about the unique medical issues that have arisen in Wadeye, and what it's like as an American student in such a remote place.
This is the second part of our series on the science of Wolverine - specifically, how can we create Wolverine in the lab? Join Dr Boob and myself as we journey through Wolverine's characteristics and how they may be recreated in a human. Read more on Wolverine in part 1 of this series.
Specifically in this episode, we tackle the topics of:
- What would happen to your bones if you completely covered them with metal? Bones are living parts of your body and make red blood cells, platelets and bone marrow - among other things - that are vital for life.
- Would a lack of platelets reduce Wolverine's ability to heal?
- Wolverine is likely to be on a cocktail of drugs, including anabolic steroids to beef him up, immunosuppressants so his body doesn't reject the metal coating on his bones, and various drugs to supply red blood cells, bone marrow and platelets.
- Could we really harness the healing powers of the sea cucumber for Wolverine, and would they work quickly enough?
- Are carrots enough to improve his sight?
- What metal could we use to coat his bones? It needs to be able to be injected as a liquid and then harden at body temperature. Most steels have melting points over 1000 degrees Celcius, and this would cause terrible trauma to his body. Dr Boob's suggestion was CerroLOW117, which is 44.7% Bismuth, 22.6% Lead, 8.3% Tin, 5.3% Cadmium and 19.1% Indium. CerroLOW117 has a melting point of 47 degrees Celcius, however lead and cadmium both accumulate in the body and have adverse health effects. It is highly likely CerroLOW117 would not be strong enough to help Wolverine anyway.
- And what is a phlebotomist?
For more on superheroes, check out our recurring science of superheroes series. And for more from Dr Boob, check out Chris's other contributions.
Wolverine is probably the best known of the X-Men. Commonly known as Logan, Wolverine is a mutant who has animal-keen senses, super bodily strength, retracting claws, and the ability to almost instantly heal himself from injury. And thanks to some evil scientists, he has the near indestructible (and fictional) metal alloy adamantium fused to his bones, meaning that his claws and skeleton are almost unbreakable. In the second episode of our regular series on the science of superheroes, biochemist Dr Chris Pettigrew (aka Dr Boob) and I discuss where in nature Wolverine's powers can be found, and how we might scientifically create Wolverine in the lab. This is the first of a 2-part show on Wolverine - see below for a brief description of some of the science discussed. Our first superheroes episode was on the science of Wolverine's fellow X-man, and sometime love interest, Mystique.
The name Wolverine comes from the Wolverine animal, which lives in isolated northern areas such as the arctic and alpine regions of Alaska. It is a stocky and strong animal that is very strong for its size and has been known to kill prey as large as moose. The wolverine is not actually a bear or a dog, but rather a mustelid, or in common parlance, a weasel. While many of Wolverine's powers (such as strength and hearing) could come from its namesake mustelid, if we were to attempt to create Wolverine in the lab, we must first turn to the ocean:
Healing ability: Sea Cucumbers are the champions of organ regrowth. All animals possess some kind of tissue repair mechanism, however the sea cucumber belongs to a group of animals that can regrow lost limbs - salamandas and some starfish also have this ability. The repair process involves cells called morula cells, which move to the point of injury. Although all animals have wound repair processes, not all can regenerate lost body parts. With the sea cucumber, the same processes that repair its injuries also repair limbs and internal organs, and this opens up the possibility that we could one day discover how to repair our own wounds and perhaps how to regenerate body parts. But as Dr Boob says, we are quite some way off from instant healing ability: "The odd bullet to the head won't be able to be dealt with."
Retractable Claws: There is a remarkable analogue found in nature for Wolverine's retractable claws. University of Harvard biologists have determined that some African frogs have the ability to puncture their own skin with sharp bones in their toes. These bones then act as claws to attack predators. The defence mechanism was discovered by David C. Blackburn, James Hanken, and Farish A. Jenkins, Jr. Blackburn said, "It's surprising enough to find a frog with claws. The fact that those claws work by cutting through the skin of the frogs' feet is even more astonishing. These are the only vertebrate claws known to pierce their way to functionality." Blackburn discovered the frog and its defences when he was conducting fieldwork in Cameroon and one frog he was studying scratched him. He found 11 frog species in the genera Astylosternus, Trichobatracus and Scotobleps who had this peculiar ability. Read more at Project Frog.
Smell, sight, hearing Whilst there are obvious candidates in nature that have heightened sight, smell and hearing abilities, recent studies suggest that human and dog olfactory receptor genes evolved from a common mammalian ancestor, and as such Dr Boob thinks that mimicking the smelling ability of dogs could be quite "easy." Dogs have an olfactory sense approximately a hundred thousand to a million times more acute than a human's. Scenthounds can smell one- to ten-million times more acutely than a human, and Bloodhounds, ten- to one-hundred-million times more.
The song A Russian Peter was used in the background of this podcast, with permission from Ioda Promonet. Buy the full London Philharmonic Orchestra Peter and the Wolf CD, or download individual songs as mp3s, from Amazon.
There's nothing quite like pulling on the rubber gloves, splashing each other with dirty dish-water and then reaching for the vacuum cleaner with the adjustable nozzle to get you in mood for love.
The first Correlation of the Week for 2010 is awarded to Constance Gager, from Montclair State University, and Scott Yabiku, from Arizona State University, who discovered that wives and husbands who spend more hours in housework and paid work report more frequent sex. They theorise that women and men who "work hard" also "play hard."
The report, "Who Has the Time? The Relationship Between Household Labor Time and Sexual Frequency," published in the Journal of Family Issues, documented a survey of 6,877 married couples which showed that couples who devote lots of time to work and chores still make time for sex. The results contradict the idea that time spent on household chores reduces the opportunity for sex - worth remembering next time this particular excuse is used...
The authors controlled the results for "gender ideology" - that is, they controlled for the various viewpoints people have on their relationships. For example, a wife with a 1950s mentality might regard doing lots of housework and having frequent sex as part of her marital responsibilities. The housework-sex link was found to exist no matter what views each member held.
Housework was defined as:
cleaning, preparing meals, washing dishes, washing and ironing clothes, driving family members around, shopping, yard work, maintaining cars, paying bills.
Husbands spent on average 23.4 hours per week performing these household tasks, whilst wives spent 41.8 hours a week. Husbands spent an average 33.8 hours a week working, compared with 19.7 hours for wives. This means that the wives in the study spent a total of 61.5 hours a week either working at their job or at home, compared to 57.2 for their husbands. And just so you know how you stack up, the couples in the study reported having sex 82.7 times a year (1.6 times per week). Sexual frequency went down with age and the length of the relationship. Protestants had more sex than the Catholics - presumably the Catholics had more unprotected sex.... Having small children reduced frequency but once the kids were older, the frequency went back up.
Couples who spent more time in paid work also reported more sex. This led the authors to conclude that "individuals may be achievers across multiple spheres." They theorise that as life gets busier and time gets tighter, some couples can successfully balance their time commitments to make time for sex.
The Beer Drinking Scientists are back! It's been two and a half years since our last episode, but Darren Osborne, editor of ABC Science Online, and I have got back together over a beer in Sydney to chat about the pressing scientific issues of the day - in this case, alien life. We chat about the latest scientific research and discoveries in areas such as astrobiology, SETI and exoplanets, and also to others in pub to hear their opinions.
In this Mr Science Show episode, you can hear the vox pop from the BDS episode - including from one person who swears she has seen not only one UFO, but a UFO release a baby-craft, and another who thinks that Jesus might be an alien...
As you have the Mr Science iphone app, you get this BDS ep as bonus audio. We'd love to hear ideas for future BDS episodes, so feel free to leave comments, or let us know on twitter - @bdscientists. We'll release new shows about every 2 months.
The Beer Drinking Scientists are back! It’s been two and a half years since our last episode, but Darren Osborne and Marc West have got back together over a beer in Sydney to chat about the pressing scientific issues of the day - in this case, alien life.
As you have downloaded the Mr Science iphone app, this is bonus audio for you.
In this episode, we chat about the latest scientific research and discoveries in areas such as astrobiology, SETI and exoplanets. We also chat to others in pub, including one person who swears she has seen not just one UFO, but a UFO release a baby-craft, and another who thinks that Jesus might be an alien…
To bring some sanity to the proceedings, Marc chatted to Dr Carol Oliver from the Australian Centre for Astrobiology before the show and clips from this interview are played throughout. For the full podcast interview with Carol, see Astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life.
Merry Christmas from The Beer Drinking Scientists - may your festive season be full of science and beer, both in moderation of course!
Astrobiology is a fascinating and complex field of science. It is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe, and is a relatively new field of science incorporating astronomy, biology, geology, palaeontology, physics, mathematics and other disciplines. It is even more fascinating given that we have never actually discovered life anywhere else in the universe!
Dr Carol Oliver is a science communication researcher working for the Australian Centre for Astrobioligy, whose key goals include contributing to the understanding of the orgin of life on Earth and to set an Australian life-seeking instrument on the surface of Mars.
I spoke to Carol about astrobiology and the SETI Project - the search for extraterrestrial life. We covered a number of topics in our chat including: * How does SETI actually look for extraterrestrial life?
electromagneticThe Water Holehydrogen linehydroxylspectral linehydrogenwater
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The Fermi Paradox - The Fermi paradox asks the question, if there are other civilisations in the universe, why haven't we seen any evidence of their presence?
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Where is the best candidate for life in our Solar System? Is it Mars (more likely for microbial life) or perhaps a moon of Jupiter, like Europa? Was there life on Mars at any stage of its history?
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The concept of panspermia - that life on Earth may have originated elsewhere in the universe before coming to Earth, perhaps on an asteroid;
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The Kepler mission - this mission uses a space telescope to look for Earth-like planets and was launched in March 2009;
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The Drake equation - can we predict whether there are other civilisations out there using maths?
You can participate in the search for extraterrestrial life in the SETI@home project. In 1995, David Gedye proposed analysing radio signals from space using a virtual supercomputer composed of large numbers of Internet-connected computers - this is known these days as grid computing. The idea is to use the combination of many networked computers rather than a single supercomputer, and because of the vastness of space, the width of the electromagnetic spectrum and the fine resolution required, there is an awful lot of data to analyse! You can download the software needed at the SETI@home homepage.
October 15 is Blog Action Day 2009 and this year's topic is Climate Change. The idea is to raise awareness of the topic, so I thought I'd get in on the act - it is still October 15 in some parts of the world...
Climate Change is arguably our most pressing human concern. If you are interested in what it is, who’s responsible and why we should care, then an easy way to enter the debate is to have a listen to our 2007 Beer Drinking Scientists episode on the topic.
We recorded this in 2007 over a beer or three, and so some of the more recent discoveries and insights are not included. In the Australian context, John Howard was the Prime Minister and we hadn't signed the Kyoto Protocol. The other Beer Drinking Scientist is the irrepressible Darren Osborne. We took a break from these podcasts when I went overseas and Darren started to breed, but we have plans for the future, stay tuned...The importance of climate change to humans and to Earth can not be underestimated. Climate Change also featured in our top 10 science stories of 2006, 2007 and 2008. If you have any thoughts on the topic, feel free to share them or participate in Blog Action Day.
Ever wondered whether it is scientifically possible to become a superhero?
In a new series of podcasts, Dr Christopher Pettigrew (aka Dr Boob*) and I are going to tackle this question. Chris is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Biochemistry in University College Cork, and in these podcast episodes - which we will publish more than a few times a year - we will uncover whether it is possible now to possess the powers of superheroes, and if we can't, whether in the near future we could engineer ourselves to become superheroes.
The first superhero we are tackling is Mystique from X-Men. X-men get their powers from an "X gene" that normal humans do not possess, and Mystique is a shapeshifter who naturally looks blue. Actress Rebecca Romijn portrayed Mystique in the X-Men films - I know I clearly remember the blue body-paint...
Mystique has a number of powers including:
- The ability to change skin colour;
- The ability to shape-shift - that is, change form;
- She can impersonate other voices;
- She can rapidly grow her hair.
Within nature, chameleons are able to change their skin colour to match their environment. There are also technologies under current development, such as metamaterials, that can be used to make something look invisible. Through a combination of genetic manipulation to activate melanocytes (and possibly chromatophores), and the use of surface coatings, it is not unforeseeable that we could develop human chameleons. The difficulty here lies in whether we can make a skin colour change a conscious decision - how can you wire up the body such that skin colour responds your thoughts?
The challenge of being able to impersonate another person's voice should be easy enough to conquer in the near future through a combination of electronics and simple mimicry. It is also possible to foresee rapid hair growth - this could be accomplished by rapid protein synthesis, such as in spider webs.
The biggest difficulty comes with the shape-shifting - how can one change their 3D shape?
A few extra notes to explain some of the random comments in the show: Iva Davies is the front man of Australian band Icehouse; * Shane Warne, Greg Matthews and Graham Gooch are all cricketers who advertised the hair-loss company Advanced Hair*;
Let us know your thoughts on how we could scientifically engineer Mystique. We rated this a 7.5 out of 10 possibly for the next 200 years - if someone really wanted to, notwithstanding the ethical concerns along the way.
Also let us know which superheroes you would be interested in us tackling.
* From here on in, Chris will be referred to as Dr Boob - this nickname stems from the fact that Chris's PhD and some of his post-doctoral work has been into the study of breast cancer - yes, someone who is actually changing the world!
Terence Tao is a Professor at the Department of Mathematics, UCLA and one of Australia's most acclaimed mathematicians. Indeed, he is arguably the world's greatest living mathematician. In 2006, he was awarded a Fields Medal, which is the top prize a mathematician can win, and at 24 became the youngest ever full professor at UCLA.
I recently went to Tao's Clay–Mahler Lecturer at UNSW, which was a fascinating look at prime numbers. I managed to grab Terence for a quick chat.
Primes are integers that can only be divided by themselves and one. For example, the number 10 can be divided by 1, 2, 5 and 10 - whilst the number 11 can only be divided 1 and 11. The first few primes are:
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53 ....
One of the interesting things about the primes is that there is no known formula yielding all of them - you can't simply plug a few numbers into a formula to generate a list of the primes. However, on a large scale, their distribution can be modelled. The primes behave as if they are distributed pseudorandomly - see the picture on the right. Each dot in this Ulam spiral represents a prime number - you start in the middle, and wind outwards like a spiral - each dot is a prime, whilst empty space is a non-prime. Whilst you can see various patterns, nothing is predictable.
The prime number theorem says that the probability of a given number n being prime is inversely proportional to its logarithm. Euclid proved that there are infinitely many prime numbers way back in 300BC - see Euclid's Theorem for more. The current largest known prime was discovered in 2008 by the distributed computing project Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search and has 12,978,189 digits:
243,112,609 − 1.
Primes are very important for public-key cryptography - that is, the way your credit card numbers are encrypted in online transactions. The cryptography makes use of the fact that is difficult to factorise large numbers into their prime factors, whilst it is comparatively easy to multiply two large primes together. No efficient integer factorisation algorithm is currently known - in 2005 a 193-digit number was factorised, but it took 5 months.
Terence Tao, along with Ben Green, proved that the sequence of prime numbers contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions - this is the Green-Tao theorem. What this means is that for any number k, there is an arithmetic progression of primes k long. An arithmetic progression is one in which the difference between two numbers in the progression is the same. For example, the series 2, 4, 6, 8, 10... is an arithmetic progression with common difference 2. Green and Tao proved that such sequences exist within the primes for any length of series you want. For example, the series 3, 7, 11 is a prime sequence of length 3 with common difference 4. The series 3, 5, 7 is length 3 with common difference 2. The current record is a series of 25 primes.
I have just finished reading the excellent book The Music of the Primes by British author Marcus du Sautoy - I highly recommend it. It details the story of the Riemann hypothesis which is considered by many to be the most important unresolved problem in mathematics. A solution to the Riemann hypothesis could make an immense contribution to our understanding of the distribution of prime numbers. You certainly don't need to be a maths geek to understand this book - it is a great historical tale. You can buy the book from Amazon by clicking on the cover on below.
I chatted to Terence briefly after his talk, but being the amateur journalist I am, my recorder ran out of batteries! Not to fear, I have added an interview Terence did with Australia radio station Triple J's current affair program Hack - this interview has been reproduced with the permission of the executive producer, best brother James West - it's nice to have a proper professional journo in the family! The interviewer is Kate O'Toole. God may not play dice with the universe, but something strange is going on with the prime numbers - Paul Erdos
The dust is finally starting to clear from Sydney, leaving a ruddy orange layer of muck all over the city. This podcast goes with our previous article Red Sydney, and as well as being a description of the science involved, is a video slide show of photos of the dust-storm. All the photos in this enhanced podcast come from flickr and are available to use under Creative Commons licences.
Following on the heels of our Science of Cocktails podcast, we have an episode for the morning after – The Science of Coffee.
At the recent Science of Coffee event at Lushbucket Cafe as part of The Ultimo Science Festival, I spoke to Rafael Bartkowski from Campos Coffee about the scientific method of making coffee, the most important steps in the process, how to decaffeinate coffee and where in the world you can find the best cup.
Manuel Terron is a celebrity chef with the Lifestyle Channel program Mixing with the Best - he is described as a Mixologist, writer and bar consultant, and has been working in the bar/cocktail industry for 17 years. He's also described as sultry and I know my better half certainly had an eye on him....
Manuel ran an event called The Science of Cocktails during the Ultimo Science Festival. It was a fantastic event, and apart from learning how to make margaritas and martinis, Manuel took us on the cocktail making journey, explaining why making cocktails has far more to do with the scientific method than it does a random artistic process. He also explained why some drinks pick you up (tequila), others make you angry (rum), and some can clear the mind (absinthe) - as well as the science of mixology - why some alcohols mix well and other's don't. This is largely due to the interplay of the various tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salt, umami) and the smell of the drink. And what exactly is a molecular cocktail?
To find out more, have a listen to my chat with Manuel after the event. A couple of cocktails makes for a very smooth interview!
Jon Lomberg is one of the world's most distinguished space-artists. Lomberg was Carl Sagan's principal artistic collaborator for more than twenty years and in 1998, the International Astronomical Union officially named Asteroid Lomberg in his honour.
In 1972, Sagan asked Lomberg to illustrate The Cosmic Connection, after which they worked on NASA's interstellar Voyager Golden Record, a record included in the two 1977 Voyager spacecraft. It contains sounds and images that portray the various life forms and cultures on Earth. The record is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life that may find it. It also contains information about our mathematics and science, as well as a way of decoding the record. As aliens may not see colours as we do, if they see at all, a method of decoding the information was included in the spacecraft, as well as an explanation of mathematics from its most simplistic level - one dot means the number one, two dots mean two, etc. From this point you can denote addition, multiplication and so on. The Voyager spacecraft are not heading towards any particular star, and Lomberg thinks that as the craft are unlikely to crash into a planet, if they are spotted, it will be by alien life that has mastered interstellar travel.
Lomberg also designed the original cover art for Sagan's novel Contact, and the opening sequence for the Contact film. Lomberg gave a talk at the Ultimo Science Festival and I was lucky enough to grab him for a chat afterwards.
This week's podcast celebrates the start of the Ultimo Science Festival - ten days and nights of science fun for families, schools, and people of all ages. The festival is presented by the Powerhouse Museum, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The University of Technology Sydney and TAFE NSW. It runs mainly in the Ultimo precinct near Central Station and Harris St - see the map on Google maps here. Most events are free and held from Friday August 21 through to Sunday August 30, 2009.
In this show, I chat to Festival Director Tilly Boleyn about how the festival started, what to expect, and what fun can be had. Some of the events we chatted about include Why the mind matters, The Dark Side of Science, Mathematics and Sex, The Science of Cocktails, and The Science of Coffee. I also chat to Jacqui Hayes from Cosmos Magazine about the Hello From Earth project. The project collects text messages on its website to send to Gliese 581d which is an exoplanet, or extrasolar
planet, which means it is in orbit around a star other than the Sun.
The Gliese 581 system is thought to be one of the best candidates for
life outside our Solar System of the more than 350 systems with exoplanets so far discovered.
After message collection closes on Monday 24 August 2009 - hurry!! - all the messages will be collected as a text file and sent to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where it will be encoded into binary code. This system of beeps and pauses will be sent back to the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla, near Canberra. The signal will reach the solar system of Gliese 581 around December 2029 having travelled 20.3 light-years (192 trillion km). The soonest we could hope to receive an answer is in 42 years time in 2051. For more on the technical details, check out the Hello From Earth homepage.
This week's podcast takes us back across the ocean to discover more of the sights, sounds and science of Tonga - see our previous episode for more on Tongan blowholes and whales.
On location in Tonga, we tackle the topics of: 1. Haʻamonga ʻa Maui - otherwise known as The Stone Henge of the Pacific. This is an ancient 12-tonne stone trilithon whose purpose is not exactly known, much like that other Stone Henge in the UK. A previous King of Tonga, Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, once claimed it had an astronomical significance as it can determine the position of sunrise at solstices and equinoxes. As it was said by the King, it is the accepted explanation for what is an odd stone construction, at least in Tonga anyway. 2. How did people get to Tonga in the first place? The generally accepted history is that the Lapita people came down through Papua New Guinea into Melanesia and Polynesia. However, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl had other ideas based on the fact that the sweet potato (kumera) is found in both South America and Polynesia. To prove that it was at least possible that Tongans came from South America, in 1947 he sailed the Kon-Tiki raft across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Tuamotus. Heyerdahl showed that, by using only the materials and technologies available at the time, there were no technical issues that prevented South Americans coming to Polynesia. Whilst the evidence suggests that people came through South East Asia and Papua New Guinea to reach the Pacific, one school of thought suggests that Polynesians may indeed have travelled to South America and picked up the kumera from there.
Back here in Australia, I spoke to Lachlan Whatmore about coral - what is it, how does it form, and what life does it support. Lachlan is a diving enthusiast and the golden tonsils of Australian community radio - as well as a qualified Marine Biologist. In short, coral is an Anthozoan marine organism that lives in colonies of polyps. Corals build reefs in tropical oceans - the reefs are made up of their calcium carbonate skeletons. Listen in for more.
And tacked onto the end of this show, we have a Correlation of the Week - this week discussing the relationship between eclipses and the stock market - see our previous story on the topic for more.
The Kingdom of Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean comprising 169 islands stretching over a distance of about 800 kilometres. It is the only sovereign monarchy in the Pacific and takes pride in its claim that it was never colonised.I recently spent a wonderful two weeks in Tonga - the islands completely live up to their billing as the Friendly Islands - Captain Cook gave Tonga this moniker after his first visit in 1773 when he was treated to various festivals. It was only later that it was revealed local chiefs wanted to kill Cook but could not agree whether to attack by day or night.
This is the first in a series of podcasts about Tonga that include my own recordings from Tonga and also interviews with experts in the scientific areas we tackle. In this show, we look at
- The Mapu a Vaea blowholes - these blowholes are created by the ocean pounding into the coastal rock and moving through natural tunnels creating a fountain;
- Tongan singing - not much science here, but it's beautiful!
- Whale behaviour and migration - I chat to Scott Portelli, an award winning photographer and diver who runs whale-watching tours in Tonga. Scott recently won the prestigious Scuba Diver AustralAsia - Through the Lens Underwater Photography Competition with an outstanding photo from Tonga - see more of Scott's photos on his webpage. Scott runs Swimming with Gentle Giants, a company which conducts whale diving tours each year between August and October off the islands of Vava'u in northern Tonga. I chat to Scott about:
- his experiences swimming with whales,
- when to swim with whales,
- whale behaviour and migration patterns,
- the oceanic animals of Tonga,
- a little bit of whaling politics,
- the threats to whales, including whaling, global warming and pollution, and
- the fact that I once ate whale...
There are very few places left so get booking if you would like to swim with whales this year.
Stay tuned for more on Tonga in upcoming podcasts, in which we will talk about the intoxicating drink Kava, the Stone-Henge of the South Pacific, the effects of global warming and rising sea-levels on Tonga, the local animals and more on whaling science and politics.
This week on the podcast we tackle two Correlations of the week published recently here on The Mr Science Show:
1. Do the number of Vampire and Zombie movies released each year depend on whether the US president is Republican or Democrat?
2. Is the winner of the Ashes cricket series between Australia and England dependant on the El Nino effect?
Cricket is one of the world's most statistical sports, and mathematicians in cricket-loving nations love nothing more than delving into the minutiae of the numbers and diving into averages, strike-rates and custom-made measures of batting and bowling effectiveness.
For many people, including me, cricket isn't just a sport, it is a way of life.
These words could easily have come from me, but are actually the words of Rob Eastaway, a cricket-loving mathematician from the UK, and originator of the official International Cricket Council cricket-ratings which rank not only teams, but players within each team.
Ranking individual batsmen and bowlers is no small task. A common
method of comparing batsmen is their average, which is the average
score the batsman compiles each time he comes in to bat. This method,
however, has a number of issues as it does not take into consideration
the opposition, playing conditions and how recently the runs were
scored. How can you compare a score of 60 against a world-class
opponent on a dodgy pitch with a score of 150 against a lowly rated
team in easy batting conditions? This is what Eastaway's ranking system
attempts to do - and the maths is quite difficult (far more difficult,
in Rob's words, than the Duckworth-Lewis method
of determining the winner in a rain-effected game!) As well as taking
into consideration the strength of the opposition and playing
conditions, the ranking system places a greater emphasis on recent
performances. The overall system has a number of feed-back loops - the
individual player ratings contribute to a team's rating, which effects
how many rating points an opposition player can earn against that team
- remember, a score of 50 against tough opposition will be worth more
than 50 against low-class opponents. Similarly, how each player in a
match performs influences how many points are on offer. For example, a
score of 45 out of an overall team score of 100 will be more highly
valued than a score of 45 out of 450. As such, large amounts of
historical data are used to come up with the final numbers. Limited
overs cricket has the additional dimension of strike-rate - a batsman
who scores his runs quickly will be rated more highly than a slow
scorer.
The system was first developed in 1987 by Eastaway with former English cricketer Ted Dexter and colleague Gordon Vince, and at first the system was greeted with scepticism by many cricket lovers. Nowadays, however, it has gained credibility and has even been used by international cricketers to help negotiate their contracts - for example, Michael Bevan was for a long time rated number one in the One Day International version of the rankings and used this in contract negotiations, however he could not secure a Test spot. Known originally as the Deloittes Ratings and in later years the PwC Ratings, the system was officially adopted by the International Cricket Council in January 2005.
With a background in Operations Research and a love of cricket, Eastaway is essentially my idol!
As many of the equations used in this system are now copyrighted, you can't find the exact algorithms published anywhere. However, if you are a big nerd like me, you might like the book Deloitte Ratings: The Complete Guide to Test Cricket in the Eighties by Marcus Berkmann. The book details the ratings changes after each Test series in the 80s, and the appendix contains many of the equations which underpin the system. I was given this book when I was 10 and didn't much understand it back then, but I was very happy to find it in storage when I returned from the UK, and I now find it a maths-cricket-nerd's delight!
I'm fascinated to know if they come up with something for Twenty 20. The ultra-shortened form of the game brings in loads more complexities, not least of which is that unless you are an opening batsman, you may not even get a bat! Here's hoping Australia can win the World Twenty20 - oh and The Ashes! If only I was in the UK this summer!
This week on the podcast we are tackling something dear to all our hearts, money.
The Global Financial Crisis has hit many people hard, with the resultant economic recession causing job losses, stock market crashes and company failures. But what started it all? Why are we in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
I spoke to Nick Davis from the World Economic Forum to answer some of these questions and to toss up ideas on how we might emerge from the crisis. The World Economic Forum is an independent international organisation committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Nick is based in Geneva, Switzerland and is Associate Director and a Global Leadership Fellow within the World Economic Forum Scenario Planning Team. The team examines possible world scenarios that could arise in the future. The scenarios are not attempts to predict the future; rather, they aim to sketch the boundaries of the plausible. They are built on a thorough analysis of factors – social, political, economic, environmental, technological – that could shape the future environment of a given business, region or policy area. They explore the possibly diverse eventualities of how the world might look if the most uncertain and important drivers unfold in different ways. Some of the scenarios they have looked at include the world's ageing population, the future of engineering and construction and what the world's economic systems might look like post-crisis.
In last week's show on Earth Hour, we had a quick chat to Dr. Ben McNeil, a Senior Fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre in the University of New South Wales, about the current state of knowledge on climate change and some of the policies that Australia and the world could implement to tackle the problem. This week I am putting up the longer, more wide-ranging interview I had with Ben on all things climate change. Ben is a very impressive young scientist and one of Australia's renowned climate experts, so tune in to hear about the latest climate change science as well as the current thinking and policy development going into the issue.
Dr. Luke Hunter is an organic chemist whose chemistry career has been based around molecular design - that is, designing organic molecules through experiment.
I grabbed Luke over a few cocktails and chatted organic chemistry, molecular synthesis and design, and the Hollywood lifestyle that organic chemists lead. This podcast also has our first Correlation of the Week.
Earth Hour is a WWF initiative where individuals, businesses and governments turn off their lights for one hour to show their support for action on climate change. It is a symbolic event designed to engage people in the climate change discussion in order to send a strong message to political leaders that we want them to take meaningful action on climate change. It claims to be the largest climate event in history and it is hoped that one billion people around the world will participate - not bad for an event that started quite small in Sydney a few years back! The focus of Earth Hour 2009 is the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in December in Copenhagen. This conference will create a post-Kyoto Protocol international agreement to tackle climate change. This year, Earth Hour takes place on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm-local time. Just like New Years Eve, Earth Hour will travel from time zone to time zone starting at 8:30pm in New Zealand.
This week on the podcast I chat to the Mayor of Willoughby City Council in Sydney, Councillor Pat Reilly, about the Earth Hour activities his council is putting on and how Willoughby is combating climate change. Interesting points include: * The Council is launching its ClimateClever campaign at the festival; * Willoughby is committed to assisting its community to reduce its carbon footprint by at least 15% from 2006 levels by the end of 2015 - far better than the Australian federal government targets of a reduction of 5% by 2020; * The Council itself is aiming to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 1999 levels by the end of 2010.
In the second half of the podcast, I talk to Dr Ben McNeil, a Senior Fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre in the University of New South Wales. This interview is a cut-down version of a longer one I will put out in the coming weeks. Ben is a highly impressive young scientist who, after completing his PhD in 2001, worked as a research fellow at Princeton University before taking up his post at UNSW. In 2007, he was chosen as an expert reviewer for the United Nations Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change and briefed his work to the Prime Minister. Ben and I chatted climate change science, policy and energy.
With 2008 done and dusted, it is now time to look back and reflect on the science year that was. It is also our 100th podcast episode, so I would like to say thanks very much to all my subscribers, whether you get your Mr Science fix via the podcast, email, in an RSS reader, however you do it, thanks!
The winner of our 2008 year in science competition is… Dr Steven Farrell from Cork in Ireland. Congratulations Steven! Steven won the random draw for suggesting the Large Hadron Collider as his favourite science story from 2008. Thanks to everyone who entered the competition and suggested stories - each story listed below was entered by at least one person. Steven has won the book The Open Laboratory: The Best Science Writing on Blogs 2008 - the book will be published very shortly and will feature one blog by me - I’ll put out a post about this when the book comes out, but in the meantime, check out the 2007 version.
Now to the countdown…. (Read more about this list, with links for each story and a greater explanation, at the Mr Science Show blog)
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Weird Animals - 2008 was a year for weird science emanating out of Europe
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Weird Research - Two bits of weird science that made the news in 2008 will have quite an impact on our sex lives.
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The Kakeya conjecture - and now for some difficult science, and the work of Zeev Dvir and Australia’s own Terence Tao on the Kakeya conjecture is mind-blowing, if you understand it.
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The creation of artificial bacteria by Craig Venter
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Chandrayaan moon landing by India
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Stem Cell Fraud
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The Story of HM - The most moving science story from 2008, and certainly some of the best science writing, comes from the New York Times and concerns the life and death of Henry Gustav Molaison, known as HM.
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Discovery of water ice on Mars
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Climate Change - Climate change will feature in every top 10 of science from now until the year 3000, if we’re still here and writing blogs and recording podcasts - and it’s making its third appearance on this blog after topping the 2006 list and coming in 9th in 2007.
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The Large Hadron Collider
In the words of Dr Steven Farrell, our competition winner…
I loved the LHC for a couple of great reasons. Firstly, growing up in the age of Bond villains who were intent on gigantic technological pieces capable of destroying the earth, I loved the idea that the collider might possibly generate a black hole and consume the earth thus destroying all evidence of human existence. Awesome. I don’t care if any number of physics associations came out and said it wouldn’t happen. They couldn’t be 100% sure that it wouldn’t. Fantastic. And the second reason is obviously that this rather expensive piece of technology that took a fair bit of time to put together broke. And pretty darn quick too. So yeah, that’s my highlight.
………………….
So there you have it, the top 10 science stories from 2008 as contributed by Mr Science Show lovers. Thanks to all who contributed and we’ll do it all again next year! Please let me know of any stories you would have liked to have seen - and please write and say hi if you’re a long-time listener of the show!
Listen to his podcast here - includes short snippets from the music of 2008, plus a couple of shout-outs from friends of the show (thanks Brains Matter and Jacqui Hayes from Diffusion).
You may think that with the Hubble Telescope, the Mars Rovers, the Huygens probe and even the Voyager missions launched way back in 1977, that there is little left for us to learn about our solar system. But this is far from the truth, and it seems that the more we learn, we more we realise how much we don't know.
This week in our 99th show, I speak to Bianca Nogrady from New Scientist about the recent NS article The biggest mysteries of our solar system. The 6 biggest unknowns were: 1. How was the solar system built? 2. Why are the sun and moon the same size in the sky? 3. Is there a Planet X? 4. Where do comets come from? 5. Is the solar system unique? 6. How will the solar system end?
Follow the links for discussions on the NS site about those topics.
Listen to his podcast here.
Santa Claus is a ticking time-bomb. Not only does he eat copious amounts of sugar and drink gallons of beer, he is also at risk of altitude sickness, deep-vein thrombosis, jet-lag, zoonotic diseases from exposure to wild reindeer and countless other problems associated with lack of sleep and poor diet. Not to mention all the concerns associated with smoking.
Australian science writer Bianca Nogrady assembled a crack team of health experts to look into the state of the big man, and the prognosis wasn't good.
However, there were some up-shots, despite the likelihood of a cirrhotic liver. Due to the fact that he compiles the naughty/nice list each year, at least his mind is active and healthy. And he gets out of the house and travels - another plus for the elderly.
Our conclusion in the end is that Santa Claus probably has some kind of substance abuse problem to keep him going all Christmas Eve and to keep him jolly.
You can read more about the findings of the Santa-team in Bianca's original article for Australian Doctor, Health alert for Christmas visitor.
Having worked in maths communication throughout 2008, I thought it about time to reflect on the 2008 year in maths, so here are the maths stories from 2008 that caught my eye. I'm sure I have left out many mathematical stories from the year, so please let me know of anything you think I should have included.
This week I sat down with a kebab and Darren Osborne, editor of ABC Science Online,
to reflect on the science year that was 2008. Darren was immersed in
science in 2008 and is across nearly all the science topics that hit
the headlines - as well as breaking the science news himself. Topics we
discussed include:
* Climate Change;
* The LHC;
* X-rays and Sticky tape;
* Genomic Research;
* Biofuels and the food crisis;
* Alternative Energy Sources;
* Beer made from 45 million-year old yeast;
* A 380-million year-old fossilised fish, which was in the process of giving birth;
* The Sumo Diet.
I also get Old Man and Woman Science, my Dad and Mum, on the phone to get their opinions on the year that was.
And remember to tell us your science highlights from 2008 to go into the running for some sciencey prizes. Answers will also contribute to our year-in-review podcast coming out in a few weeks. Let us know here before the competition closes.
Reindeer and Santa Claus are the topic of this week's Mr Science Show. With Christmas here, we thought we'd look at some Christmas news, and this week we take a look at reindeer facts and the problems Santa is having at the North Pole. Due to global warming, and the global financial crisis, Santa has had to put his North Pole residence up for auction and is currently looking for a new place in Lapland.
Geek Pop is the world’s only sci-pop festival - a free online music event featuring songs about science. The festival brings together science-inspired artists from around the globe in a gleeful celebration of geek culture. In 2009, Geek Pop will take place between 6-15th March.
This week on the podcast I spoke to Hayley Birch, the organiser of Geek Pop, about the festival, where the idea came from and what type of music we can look forward to.
Some people find mathematics perplexing, whilst others find it beautiful. This week on the podcast, I spoke to two young men professionally employed to communicate mathematics to school-children around the country. Both these guys have a long history in science communication - I got to be good friends with them back in my science circus days.
Jamos McAlester travels Australia with Tenix Questacon Maths Squad, which is an outreach program of Questacon – The National Science and Technology Centre. Marcus Finlay is a proactive, scientifically inclined, primary school teacher from Melbourne. As opposed to most teachers, Marcus inspires his students about science and maths rather than running away from the topics, and lists his class's attempts to build model tsunamis in the classroom as his science highlight of 2008.
I spoke to Marcus and Jamos from The Mathematical Association of Victoria's annual conference, both were giving key-note addresses on the communication of mathematics.
This week on the Mr Science Show Podcast we take a look at the latest climate change news, and start reflecting on the science year that was, as we close in on 100 podcast episodes (this is episode 92).
The news items we discuss this week are:
1. CO2 build-up in the atmosphere may prevent a coming ice-age. Ice-ages occur roughly every 100,000 years
and are possibly due to small shifts in Earth's orbit which change the
amount of solar energy hitting the surface. A build-up of CO2
and its associated heating may warm the Earth so much that the next
ice-age is skipped. Humanity has burnt about 300 gigatonnes of carbon
from fossil fuels during its existence, and even if only 1000
gigatonnes are eventually burnt (from total reserves of about 4000)
then it is likely that the next ice age will be skipped, whilst the
next five could be skipped if all recoverable fossil fuels were burnt.
For more information, see the story at ABC Science;
2. The bouquet of wine reflects the amount of fossil-fuel derived CO2 in the air at the time and place of the growing of the grapes. Carbon-14, an isotope of carbon, is made when Nitrogen atoms high in the atmosphere absorb neutrons from space (cosmic rays)
. Over time, Carbon-14 decays to Nitrogen-14 , and so fossil fuels,
made millions of years ago from decaying organic matter, contain almost
no Carbon-14. Therefore, when fossil fuels are burned, the resultant CO2 is almost Carbon-14 free. As CO2
is used by plants to grow, the amount of Carbon-14 in the atmosphere at
the time of growing is reflected, in this case, in the wine's bouquet.
A low level of Carbon-14 means there was a lot of fossil fuel generated
CO2 in the atmosphere at the time of growing. More information on Discovery Science;
3. Wind farms could steer storms.
Future mega-wind farms for renewable energy generation could have a
massive effect on the weather because the large wind speeds they
generate could cause disrupted air-ripples that spread out like waves
over massive areas. The waves could even steer storms on the other side
of the globe. More information on Discovery Science;
4. Tibetan glaciers are melting faster than ever seen before.
The Himalayan glaciers are melting so fast that the usual techniques
for dating glaciers can't be used. Glaciers can be dated by looking for
traces of leftover radioactivity from US and Soviet atomic bomb tests
in the 1950s and 1960s. In the Tibetan samples, there are no signs at
all of these tests, and the exposed surface of the glacier dates to
1944. More information at ABC Science;
If you are gazing at the sky this weekend (Thanksgiving to our American friends), then look to the sky to see Jupiter, Mars and the moon all gathered together.
We
also start reflecting on the year that was with my much better-half
Eugenia, who had to put up with me recording this here little podcast,
and then having to listen to the episodes and smile! Her highlights
from the year?
* The no-brainer research that said in the UK you should wear thick-clothes, especially denim, to protect yourself from skin-cancer. We never saw the sun over the 2007 summer anyway...
* And on from this show, the Science of Sumo wrestlers - we employed the sumo diet on our recent travels.
Listen to his podcast here
Dr Christopher Pettigrew, a post-graduate researcher at the Department of Biochemistry in University College Cork, is no stranger to putting science on stage.
With the 2009 AAAS Dance your PhD competition up-and-running, we decided for this week's episode of the podcast to chat to Chris about his experiences in the public performance of science.
As it's Halloween, here is the Halloween news that I presented on Diffusion Science Radio this week. Diffusion can be heard on Monday nights at 6.30pm on 2SER 107.3 in Sydney, at various times across Australia on stations affiliated with the Community Radio Network, and on the Diffusion podcast.
Travelling Japan and Korea was a wonderful experience - magnificent sights, great food, interesting people and of course, of interest to this blog, science.
I have finally put together the Japan / Korea podcast, which you can listen to here. It was recorded whilst we travelled from Tokyo to Fukuoka on the shinkansen (bullet train), Fukuoka to Busan in Korea on the JR Beetle (ferry), and Busan to Seoul on the KTX (high-speed train) - all fantastic methods of transport that put Aussie transport links (and for that matter UK ones) to shame.
The first topic we tackled was the Sumo Diet - how do Sumo Wrestlers get so big? And why? We were lucky to catch the September Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo and I was astounded by how big and strong these guys are. What's their secret to rapid weight gain?
With the London Science Blogging Conference finished up, it was time to reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly of science blogging.
I chatted to Lisa Bailey, who blogs about science at Bridge 8, about what we learnt at the conference, how blogging can be used effectively to communicate science, the challenges laid down at the conference - including the challenge to get senior scientists to blog - and where science blogging might be going from here.
For more from the conference, check out the Mr Science podcast from our evening in London science pubs.
This is my last post and podcast for a couple of weeks as I travel home to Sydney after an absolutely wonderful 18 months in London. I will miss all the new friends I have made, and all the old friends I have met again. London, it's been emotional. See y'all in Sydney and if any one wants to sponsor a visa for me to come back, just get in contact!
Last night I attended the most interestingly themed pub-crawl I have ever been on. It was a science crawl of London pubs.
Emmett Brown vs Dr Who;
Professor Honeydew vs Beaker;
Q vs Dr. Evil;
And Mr Science vs The Ordinary Guy?
This week the podcast has joined forces with the Brains Matter podcast to discuss the topic of our favourite fictional scientists. We looked at the poll and at your suggestions, then chatted at length over Skype about what turned out to be quite an interesting topic.
Morocco is a hot, dry place. We were lucky enough to visit the town of Marrakech last week, and apart from being stunning to look at, it was 40 degrees and chaotic! This latest post is not meant to be a travel blog but instead we are going to take a look at some of the science from this most recent trip abroad.
You will also here some commentary from the local lads on Australia, east and west coast America, and north and south England, and some of the sounds of Marrakech.
118118 is a directory enquiries phone number in the UK that has recently expanded to "answer any question you put to us, no matter how big or small."
So we thought we might test them out with some of the unsolved questions from our show, and then some maths.
Exhibition design is not a career that the mathematically inclined tend to think about, let alone pursue.
This podcast accompanies the career interview in issue 47 of Plus. Barry Phipps is the first interdisciplinary fellow with the Kettle's Yard gallery in Cambridge. His remit is to develop projects of an interdisciplinary nature, to find the common ground between things. This week, Plus talks to Barry about breaking down the barriers between artists and scientists and creating greater dialogue because, as Barry says, science and art are intrinsically related at the centre, and there is no stepping away from one to be another.
It is one of my favourite times of year, and I'm not even European.The Eurovision Song Contest to Australians is a strange mix of bad 80's music, songs about "joy", "love" and "unity" (it's a good drinking game to take a shot every time one of those words are said), amazingly good looking hosts with amusing English skills, scantily dressed Eastern Europeans and reality TV winners from Western Europe. For the first time in my life, living in the UK I get a chance to vote for the winner and watch it live instead of having to ignore radio reports (of course it's all over the news) till the Sydney Sunday evening replay.
The voting of Eurovision is a complex interaction of politics and voting blocks. Each country votes in a popular vote, in which they can not vote for themselves, and each country has equal voting power. The voting is often based on politics and the whole system is a complex interaction of objects (countries) who interact with each other by giving each other points. A statistical analysis of the system can then give some insight in the nature of the interactions. For example, it can show whether certain countries form cliques that always vote similarly, or whether a country's voting is "in tune" with that of the whole group.
The Enigma machine was once considered unbreakable, and the cracking of the "unbreakable code" by the allies changed the course of World War 2. This week on the podcast we talks to Nadia Baker from the Enigma Project about the history of codes and code-breaking, why the Enigma machine was considered unbreakable, the mathematics behind codes, and how it was finally cracked. The Enigma Project travels all over the United Kingdom and abroad, visiting over 100 schools and organisations, reaching over 12,000 people of all ages every year.
Much of my recent work has been involved with understanding the maths used in movie production and in how mathematics and mathematicians are portrayed on film.
I recently attended the mathematics film festival Film3 — maths at the movies at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, and Plus Magazine (where I work) is running a series of stories on maths in the movies in conjunction with this.
Recently, a Mr Science Show reader, let's call him Scott, asked a question regarding the recycling of condoms. How does one do this?
I was recently quite upset to read about a Plastic Soup twice the size of the US floating in the Pacific Ocean. This vast expanse of debris is held in place by swirling underwater currents and stretches from 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost too Japan. It is believed that there is about 100 million tons of trash in the region.
However, I was inspired by one British woman who is now saying no to plastic packaging. So I've decided to copy her. I am going to see how long I can go without buying anything packaged in a non-recyclable or non-biodegradable container.
Being hospitalised when overseas is always difficult. But being hospitalised in a building fresh with bullet and shell holes from a war only a few years ago, where the signs are in Cyrillic, and where patients are literally spilling out from the doors, is something different altogether. I've had the pleasure of Hong Kong and Indian hospitals, but the Bosnian hospital was not only unexpected, but unexpectedly pleasurable.
It has been known for a while that chimps are more evolved than humans - well, their genome has changed more than ours since our common ancestor - but recent studies have shown that chimps have outstanding numeracy abilities that outstrip our own in some cases.
This week in the last Mr Science Show for 2007, we take a look at these special chimp abilities.
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Quantum Physics is a confusing topic for many. One person who makes a living out of understanding and explaining it is Professor Tony Sudbery.
I spoke to Professor Sudbery at the York Science Festival about all things quantum and his talk at the Festival entitled Alice and Bob in the Quantum Wonderland. Frankly, I was baffled by much of this conversation, although it was a thoroughly enjoyable chat!
Do you need to be fit to play cricket? Do the best batsmen in the world really have the ability to predict the type of ball they will receive before it even arrives? And is cricket really more of a mental game than a physical one?
In this rather longer episode, we talk to Dr Rob Duffield from the School of Human Movement at Charles Sturt University who has found that indeed you really do not need to be as physically fit to play cricket as you do other sports such as football. We also have a chat about the direction of research with regards to sport and cricket in particular, and how scientific endeavour is reforming the way cricketers train and prepare for games.
We chat to Dr Allistair McRobert from Liverpool John Moores University who's work has shown that the best batsmen can predict to some extent where a bowler will bowl. This work also encompasses a look into the subconscious mental game of cricket and how the most successful players are more mentally prepared for the top level than lesser players.
Finally, I discuss the role of psychology in cricket and the various measures that are being put in place to look after the cricketer's brain.
This week we talk to Dr Quentin Atkinson, an evolutionary psychologist from the University of Reading in the UK, about the evolution of language in Europe.
Languages, like genes, provide vital clues about human prehistory. The Indo-European languages, now spoken across Europe and the near East, show strikingly similar words for some meanings, indicating that they have come from a common source, now long forgotten. Atkinson and his team used statistical models of language evolution derived from evolutionary biology to date the age of the Indo-European language family and so test between the two main competing theories of Indo-European origins - the 'Kurgan horsemen' and 'Anatolian farming' hypotheses.
This podcast also comes from the York Science Festival.
I have recently become an editor of Plus Magazine, a free, award winning online mathematics magazine that has articles written by the world's great mathematicians and science communicators, including Stephen Hawking and Marcus du Sautoy. This is why I have been a bit slack on Mr Science... This week's podcast is again from the York Science Festival, and the interview is featured on an upcoming episode of the new Plus podcast. I talk to Professor Chris Budd about all sorts of interesting maths from Euler, Maths Communication, modelling Santa getting around the world, how maths can save your life, climate modelling and how mathematicians can pick up at parties. Professor Budd loves his maths! If you like the maths podcast, get over to Plus and subscribe! The mp3 can be found here We have recently launched a writing competition. The Plus new writers award is trying to find people who can bring mathematics to life. The competition is open to new writers of any age and from any background who can explain a mathematical topic or application they think the world needs to know about. The winning entries will be read by an international audience of over two hundred thousand in the June 2008 issue of Plus, and the winners will receive an iPod and signed copies of popular maths books by some of the best science writers today, and a subscription to the journal Nature, kindly donated by its publisher. The closing date is March 31st 2008. The competition is kindly supported by the Maths, Stats and Operational Research Network, a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy, and the London Mathematical Society. More info can be found on the website
This week's podcast comes from the BA Festival of Science, the UK's foremost celebration of science, engineering and technology and its impact on our society. This is the first of a series of podcasts.
We talk to Sue Hordienko from the organising committee to find out what it's all about, and have a chat to the following researchers presenting their work at the Festival:
- Clare Chandler - Factors affecting clinical decision making in northeast Tanzania
- Marco Columbo - University of Edinburgh - Optimisation
- Simon Blamey - University of South Hampton - Modelling railway station usage
- Alice Courvoisier - University of Leeds - Solar Physics and Sun Spots
- Fiona Jordan - University College London - Cultural Evolution in the Pacific
This show can be found here
We talk to Associate Professor Stephanie Schuckers from Clarkson University about her research into biometric security systems - security systems based upon your physical traits such as fingerprint analysis, voice and face recognition and iris and retina scans. Stephanie's research aims to find vulnerable areas in such systems and so she has fooled fingerprinting systems with simple tools such as play doh.
It is the virile sports-person's eternal question - should one abstain from a little bit of nookie before a big sporting event?
One of the great tragedies in modern memory is the extinction of the Yangtze Dolphin.
Indeed, it is something about which mankind should be ashamed.
The Yangtze Dolphin is the first large animal in 50 years to be driven from the planet, and only the fourth entire mammal family in 500 years to be destroyed. What makes it even more devastating is that it is entirely our fault.
Having lived on the planet for 20 million years, time of death was called on Wednesday 8th August with the dolphin officially declared extinct by a report in the journal of the Royal Society, Biology Letters. It is the first species of cetacean (whale, dolphin or porpoise) to be killed off by human activity.
Russia has claimed one of the most inaccessible areas on Earth with a feat of magnificent science and engineering that tests international law, explores hitherto unexplored geography and territory, and asserts the Kremlin’s power in an old-fashioned land grab. Two minisubmarines planted a titanium alloy Russian flag on the ocean surface, 4261 m under the Arctic Ocean surface at the North Pole. It is the first time the technical feat of reaching the North Pole sea floor in a manned craft has been achieved and is not only a sign of Russian strength, but a clear indication of the fact that Russia wants to claim the possibly resource rich area. The submersibles were named Mir-1 and Mir-2 – clearly Russia has a penchant for calling their scientific explorer craft Mir.
This week we take a look at Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion.
Does it really convince believers to become non-believers? Does it even have any good science in it? Or is it simply a sledge hammer argument?
Its also a good excuse to play a bit of music with God in the title.
Personally, I'm still agnostic! And now I'm reading Harry Potter - at least I know I'm allowed to suspend my disbelief in that book.
Wi-Fi in the UK is prominent, offered by cafes, bars, book stores and very often found in schools. Commonly used to wirelessly connect to the Internet, Wi-Fi hit the headlines when the BBC programme Panorama found that radiation levels from Wi-Fi in one school was up to three times the level of mobile phone radiation, and implied that this was very dangerous to your health, without any evidence to support it.
A video podcast from Iceland. In this video, we discuss Reykjavic, the Gulfoss waterfall, the Kerio crater, the Blue Lagoon, tectonic plates, renewable energy, geysers, Geysir and hotspots and eating ice cream at midnight with the sun out.
For an Australian, there really isn't anywhere further away you could go than Iceland. It has been a dream of mine to go to Iceland for many years - partially because of escapism, but also because everything I had heard of this place suggested that I may like it - forward thinking, a little bit socialist, very clean (although ironically, because it only has around 300 000 people and a large aluminium industry, it has one of the largest carbon foot-prints per capita in the world), attractive and reserved Nordic people, stunningly beautiful and interesting scenery, as well as a bit of a science novelty. For me, I find it fascinating that of the 103 000 square kilometres of land that makes up Iceland, 11% is covered in glaciers, 64% in wasteland (cooled lava flows mainly, giving it a desolate "moon-like" appearance) and 2% by lakes, leaving only around 23% for vegetation. This fact, and its isolation, mean that there are relatively few people living in Iceland.
One of the next stops along the way was the ancient and beautiful Roman town of Bath, in the south-west of England. It is famous for its geothermally heated hot-springs - the only naturally occurring hot springs in the UK, and is a world heritage site.
I am starting a series of stories on sciencey places in the UK, starting with Greenwich. Greenwich, to the east of the city of London, is home to the Royal Observatory, whose mission is to illustrate for everyone the importance of the sea, ships, time and the stars and their relationship with people. Greenwich is also home to the prime meridian, which is the meridian at which longitude is defined to have zero degrees.
The science of smog. This is my first podcast from the UK where I am now living. However, it is not about London, more about Hong Kong and what causes the amazing smog in the Southern Chinese City.
With the Cricket World Cup coming to its conclusion, I thought it was time to do a story on some interesting scientific aspects of cricket that have arisen recently.
Are cricketers fit?
Third World Congress of Science and Medicine in Cricket. And what does this number mean: 1110111111001011000001110
I have spent this week both packing up my apartment for moving, and recording and editing this month's Beer Drinking Scientists episode - so sorry for the delay on The Mr Science Show Podcast.
This week, Darren and I tackle the massive issue of cloning. We cover the issues involved with adult and embryonic stem cells, therapeutic cloning, where you draw the line with creating a life-form for harvesting its stem cells, Dolly the sheep, South Korean cloning fraud, Alien-secular religions, business models for scientific investment and environmental triage - all in half an hour!
You can find the full 30 minute episode of the Beer Drinking Scientists take on cloning here, and as a special treat for Mr Science Show Podcast listeners, here is the 7 minute preview episode which contains the interviews we did with patrons in the pub about cloning - you will have to tune into The Beer Drinking Scientists podcast for the rest!
Over here in NSW Australia, we have just had the NSW election. I love elections, the free sausages down at the local school, the garage sale and most of all, the statistics. Elections are full of statistics, whether its the preferential voting system, the voting swings, or the TV coverage that claims to know the winner when 0.001% of the vote has been counted.
The week on The Mr Science Show Podcast, we cross to my excited recordings on the way to vote, have a discussion about the preferential voting system used in Australia, and take a look at the closest election victories ever, and the largest ever victory in a democratic election in Jaipur India.
We also have a give away of some tickets to see The Man in the Lab Coat at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, some copies of Cosmos Magazine and a gift of Mr Science merchandise to the first person to write in from each continent in the world. Tune in and listen for your chance to win!
This week, we talk to Jenny Lynch, coordinator of the Questacon outreach centre in Sydney about communicating science around Australia to 1-2 year olds, in shopping centres and in indigenous communities. Questacon is Australia's premiere interactive science centre, and has a number of outreach programs that travel Australia communicating science.
We also find that Pluto has a friend in New Mexico, who refuse to recognise it as a planetoid or dwarf planet, but maintain it to be a planet.
The other voice you hear on this episode is that of Celine Steinfeld.
Diesel cars are more fuel efficient and are more environmentally friendly. This week we discuss how they work compared to petrol cars, as well as how expensive they can be. A single rock causing $1000 worth of damage to my diesel car has prompted me to take a deeper look into these cars to see if they really do stack up.
Plus, we give a tagalog shout-out to all our Philippino listeners, who according to Google Analytics, has the 6th highest number of listeners and visitors to my site and is battling it out with Germany to be the highest country with English not as its first language.
Something new I'm doing on Mr Science this year is reviewing various scientific books, podcasts and websites.
This week we review the book "The discovery of the hobbit : the scientific breakthrough that changed the face of human history" by Mike Morwood and Penny van Oosterzee, the "Science Talk Australia" podcast by Darren Osborne, and the easternblot.net website by Eva and Ed.
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-0660744b0bb5fa8bba128664eb01c197}
I hate turbulence! In this episode, we talk about that most annoying aspect of flying, turbulence. Recently, I had a very bumpy trip to Townsville, with plenty of turbulence caused by Cyclone Nelson. So I used the 7 hour delay at Townsville airport caused by the cyclone on the way home to do a bit of thinking on turbulence.
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
Welcome to the 50th episode of Mr Science. In this episode, we take a look at the top 10 science stories of 2006, with topics ranging from the fall of Pluto's status as a planet to a project to map the complete Neanderthal genome and the turning down of the 2006 Fields Medal for mathematics. I wont give away number 1 here.
I also take a look back at 50 episodes of Mr Science, interview my family, play some of my favourite music snippets from 2006 and some other random recordings.
Enjoy,
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
The Beer Drinking Scientists have moved on to the 3rd and final destination of the night, so join Darren Osborne and myself as we tackle the Mars Global Surveyor, and the link between chillies and spider bites in the final (but only for now) Beer Drinking Scientists.
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
Join Darren Osborne and myself as we again host the Beer Drinking Scientists.
This recording at our second stop of the night, in the Rocks Sydney.
In this edition, we discuss a massive ethanol / methanol stream discovered in space, and a scientific paper into "Beer Goggles" - why people are more likely to have "risky sex" when they have had too much to drink.
Cheers, Marc (www.mrscienceshow.com)
Join myself and Darren Osborne as we bring you a new series called The Beer Drinking Scientists. In these podcasts, Darren and myself talk all things beer and science topics of the day.
In this very first episode, we visit the James Squires Brew House in Darling Harbour, Sydney, sample the local ales, give them a good discussion and rating, before tackling the scientific topic of how humans perceive the temperature.
The theory behind these podcasts, is as Darren says, that the beer might kill off some of the slower brain cells and allow the smarter ones to get down to business on the weightier scientific topics. And, we have a great time talking science in a social context.
Enjoy
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
Humans are undoubtably still changing. Culturally, technologically, intellectually and emotionally, humans have always been evolving. But are we still biologically evolving? Or have our cultural, technological, intellectual and emotional advances stopped genetic selection and biological evolution? Early homo sapiens could not possibly have envisaged the world in which modern day humans live, or our amazing technological capabilities, but have our changes had anything to do with genetics, or simply our developing culture?
Joining me in this discussion are Jacqui Hayes, Ian Woolf, Catherine Beehag and Lachlan Whatmore.
Cheers,
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
Here is my video remembrance of Movember - the month in which a few of us grew moustaches to raise money for men's health.
Yes, I realise that this is not particularly "sciencey", but its good fun. A big thanks to the other members of the team, who also feature in this video.
The time lapse is not perfect, but some of the reflections, and some of the work of the other guys, particularly Adrian, are pretty funny. I quite liked my moustache, I miss the little guy.
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
I was very lucky to host the Diffusion Science Show "Up late" edition last Saturday night. Myself, Matt Clarke, Jacqui Hayes and Vanessa Gardos wandered into 2SER at 11pm, and broadcast across Sydney live until 1am.
This gave us a chance to talk about the topics about which we always wanted to chat, without worrying too much about offending anyone.
This recording actually has quite a lot of static on it, and whilst I have tried to clean it up, it was impossible to clean up with the tools I have, so you may find this a little hard to listen to in some places. It sounds like listening to a badly tuned radio, so it might be OK to listen to in the car, on the train or on a plane. We still thought it important to get this episode out there, at least so we can all hear it again!
The topics we chat about include (all in a science context):
1. Cricket
2. The future of humanity
3. Neanderthals
4. Elephants
5. What if human disappeared over night
6. Nudist beaches
7. Consciousness
By the end, we're all a little over caffeinated and tired! If you can get through the static, its actually quite a fun show. I promise to get next week's episode out quickly in case this static is all too much for you! I have also left in all the music to give it that radio feel. Listen to this on your next drive in the country when you can't get the radio anyway!
Actually its not too bad - I just listened to it.
Cheers,
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
This week on the Mr Science Show, we are tackling the topics of the space elevator, why chimpanzee males like older females, and why human females like tall men.
Other voices heard are those of Matt Clarke and Jacqui Pfeffer (thanks guys).
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
This week on the Mr Science Show podcast, we are taking a look at a number of different science news stories, as well as what I could salvage from one of most out-take ridden episodes of the Diffusion Radio Science Shows with which I have been involved - we had a great time, and its all good science! I have the raw recordings should anyone want them.
Our stories are:
- Dodgy North Korean Scientists attempting to clone mammoths
- New developments in invisibility
- Black and White television not so black and white
- Women allergic to semen?
- Psychology and cricket
You will also hear the voices of Matt Clarke, Darren Osbourne, Tilly Boleyn and Lachlan Whatmore. Darren is also involved with Mo-vember, so feel free to sponsor us both!
Cheers,
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
Here is the video progress of our team for Movember. The moustaches are going strong! Thanks to the team for passively letting me embarrass them on the internet. I think there is some science in here somewhere...
This month on Mr Science, we are celebrating November, or more particularly, Mo-vember. That is, for a good cause, I am growing a moustache, or a Mo. This week in the podcast, we are going to have a discussion with the Diffusion Team about the science of hair and of my moustache.
You can sponsor me to grow at www.movember,com.au (look up Marc West), and check out our team's progress and varying states of scruffiness at http://users.tpg.com.au/users/arifern/DSTMO/ (Well done Adrian!)
The cause is male health, and research into depression, testicular cancer and prostate cancer. Men's health is an often overlooked topic, however when you look at it, men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy for men is six years less than females (presently 75 compared to 81). Men access health services 30-40% less than women, thereby denying themselves the chance for prevention and early detection of common diseases.
Money raised through this event go into the following areas:
Prostate Cancer in partnership with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (www.prostate.org.au) because every year in Australia 2,700 men die of prostate cancer - more than the number of women who die from breast cancer.
Male Depression in partnership with Beyond Blue (www.beyondblue.org.au) because one in six men suffer from depression at any given time but most don't seek help.
Testicular Cancer because it's the second most common cancer in young men aged 18 to 35.
Seeing my face is going to be covered in an ugly growth for the next month, this week we are going to take a look at the science of hair.
Diffusion Science Radio went LIVE this week on 2SER, during 2SER's radiothon subscriber drive. In this podcast episode, I host the Diffusion show - my first time doing live radio - and am joined by Vanessa Gardos, Tilly Boleyn and Chris Stewart, who also produced the show.
You can hear my own feature on Stephen Hawking that you may have previously picked up on the Mr Science feed. You can also hear Diffusion's own New York correspondent corresspondant Kachina Allen talking about the scientific dangers of showering!
This was recorded during Radiothon, which means there are alot of comments regarding members and prizes and such things - you can phone up and join 2SER anytime should you like, but for first time listeners, Diffusion is not normally like this - there is usually a bit more science and entertainment!
The recording is not of the best quality but it still sounds quite good.
Enjoy, Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
This week on Mr Science, we are tackling some science news issues:
1. A 14 year old boy has learnt to play Space Invaders using only his mind - not his hands! His brain was hooked up to a computer and he was able to complete a number of levels with only his mind. This has implications for controlling biomechanical devices such as prosthetic limbs.
2. Scientists have found that you can either be tough and good looking, or you can have lots of sperm, but not both. By examining a species of Dung Beetle, it was found that many have large horns to attract mates, and many have large testes to impregnate them, but none had both. It just goes to show that those of us with fast cars and loud sound systems are just compensating for something else.
3. Israeli scientists have found that facial expressions are inhereted from your parents, and aren't just learnt through minicry.
Enjoy
Marc
www.mrscienceshow.com
We live in a fast paced world. And the modern approach to dating embraces this idea. This week we are going to tackle the science of speed dating.
My friend, and fellow Diffusion Science Radio team member, Vanessa Gardos and I travelled down to Canberra for a Speed Dating extravaganza. There we heard a talk by our friend, and communicator extraordinaire, Lish Hogge on the science of speed dating, and got lost in the whole speed dating experience.
This podcast contains our reflections on the evening and the science of speed dating, as heard on the Diffusion Science Radio show recorded and broadcast through 2SER in Sydney. This was live and unscripted, and so rather honest, although as a gentleman I can not divulge too much information from the evening! Ian Woolf and Justin Zeltzer take part in this discussion, and the segment was produced by Ian.
Following this, and a brief interlude by Jose Gonzales, I have included, with permission, an interview Lish did with Richard Aedy about the science of love and speed dating on the "Life Matters"; show on ABC radio across Australia.
Enjoy
www.mrscienceshow.com
I had imagined this particular story to be about the science of the amazingly developed city of Hong Kong. I thought it would make a fantastic tale to contrast the role of science in people's lives between India, the Philippines and Hong Kong. However, unfortunately, my experiences during my week in Hong Kong were largely confined to public toilets and the bathroom of my friend Aaron, with whom I stayed. But this in itself makes a good story, so this week on Mr Science, we are going to look at the diseases that my brother and I picked up during our tour of Asia, and how they were treated. It is ironic that, having been so careful with the water and food in India, that my brother James and I should get sick from eating at McDonalds, but all the evidence is pointing that way. They probably made the Coke we ordered using tap water. James's illness hit within 12 hours, with vomiting and severe dehydration. He was so dehydrated that he took in about 2 litres of saline drip in the Indian hospital before he even went to the toilet. I did not react with vomiting, and perhaps because of James's sickness, did not think much of my own until I'd left the country. It was on landing in Hong Kong, incredibly tired from the 3.00 am start, that it all hit. And it hit hard, and explosively! My body erupted, not from my mouth like with James, but from the other end. This podcast contains live recordings from Hong Kong as well as an indepth look at these troubles.
You expect controversy in politics. Every religious story comes served with intense debate. And you almost demand hullabaloo in sport. But controversy in science? Scientific controversies are actually quite common, and throughout history, within and outside the scientific community, battles have raged over many topics, from Galileo vs. the Catholic church over the motion of the planets, to Einstein not believing in quantum mechanics, and current debates over global warming, intelligent design and stem cell research. But the controversy that we are dealing with today is astronomical in size, yet deals with the runt of the litter. Whatever do we do with Pluto? A few months back, when we did a Mr Science show on Pluto, we all slept soundly in the knowledge that Pluto was a planet. But now things have changed, and Pluto has been demoted to a new class of heavenly body called a Dwarf Planet.
Steve Irwin, probably one of the best known advocates for wilderness and animal conservation in the world, tragically passed away recently in North Queensland, Australia. He was arguably Australia's best-known science communicator. His unconventional methods of communicating his work drew criticism from some and inspired others, yet it is unarguable that Irwin will have a lasting effect on the environmental and conservation movements in Australia and around the world. Unlike so many other "wacky and zany" science communicators, Irwin was so genuinely passionate about his cause that he bought millions of dollars of land worldwide in the name of wilderness and animal conservation. How many people can you name that have become famous to some degree through their television persona that have taken the next step and invested a large percentage of their rewards in their cause? I can barely think of one other. And nothing he ever did on screen was fake - he loved what he did and this shone through in everything that he did - whether it was on his television show, in interviews or just when he was being himself. He was genuinely passionate about what he did and was not afraid put his money where his mouth was. www.mrscienceshow.com
India - the 2nd in my travelling scientist series, and the second stop in my all-to-brief tour of South Asia. I have edited together my recordings from India into a 30 minute feature about science in the developing world. India is a fascinating combination of developed and developing worlds, and this contrast was seen on my very first day on landing in Delhi. Simply comparing Old Delhi with New Delhi set me up for an amazing tour of an amazing country. I also gained a little bit of insight into the types of illnesses one can encounter on the subcontinent. Some of the serious, and not-so-serious, topics dealt with this week include: 1. A storm in a coke bottle - the Indian political debate over minute levels of pesticides in soft drinks - whilst most of the country does not even have clean drinking water. 2. How to make the "Mother of Satan" bomb, and other Indian takes on terrorism - a real day-to-day issue for the country. 3. Travel bugs - helping my suffering brother through Indian hospitals. 4. Maharaja scientists. 5. Sun burn makes you crazy. 6. Music and HIV. 7. The Taj Mahal's own "Da Vinci Code" -esque intrigue. 8. Bollywood. We also take in some India music, interview ex-pats and locals, ride elephants and suffer at the hands of dodgy rickshaw drivers.
This podcast is a 30 minute feature on the Philippines, containing recordings made during my recent two weeks in the Philippines, as well as a little Pinoy music. We investigate serious, and not-so-serious, Philippino scientific topics through interviews with Philippinos and ex-pats, and my own musings. Some of the topics covered are: 1. Scientific Philippino facts (i.e. 80% of the world's tropical fish come from the Philippines) 2. Our trek to the world's longest navigatable underground river on the island of Pelawan 3. The role science in the developing world 4. How science and analysis can inform developing world governments 5. Balut - boiled chicken embryo still in the egg 6. Speech therapy in the Philippines 7. Pollution, rabies, immunisation 8. Strange Philippino fruits I hope it is entertaining as well as scientific, so please email me (mrscienceblog@gmail.com) or leave comments on the website (www.mrscienceshow.com) if you have any thoughts, and let me know if the longer features are a good idea. I do them for special occasions - next up is a feature on India, so stayed tuned.
It is a question that has plagued humankind's deepest philosophical thinkers ever since men were men and women were women: Why are men and women really so different? Most women claim to have long noticed the strangeness in males, but now it seems that at last scientists have the evidence.
Music has an indisputable ability to trigger powerful emotions. It is frequently associated with memories of the past, and hearing just a short clip of a song can often trigger feelings from deep within the subconscious. It is also used in various therapies, can add considerable depth to a movie or film clip, and can have a substantial effect on your mood, even the first time you hear a song. What is it about music that conjures up such feelings?
What do you do when you're bored? Do you send emails to friends? Do you play cricket in the hallways of your work place? Do you Photoshop pictures of David Hasselhoff? Or do you obsessively clean your house... not that I have done any of these things. Everyone has different ways of coping with boredom. And although most of us think that boredom is a bad thing, there is some support to the notion that boredom is a naturally occurring emotion, and far from being suppressed, it should be embraced.
In the spirit of taking medical science into my own hands, and with a holiday to India and the Philippines coming up, I thought I would take a look into vaccinations.
Stephen Hawking is possibly the greatest physicist of the last century, and arguably one of the most influential ever. His list of achievements is enviable, and what makes them even more astounding is that many of his accomplishments have been achieved whilst he has suffered from a debilitating form of motor neuron disease. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and ultimately fatal neuromuscular disease, but despite enduring this difficulty, he has 184 scientific publications, including a best selling book A brief history of time. This week, we are going to look not at this man's scientific achievements, but at some of the cool technologies he uses to communicate.
Gold! Some people think that the only thing that alchemists ever tried to do was turn common metals into gold. Other people think that alchemists were only concerned with finding a panacea to cure all diseases and allow us to live forever. But alchemy throughout history has been much more than just charlatans looking to perform magic tricks. Most were intelligent scholars, and included among them are illustrious scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton. Many were innovators who wanted to investigate the true nature of chemical substances, and who developed experiments, coupled with their own lateral and speculative thinking, to uncover the mysteries of the universe. Modern science owes much to these broad minded individuals.
The Shell Questacon Science circus, the most extensive science outreach program of its kind in the world, celebrated its 21st birthday with a gala event and a book launch at the Great Hall of Parliament House last week. Its also 5 years since I did the circus, so I've included my top 10 recollections from 2001. Tune in to hear me badly sing some science songs and attempt to do audio recording using dodgy free audio tools. Listening back, I think I was quite caffeinated when I did this.
Not strictly a Mr Science story, unless you feel like trying to understand what could bring someone to make such disturbing noises in his sleep. My brother James and I were trapped in an overnight train cabin with this snorer, and we could not escape. He was the snorer from hell!
This week on Mr Science, I'm taking medical science into my own hands and giving Vacuum Cupping a road test. Vacuum Cupping is a form of Traditional Chinese Medicine and is a way of applying acupressure to the skin. There is debate over whether it works beyond the effects of a placebo, so like all good scientists, I'm doing the experiement for myself. Check out photos from the experience at www.mrscienceshow.com
We've all watched films and thought, "that's impossible" or "that's unbelievable". Sometimes movies take liberties with science, allowing things to happen that in real life are impossible, or at least unknown. Today we are going to have a look at three of my favourite science fiction films and see whether or not some of the astounding things that happen in them have any scientific basis.
Ever seen people clucking like chickens, pretending to be Michael Jackson or doing other outlandish things, supposedly under the influence of a hypnotist? Does staring at a swinging watch really make you fall into a trance-like state where you are so susceptible to suggestion that you think onions taste like apples or that you can see everyone in the room naked? And does hypnotism have anything to do with zombies?
You might think that the last thing going through a soccer player's mind would be science. It's difficult to imagine a striker contemplating the current nature of the universe just before game time, or the coach giving a short tutorial on statistics for inspiration. Soccer may be the beautiful game, but what of the science behind the artistry? With the soccer world cup currently being played in Germany, and with the great Australian team performing exceptionally well, it is a good time to take a look at the Science of Soccer.
These days you can do almost anything on the internet. There is everything from internet banking and internet dating, to music and video downloads, both legal and illegal. Most busy people see more advertising on the bottom of emails and on pop-up internet ads than on the TV or the radio. And why use a travel agent to book a holiday or a work flight when you can do it from the comfort of your own home or office? This week we will take a look at where this technology came from, and where we might be heading in the future.
Computer hackers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are just curious to see what they can do and do not cause any harm, others look for flaws in software design and work out ways to exploit them. Some seek power, others seek thrills, some steal money and others steal secrets. We see them in movies all the time. But the term hacker can mean many things, and they are not all negative.
Ever wondered what it would be like to be invisible? Now scientists think that this staple of science fiction may be close to science fact.
What can science teach about how to best woo our loved ones? Is there a scientific formula we should follow to become stud-muffins?
Is there a scientific reason for love? How can we best choose our partner? And what has it got to do with our noses?
Venus is about as close to hell as you can get. Even though it started out its life much like the Earth did, the lack of water has made Venus the hottest and most inhospitable place in the solar system!
Flores is not your typical island paradise. Giant rats and lizards with bacteria laced saliva have lived here. Miniature elephants have called it home. But amazingly, scientists have now discovered that a race of miniature humans have also roamed there.
Want to travel back through time, or to the edge of the universe? Some scientists think that this science fiction may soon be science fact.
How will the universe end? Will it end? Is there a way to escape it or it is the end of everything for everyone? Will there be a "big crunch", just the opposite to a "big bang", or will the universe just expand forever and ever, getting colder and colder?
Is how good looking we are determined by mathematics? Is there really a formula for who turns you on and who disgusts you? We take a deeper look into the mathematics of looking beautiful and discover that maybe there was a reason to pay attention to high school maths.
Can we live forever? What is stopping us from becoming immortal? Are we the first generation to live to 150?
What is DNA? What does it stand for and what does it do? Can we change it and change ourselves?
Where is Pluto? Is there life there? Is it even a planet? This week on Mr Science, we are going further out into the solar system than ever before.
What are volcanoes? What causes them, and where can we find them? Some of the biggest volcanoes on Earth are under the ocean. Are the connected to Earth quakes and tectonic plates?
What do ears do? Do we really need them? How do they work, and what else do they do but help us hear?
What are black holes? Can we use them to travel through time? Where are they and what creates them?
What is Global Warming? Are humans creating it and is there anything we can do about it?
Has it come to this? Can science now predict something as personal as the types of music that someone likes? This week we take a look at some of the advances being made into helping us broaden our music appreciation, and predict the unpredictable.