Could diet foods be making you fatter? How do we learn to like the foods we eat? This week, we indulge in the science of appetite, diet and diabetes. We'll find out how our early experiences of food can alter our diets for life, and ask if low calorie alternatives to sweet and fatty foods can fool the brain into underestimating the energy content of the real thing. Also, how synthetic chemists are searching for compounds to monitor blood glucose and control diabetes. Plus, how regions of the brain can “catch” Alzheimer’s from each other, we discover a new microscopy technique that can open a window on the brain in action, and talk to the Australian ecologist who thinks more introduced species, including elephants, could stabilise the Aussie ecosystem.

Want to know how to generate a cloud in a lemonade bottle? How about build a toaster-powered hot air balloon, or work out the speed of light using margarine and a microwave?

In this book, penned by the Naked Scientists, you’ll find these and over 40 more incredible experiments to try at home. You’ll never have a dull rainy day again!

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Thermoelectric Generators - TEGs

Almost 70% of the energy produced by a car engine is lost, mostly in the form of heat that exits along the exhaust pipe. But by using some old fashioned physics and some new engineering, it's possible to capture and reuse some of this heat energy. Thermoelectric Generators (TEGs) convert wasted heat into electricity, without the need for complex movin...

Naked Oceans takes a look around the lush world of seagrasses. We find out how diversity of critters, big and small, keep seagrasses healthy. And we shine a spotlight on a little known seagrass muncher, the West African Manatee.

10th Feb 2012 - Find out answers to those questions you have always been wondering about.

How do thermoelectric generators work?

Huge amounts of energy are lost from power stations and cars as heat. But what if we could harness that heat and turn it into useful electricity? That's what thermoelectric generators or TEGs can help us do. In this Naked Science Scrapbook we find out how they exploit a temperature gradient to produce power and how they're already powering space explo...

• How does a microwave work?
• Why do sprouts make you fart?
• More...

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