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Podcast TranscriptThe Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts |
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Why Can't you Tickle Yourself ?
Apparently it's all to do with a small area at the back of the brain called the cerebellum. Scientists at University College London found that the cerebellum lit up when volunteers tickled themselves, but not when a robotic tickling device was used. They think that this killjoy area of the brain sends out messages to cancel out sensations that it is expecting. In this way we can ignore routine sensations like pressure on our feet when walking, but react when something unexpected happens, like stubbing a toe.
17th Mar 2002
Scientists Find Bug-killing Chemical in Saliva
A substance found in human saliva can kill several types of bacteria and fungi, some of which are resistant to currently available drugs, researchers at the University of Buffalo have found. MUC7 20-mer, as it is known, is taken up by bacterial and fungal cells and stops them pumping electrically charged particles, called ions, in and out of the cells, causing the bugs to die. It also seems to be active in only tiny amounts - less than 10 millionths of a gram is all that is needed to kill cultured bacteria in a dish. So if everyone naturally has this protein, why do people still have problems with mouth, gum and tooth infections then ? Because, says Libuse Bobek, one of the discoverers, MUC7 20-mer is only a small piece of a much larger protein that doesn't itself have any anti-bacterial effects. The other piece of good news is that because it is naturally present in the mouth, albeit in tiny amounts, the protein is not likely to produce any side effects when used therapeutically. So far the researchers have shown that it can kill candida, the fungus that causes thrush, E. coli, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning, Strep. mutans, which causes tooth decay, and other bugs that cause gum disease. The scientists, have now started to experiment with altered forms of the protein, to see if they can increase the bug-killing power of the agent.
Show about MRSA, superbugs, phage therapy, bdellovibrio and antibiotic resistance
17th Mar 2002
Chewing Gum Improves your Memory
Source: The Independent (Thursday March 14th )
Did you ever get told off for chewing gum at school? That could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to new findings which prove that chewing gum increases your memory! Researchers gave three groups of volunteers a series of memory tests. The first group chewed gum while they did the tests, the second group group had no gum but pretended to chew (that must have been difficult) while the third group did nothing. It turned out that the gum chewers came top of the class! Scientists think that chewing gum releases insulin, which probably has a role to play in memory-making.
17th Mar 2002
Asteroid Near-missed Earth Last Weekend
Last week we were talking rather light-heartedly about the chances of an asteroid colliding with the Earth. We might have taken this subject a little more seriously if we'd known about this next report:- Last Saturday one of the largest asteroids ever to approach the Earth whizzed past us unnoticed and wasn't spotted until 4 days later. This asteroid was around 100m across - almost as big as a football field! And it came within 450,000 km of us, which is only 1 and a half times as far away as the moon! Astronomers didn't spot the asteroid at first because it was in what's known as a blind spot. In other words it was too close to the sun for us to see it. This asteroid never posed a serious threat - but say it had been on a collision course with the Earth (although this is very unlikely) ? We wouldn't have known until it was too late to do anything about it…. Astronomers are calling for more funds to help them catalogue all these so-called "near-earth objects" so that we get advance warning of possible collisions. Don't lose any sleep over it - the chances of the Earth being wiped out by an asteroid are 1 in a very small number.
17th Mar 2002
Drunk Monkeys - Apes Show Drinking Behaviour Strikingly Similar to Humans
Dr. Frank Erwin and his team at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada, have done some research into monkey's drinking habits. Monkeys behave like humans at a cocktail party - one gets aggressive, one is sexy, one thinks everything is funny and one gets grumpy. They also divide into 4 groups: binge drinkers, steady drinkers, social drinkers and teetotallers. The binge drinkers gulp their drinks fast and then pass out, waking up the next day to repeat the whole process. Like humans the heaviest drinkers were young males. The monkeys had a choice of neat alcohol, alcohol diluted with fruit juice, and non-alcoholic drinks. Like us, they preferred the diluted alcohol. Monkeys share 96% of their genes with humans and by studying monkey's drinking, the scientists are hoping to find out why we drink and whether some people have a genetic predisposition to becoming alcoholics.
17th Mar 2002
Space Tourism to Launch Within a Few Years
Have you ever wanted to go up in space? You might get your chance yet - scientists in Russia have unveiled a spacecraft designed to take tourists into space rather than trained astronauts. The first tourist trip might be as early as 2004. The new craft, called the Cosmopolis 21, could carry a pilot and 2 passengers to a height of 100 km above the earth. It will stay there for 3 minutes and passengers will get a glimpse of the Earth from Space and will experience weightlessness into the bargain! But don't all rush at once - tickets cost £100,000.
17th Mar 2002
Alcohol Problems and the Nhs
Diseases caused by an unhealthy lifestyle such as smoking, alcohol, drug abuse and obesity are pushing the NHS close to collapse. Smoking related illness costs the NHS about 1.5 billion pounds per year, obesity 1.78 billion, and alcohol-related diseases about 3 billion. Worse still, the number of problem-drinkers seems to be increasing. Since 1984 we have seen a 33% increase in the number of people with an alcohol-related problem, and now over 33,000 people die each year and 28,000 are admitted to hospital, just because of alcohol.
17th Mar 2002
Sweaty Palms Caused By Inherited Condition
Do you worry about having clammy handshake and seeming really nervous in interviews because of sweaty palms? Scientists at UCLA, the University of California, have found that this embarrassing affliction is not a sign of nervousness, but is instead a more widespread problem, called hyperhidrosis, which is inherited from our parents. But, the good news is that it can be treated. "Traditionally, this syndrome was thought of as stress-related and has not been taken seriously by the medical community," said Dr Samuel Ahn of UCLA's Division of Vascular Surgery. "This is one of the first studies helping to support that 'sweaty palms' is a real physiological disorder that can be passed from generation to generation," Ahn said. The UCLA researchers have found that "sweaty-palm syndrome" is genetic and not nervous and affects up to five percent of the population. What's more, if one parent has the disorder, the study found that children have a 28 percent chance of also having hyperhidrosis," the UCLA research concluded. Help is at hand, however, because doctors have now developed a successful treatment for sweaty palms using "minimally invasive" surgery in which they cut a nerve supplying the sweat glands in the hands.
17th Mar 2002
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