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Podcast TranscriptThe Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts |
Superhero 3D X-ray vision
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Birthday Candle Lighting Problem Solved !
Once you start to get a bit older it can take so long to light all of the candles on your birthday cake that the first-lit candles have almost burned down by the time you light the last ones. But that could all change thanks to American Christian Myerchin who has come up with a simultaneous birthday candle lighting device ! Pads containing nitrocellulose and magnesium wire, and linked up by a nitrocellulose fuse, are pressed over the wicks of each of the birthday candles. All you have to do it to light one-end of the nitrocellulose fuse which burns very quickly, lights all of the pads which in turn light the candles at the same time !
13th Jul 2002
Antidote to Smelly Sports Bags !
Does your sports bag smell like something died in it ? Help is at hand in the form of an antibacterial sports bag invented by researchers at Auburn University in Alabama, US. Dave Worsley and his team have developed polyester fibres than kill the bacteria responsible for bad odours. The team linked chemical groups called halamines to polyester fibres which can then be woven into garments. When the material is washed in bleach, containing chlorine, the halamines are changed to chloramines, which kill bugs on contact. As the bacteria are killed the chlorine is used up, but the material can be replenished again merely by washing in bleach.
Scientists develop self-cleaning suit with built in odour-control.
Show about MRSA, superbugs, phage therapy, bdellovibrio and antibiotic resistance
13th Jul 2002
How to Make Water and Oxygen on Mars
NASA announced recently that scans of the Martian geology had revealed the presence of large quantities of water on the planet, paving the way for a manned mission to Mars in the future. But how will these Martian pioneers find the water, and equally importantly, oxygen on the red planet ? Scientists Don Sadoway, from MIT in Boston, and Ken Debelak, from Vanderbilt University in Tenessee told a NASA conference this week how to do it. Sadoway has designed an electrochemical cell the size of a fridge, which powered by a small nuclear reactor. Oxide-rich rocks, which make up the surface of Mars are loaded into the cell which passes a 450 amp current through the rocks, melting them, and releasing oxygen by a process known as electrolysis. People need about 3 kilograms of oxygen per day, which the cell should be able to extract from only 8 kilograms of Mars rock. So what about the water ? Debelak, the other scientist, has suggested using the same technique employed home here on earth to make decaffeinated coffee ! By compressing carbon dioxide gas, which makes up most of the atmosphere on Mars, it can be used to dissolve some of the water locked up in minerals and rocks on the planet surface. When the compressed gas has passed over the rock samples it is allowed to expand which releases clean water which can be collected and used.
Article by Dana Mackenzie about why we should return to the moon
13th Jul 2002
Russians Plan to Hit Mars By 2015
Russia has announced plans to send a 6 man team to Mars by 2015. Building the 2 spacecraft needed for the trip is expected to cost over 20 billion dollars, over 70 percent of which, Nikolay Anfimov from the Russian Aviation and Space Agency says, would need to come from NASA and the European Space Agency. But some cynics are claiming that it is just a ploy to drum up cash for Russia's ailing space programme.
Background information on the Beagle Mars mission.
Show featuring space scientist Dr. Simon Goodwin discussing future missions to Mars.
13th Jul 2002
Spiders Doodle on Their Webs
Did you know that spiders doodle on their webs, adding splashes of decoration such as spirals, crosses and circles ? Now researchers think they know why. Only certain types of spiders are doodlers - ones that sit in the middle of their web as they hunt by day. Todd Blackridge from the University of California took webs from the American Orb-weaving spider and removed the doodles from half the webs. He then let the spiders loose on the webs and watched what happened. The webs with extra patterns didn't catch much prey - on average 30% less. But the spiders sitting on the nests with doodles were far less likely to be eaten by predators like wasps. So the doodles are a payoff between eating and being eaten. Blackridge doesn't know how the doodles work, but thinks they could be intended to distract or confuse the predators, leading them to ignore the spider.
13th Jul 2002
Naked Truth About What Birds Get Up to at Night
A local birdwatcher has shown that efforts to conserve birds could be failing, simply because we don't know what they get up to at night. Using special night vision viewing equipment like infrared lamps, Simon Gillings from The University of East Anglia has found out some amazing things about the nightlife of lapwings and plovers feeding on arable land in this region. The birds were not thought to be nocturnal, but Simon has shown that they may get up to three-quarters of their food at night. "The never seem to sleep," he says. Significantly, at night there are no gulls around to steal their meals, but they are more likely o bump into foxes. Simon has also shown that, just like humans, the birds prefer different snacks at night. In the daytime they fed on cereal fields, but at night the Plovers preferred oil-seed rape, whereas the lapwings headed for fields of sugarbeet stubble !
13th Jul 2002
Scientists Develop a Live Remote-control Rat
Researchers at the University of New York have produced rats that can be steered by remote control. They say that rats like these could be used to clear minefields or to locate trapped earthquake victims. The rats are controlled by implanting 3 electrodes which stimulate their whiskers, and the part of the brain that signals pleasure or reward. The rats then follow signals delivered to their whiskers making them jump, turn corners and climb. Each of the rats is fitted with a radio receiver strapped to its back and is controlled by signals transmitted from a laptop computer up to 500 metres away. The rats follow the instructions because the electrode implanted in their brain's pleasure centre rewards them when they do the right thing and they quickly learn to associate following the whisker instructions with being rewarded.
Rats to replace sniffer dogs.
13th Jul 2002
How Do Butterflies Navigate ?
Every autumn Monarch butterflies make their way from the northern US to Mexico where they spend the winter. But how do they know which direction to fly ? To find out researchers Henrik Mouritsen and Barrie Frost from Queen's University Ontario found that in the sunshine the butterflies headed southwest. But if the butterflies were 'jet-lagged' for 6 hours first they headed off 90 degrees off-course. The researchers suggest that they must be using some kind of Sun-compass linked to their body clock.
Butterflies developing larger muscles as changing weather forces them to fly further.
13th Jul 2002
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Since skin continuously replaces itself, why do tattoos last a lifetime ? Graham, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge |
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The upper layer of the skin, the epidermis, which consists of flattened dried-out dead cells, is replaced continously throughout life. As cells are worn away from the top layer of skin they are replaced by new cells from below. Tattoos are injected deeper into the skin into a layer called the dermis below where the cells that make the epidermis come from. This means that the dye stays where it is put for life. |
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July 2002 |
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Why does your stomach rumble when you are hungry ? Pat, Histon |
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The rumbling sounds you hear are your stomach gearing up to accept food. Whenever we feel hungry we usually placate our stomachs with some food soon afterwards and so the digestive system prepares itself in advance by releasing digestive juices and increasing the peristalsis of the stomach muscles. When we eat the food dampens the sound of the juices squirting around so the stomach sounds quiet. When we are empty though there is nothing to soak up the sounds and the result can be noisy ! |
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July 2002 |
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Is it true that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space ? Geoff, Cottenham |
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This is a myth ! Although the Great Wall is extremely long it is only about 5 metres or so wide. At distances greater than about 20 km up (about twice the height of Mt. Everest), a person even with perfect eyesight, but without the aid of a telescope or binoculars, cannot physically resolve something that small on the ground. Allowing for the shadow cast by the Great Wall (making it wider) or sand accumulating on the windward side you might be able to see it from 60 km up, in places, but since this is still too low for a spacecraft to orbit, it's safe to say that you can't see it from space. Indeed, Neil Armstrong and other astronauts from the Apollo missions have all declared that it cannot be seen from space with the Naked Eye. Other man-made objects can though, such as cities because of their bright lights. |
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July 2002 |
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What gives the best caffeine high, Tea or Coffee ? Paula, Royston |
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Tea leaves contain much more caffeine that coffee, but since less Tea than coffee is used in making a cup of each beverage, a cup of coffee actually has a much great caffeine content and hence you get a greater hit from a coffee than a tea. Unless you brew your tea really strong and make weak coffee ! |
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July 2002 |
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