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Podcast TranscriptThe Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts |
| 21st Jul 2002 | < Previous Show | Next Show > | ||||||||||
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What you Read Affects What you Dream About
Psychologist Dr. Mark Blagrove asked 10,000 library users about their dreams, with startling results. Readers of fantasy novels, like The Lord of The Rings, have more nightmares, those who prefer romantic novels report more emotionally-intense dreams, and people who read fiction are more likely to have bizarre dreams and remember them afterwards, compared with people who don't read. Age also seems to play a role; children were 3 times more likely to have bad dreams if they enjoyed horror stories, whilst older people dream less and have fewer nightmares. (www.frontiers4libraries dotorg dotuk)
21st Jul 2002
Cure for Pre-menstrual Syndrome (pms)
If you suffer from premenstrual syndrome (PMS or PMT) then you might find relief in a glass of wine, according to scientists from New York. Sheryl Smith and her team gave rats a drug to make them pre-menstrual and found that the animals developed abnormally high levels of a brain receptor that is activated both by alcohol, and by a 'feel-good' hormone called allopregnanalone, the levels of which plummet before menstruation. The researchers suggest that alcohol does the same job as the depleted hormone, and has a greater effect during periods, because the brain increases the number of receptors in an attempt to capture what little of the hormone there is available. So the answer is…just before a period crack open a nice bottle of Southern Right Pinotage (2000)…
21st Jul 2002
Everyone Tells Lies
Psychologist Robert Feldman from the University of Massachusetts, in America, has found that over 60% of people tell lies in everyday conversation. 121 pairs of students, who had been told that the researchers were studying how we meet new people, were secretly filmed chatting to each other. Afterwards the students were shown the footage where they revealed their porkies. The lies ranged from falsely agreeing with the other person, to pretending to be in a rock-band. Interestingly women were more likely to lie to make the other person feel better, whilst the blokes were more likely to lie to make themselves feel better.
DO SEA-MONSTERS EXIST AFTER ALL ?
Using technology originally detected to locate Russian submarines, the US Navy have detected unidentified signals coming from the deep. The sounds are similar frequencies to those produced by known marine animals, but appear to be coming from much more powerful animals, bigger even than whales. What they are though, we don't know…
21st Jul 2002
Feel your Baby Before it Is Born
American company Novint Technologies have developed a system to let parents feel their baby before it is born. The new device turns ultrasound scans of a baby inside the mother into vibrations as a computer mouse is passed over the image, a bit like the 'rumble pack' supplied with some computer games. The company suggest that the new device might help doctors to detect problems with the baby earlier than the would just using the scan images alone.
Article explaining how ultrasound can be used to image tissues, including developing babies.
21st Jul 2002
Amino Acids in Outer Space
The search for life on other planets has taken an interesting turn - researchers have sown that there are amino acids in outer space. Amino acids are the building blocks from which proteins are made and without which the cells in our bodies couldn't function. We already know that there are complex molecules in outer space - a few months ago we ran a story about how researchers had found clouds of ethanol (alcohol) within our galaxy. This discovery may mean that molecules from outer space may have kick-started life on earth. And if it happened here, it could have happened on other planets too…
21st Jul 2002
The Number's Up for Drug Dealers
What do we associate with drug dealers, apart from drugs of course ? Mobile phones of course ! Mobile phones are an essential accessory for every drug dealer. Along with the dodgy shades and moustache. But according to an article in New Scientist this week, mobile phones may spell doom for drug dealers. It's not because the police can trace calls, but because of the gunk that gets lodged between the keys. Researchers at the University of Bristol analysed 150 handsets to see whether they contained traces of drugs. Nothing more sophisticated that a toothpick was required to dig out deposits around the buttons. 5% of the phones showed traces of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Phones belonging to people who handled drugs regularly had traces distributed evenly all over the phone, but those who had "one-off" encounters only had traces of drugs in patches. This wouldn't be enough evidence to convict someone, but mobiles say a lot about a person because they have lots of nooks and crannies.
21st Jul 2002
Scientists to Build Earthquake Observatory Inside a Fault
Earthquakes measuring 6 on the richter scale have occurred roughly every 22 years since 1857 at Parkfield, California, which sits on the San Andreas Fault and which is now the site of a 2km pilot hole drilled by the United States Geological Survey. The researchers want to create the World's first earthquake observatory right down inside the fault. It will be a bit like using a stethoscope down there and listening very carefully. The scientists hope to discovers what forces act on a fault before, during and after an earthquake. They hope to pick up the physical and chemical changes which may happen before an earthquake. If they get funding in the future the team hope to drill a 4km hole to establish a subterranean seismic observatory. Seisometers will measure the force of the earthquake shake. Meters and sensors will measure ground deformation and fluid pressure. It is hoped that this study could allow scientists in the furture to predict when an earthquake could happen. At the moment it is very difficult to predict earthquakes, so this sort of information could reduce the death rate if an area could be evacuated, if there has been prior warning of a potential earthquake before the disaster strikes.
21st Jul 2002
Breast Feeding Can Reduce your Cancer Risk
Breast cancer affects 39,000 women per year in the UK and kills 1/3 of them. A study published in the Lancet yesterday looked at 47 separate studies of 50,000 women with breast cancer and 100,000 without breast cancer. The researchers have found that for every year a woman breastfeeds, her risk of breast cancer later in life reduces by 4.3%. If women have 6 children or more and breastfed each one for 2 years, the risk of developing breast cancer by the age of 70 falls from 6.3/100 to 2.7/100. The reduction in risk occurs partly due to the breastfeeding and to a lesser extent (perhaps 30%) due to having more children. 70% of mothers in the UK start off breastfeeding, but this drops to 43% at 6 weeks and only 20% between 6 months and 1 year. It should also be remembered that breast is certainly best as it provides the baby with initial immunity to infections, the milk is pre-warmed, sterile (unless the mother has a milk-transmissible infection), and ready on tap whenever the baby is hungry !
Bra to detect breast cancer using electrical impedence tomography
New, non-invasive, method of breast cancer detection
The 'Booby Jacuzzi' - a new device to increase delivery of anti-cancer drugs to the breast
21st Jul 2002
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How fast does sperm swim ? John and Abby, email |
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About 3 mm per hour ! Interestingly, mice sperm are very altruistic and line up nose-to tail and swim along in a big convoy thus helping more of them make it further. |
July 2002 |
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How big is the internet ? Richard, phone |
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This depends on whether you mean how many pages are there, or how many people are there using the web ? In term s of the number of pages, the search-engine Google claims to currently index over 2 billion. In terms of the size of the online community, current estimates suggest about 544 million people, according to internet demographics source nua.com. |
July 2002 |
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Why are you not allowed to use a mobile phone in a petrol station ? Phil, Cambridge |
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There have been a number of stories in the past about mobiles causing explosions of garage forecourts, but as far as we know, none of them have ever been substantiated. The chief concern is that if, whilst someone is using a mobile, the battery were to fall out, it could theoretically produce a spark across the contacts capable of causing an explosion. The same risk actually also applies to other battery-powered items including walkmans for instance. |
July 2002 |
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