Ta Ta Tattoo

The days of indelibly pledging your undying love for someone by tattooing their name across your forehead, only to regret it later, are finally over. Thankfully for those tempted to have "sharon forever" etched into their dermis, dermatologist Rox Anderson, from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, has developed a way to produce erasable tattoos. He has found a way to encapsulate tattoo dyes within tiny polymer beads measuring between 1 and 3 thousandths of a millimetre across. When these "dye capsules" are scratched into the skin they are picked up by skin cells which then take on the colour of their encapsulated cargo, forming a tattoo. But if you decide subsequently that you don't like what you see, or "Sharon" becomes "Sherin" (or even "Kevin"), a single blast with a laser can wipe the slate clean. It works because the laser breaks open the capsules, spilling the coloured contents that they contain, which is then absorbed and broken down. This is a marked improvement on existing tattoo technology which, in addition to using dyes that are also used in car paints and contain toxic chemicals such as heavy metals, can only be removed 50% of the time and only then following fairly aggressive laser skin treatments.

30th Apr 2006

The Female of The Species

Here's a tale of sex and death - but involving spiders rather than people. Scientists at Aarhus University in Denmark have been studying a remarkable species of spider known as the nuptial gift-giving spider, or Pisaura mirabilis, to give it its Latin name. The female spiders of this species will often attempt to eat the males before or during mating. This is obviously not a good thing for the males, especially if they get munched before they've managed to sow their seed. But the gift-giving spiders have evolved a cunning strategy to get round this. The male spiders turn up with gifts of food for the female spiders, a bit like human males turning up with a box of chocolates. The male spider then "plays dead" to avoid being eaten. But while the female is distracted by eating the present, he sneakily mates with her. So everyone's a winner - the males get to mate while the females get the equivalent of spider chocs. Isn't biology amazing?

30th Apr 2006

Glow-tor Bike

Japanese manufacturer Yamaha have come up with a way to make their motorcycles safer and easier for other road users to see - by developing a new a glow in the dark film. The phosphorescent polymer soaks up UV rays from sunlight like an energy sponge. When the UV interacts with chemicals in the material it temporarily catapults electrons to a higher energy state. When it gets dark the electrons slowly drop back down to their former unexcited state, releasing the energy they had locked away in the form a soft glow. Yamaha have come up with a vacuum process that can apply an even layer of the phosphorescent material over irregularly shaped farings, engine covers or cowlings. They plan to wheel out the technology in May (2006) initially on their EC-02 electric scooter; but above all they hope that their new range of "glow-tor" bikes will make the roads a safer place for riders.

30th Apr 2006

Passive Smoking

Smoking accounts for a quarter of all cancer deaths in the UK, and passive smoking is thought to cause hundreds more every year. But now researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital medical centre have found that passive smoking may also affect behaviour. The scientists studied 225 children between 5 and 11 years old, who were exposed to an average of 14 cigarettes per day. The team found that the kids exposed to the most smoke had more behavioural problems, including anxiety, depression and bad behaviour. Although the researchers studied children with asthma, they think that their results probably apply to all children - and there may be other social factors at work. Importantly, the same team previously found that passive smoking could also affect children's brain skills, including reading, maths, logic and reasoning. So maybe that's another reason to stub out the fags.

30th Apr 2006

Science Update - Elephants, OIl and Memory

Chelsea Wald and Bob Hirshon from AAAS

 

Kat - Now we're going to hop over the pond and have our science update from Chelsea Wald and Bob Hirshon who are from the AAAS, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This week we're going to be finding out how elephants are helping the oil crisis, and also meet the woman who never forgets. But first, it's time to find out the answer to the riddle that Chelsea set us last week.

Chelsea - This week for the Naked Scientists, we're starting off answering last week's riddle. Bob, pray tell, what is brown, sounds like a bell and could help solve the oil crisis?

Bob - Elephant DUNGGGG! Yes, that's right, elephant dung. Now you may ask how is elephant dung going to solve the oil crisis. You see, ethanol from plants like corn is a promising alternative fuel and now scientists in the Netherlands have developed a more efficient way to produce it using a gene from a fungus found in elephant dung. Industrial microbiologist Ton van Maris at the Delft University of Technology explains that baker's yeast can convert plant sugars in to ethanol but couldn't metabolise the indigestible wood sugars, until now.

Han - By taking this gene from the fungus we isolated from the elephant dung and putting it into baker's yeast, we have created a yeast strain that under laboratory conditions can produce almost twice the amount of ethanol from plant biomass as a normal yeast strain would do.

Bob - He says that because elephants eat so much roughage, their digestive tracts are full of micro-organisms that can tackle the tougher sugars.

Chelsea - Eugh. Well next we have a fascinating case study. We hear a lot about patients who lose their memory either due to an accident or a disease like Alzheimer's. But here's a patient with an abnormally good memory.

Bob - Do you remember what you did yesterday? Or how about May 10th 1996? For a forty year old woman known as AJ these questions are equally easy. Psychiatrist James Mcgarr of the University of California at Irvine has been studying her previously undocumented super memory. For example, given no advance warning, she was able to rattle off the dates of Easter for the past twenty years.

James - And she's Jewish and would have no specific reason to pay attention to Easters. Without any effort at all she immediately gave us the dates. She made a mistake by two days an then quickly corrected it. She also told us what she was doing on each of those days, which we verified by turning to a diary she had kept over the years.

Bob - Remarkably, he says that AJ doesn't rely on rote memorisation or mnemonic devices. She just vividly recalls each day as if it were yesterday. His team plans to use brain scans to find out if her memory is organised differently to other people's.

Chelsea - That's all for this week. Next time we'll talk about the latest things neurologists are talking about keeping your brain happy and healthy. Until then, I'm Chelsea Wald.

Bob - And I'm Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the science society. Back to you Naked Scientists.

April 2006

How To Improve your Memory

Ron Hale-Evans, author of Mind Performance Hacks

Chris - Now what's your memory like? People often ask me how I manage to remember so many things, and the answer is that I just have to read them and they sort of stick somewhere. But now to tell us how to all have an incredibly good memory and maybe also how to have a photographic memory, here's Ron Hale-Evans from the US, who has written the book Mind Performance Hacks. Hello Ron.

Ron - Hi Dr Chris. Thanks for having me on the show.

Chris - Great to have you with us. Come on then, tell us about your book. What's it all about?

Ron - Well it's about improving not just your memory but improving your creativity and general mental fitness by using clever tricks, or what we call hacks.

Chris - This is not just a glorified self help book. These things actually do work don't they.

Ron - Yes, I think so. Some of them are thousands of years old and are time-tested, and others are very new and use the newest cognitive research.

Chris - And have you yourself got a photographic memory?

Ron - No, I don't have photographic memory. In fact I have rather a poor memory at times but I use some of these hacks to improve my memory and I'm able to do things I wouldn't normally be able to do such as go to the grocery and not have to use a grocery list.

Chris - Ok, are these things you've worked out for yourself, so that they're only going to work on you or if people read your book and apply these things, are you reasonably confident that they're going to work for everybody?

Ron - Well there are 75 different hacks in the book and not every hack in the book will work for every person. But I think there's something in the book for everyone and I think everyone will find something that they can use.

Chris - Ok, so do you want to run us through a couple of them? I know you have a couple in mind that you were going to tell us about.

Ron - Sure, well I was talking about a grocery list a minute ago. As you were mentioning earlier in the show, the human brain is incredibly visual. Our distant ancestors didn't use abstract numbers or other abstract information, but they could certainly visualise concrete shapes of things like predators or food. So you can use that ability to process sensory information by turning a numbered list like a shopping list into concrete shapes that you can remember.

Chris - So you visualise the thing you want to remember, link it to something else in your mind and it makes it easier to remember.

Ron - That's right.

Chris - So come on then. Give us an example of how you would do that for a few objects.

Ron - So let's say that you have three items you're trying to remember. You associate the number 1 with a pencil because it's shaped like a pencil, and the number 2 with a swan because it's shaped like a swan, and the number 3 with a heart because it's shaped like the top of a heart. Let's now say you want to remember the items bread, milk and soup. You might imagine, instead of a pencil, a loaf of French bread to write a letter to someone. You might imagine a milk white swan swimming in a lake of milk.

Chris - But you've still got to remember all these things Ron.

Ron - Well that's true but you're relying on information that's already in your brain like shapes to remember things that you're trying to remember on the fly like a grocery list.

Chris - The one thing that I really liked was your method for learning Morse code because as someone who used to be very interested in radio myself, I found Morse code impenetrable for some reason. So what's your answer there?

Ron - We took a hack that was described by the children of Frank Gilbert, who was an efficiency expert at the turn of the 20th century. He came up with a way of remembering Morse code letters by using English words. For example, the Morse code letter A, which is dot - dash, is remembered by the word a-bout.

Kat - So you're using the letters as a word pattern or rhythmic pattern.

Ron - yes. We're using the stress of the words.

Kat - So can you remember the whole of the Morse code?

Ron - Yeah, pretty much. Occasionally I have to go back to refresh my memory because I don't have that much occasion to use Morse code in ordinary live.

Chris - What's dot dot, dash dash, dot dot, Ron?

Ron - Erm…

Chris - You can't get that one wrong! It's SOS!

Kat - People have different ways of remembering things because I can remember facts but I can't remember people. Have you got a quick tip for me to remember people?

Ron - Well there isn't one in the book but I can tell you that the way to do it is to remember the person with an image.

Kat - So I have to associate them with something.

Chris - What would you associate with Kat? I would associate her with a pair of smelly socks, but that's just me. Ron, thanks for coming on the programme and joining us to talk about your book.

April 2006

Prize Winner At The London Weather Centre

Jasmine Watts from Cambridge

Kat - Three weeks ago we had Alex Hill from the London Weather Centre on the show who talked about how to predict the weather. The prize winners were Richard Fusniak and his granddaughter Jasmine. So they went down to the London Weather Centre and learned how to do their own weather report. So here making her radio debut and braving the winds of London is ten year old Jasmine.

Jasmine - Hello. I'm Jasmine Watts from Cambridge, broadcasting live from London Weather Centre. Here is the forecast for today for the south of England. Here in London it will be a cloudy afternoon. The temperatures will be thirteen Celcius and 55 Fahrenheit. This weather will be warmer than yesterday and the rainy showers will be mostly in the Midlands later today. That's today's weather and back to the studio.

Kat - And that was Jasmine who's doing her first weather report. So hopefully you'll make it as a weather presenter!

SEX, DRUGS AND DNA - Dr Michael Stebbins, Director of Biology Policy for the Federation of American Scientists

Chris - Now we're going to be joined by Michael Stebbins who will be doing a talk in Cambridge this week. Now Michael, you've called your talk Sex, Drugs and DNA after this pretty impressive book you've written. Tell us about what you'll be covering in your talk and why it's so important.

Michael - The talk is going to be about the book and some of the topics within it. I usually leave it up to the audience to choose to talk about sex, but it covers stem cells, global warming, intelligent design, bioterrorism, contraception, the drug industry and healthcare.

Chris - So a pretty controversial index of problems then.

Michael - yes, and it really explains the science behind each one of these things and exposes the liars and miscreants who have been pushing policies that are against what we know about science.

Chris - To what extent is this going to be relevant to people in the UK because that's what people are going to be asking. It's great that you're coming to the UK to talk about this, although intelligent design is more of an issue in the US than in the UK.

Michael - Well I'm not so sure that intelligent design is just a US problem. It seems to be spreading although it is centred in the US at this point. Certainly the other issues relevant in the US really do end up cropping up in the UK and Europe. The US ends up being a weather bell for what's going to be happening in Europe. I think a lot of the issues, including stem cells for example, are controversial in both places. And the drug industry most recently has also been quite controversial in the UK.

Chris - Well look Michael, I'm really looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday. Should be a good lid lifting exercise.

April 2006

	We know that we're living on a nuclear furnace and heat's being made all the time in the core. Is there no way we could harness this heat in the future? Alfred in Norwich
	It is already is. This is why Iceland's one of the main producers of bananas. A lot of bananas come from Iceland because it's a centre of geothermal activity. It's an area on the Earth's surface where heat from inside actually heats up things like water, so you get very hot geysers, hot rocks and areas of the earth. You can harness that heat, and in Iceland they use it to power their greenhouses for growing bananas. In other parts of the world as well there is geothermal heat being used to generate energy. In New Zealand, it's already used. The way you do it is you pump water down to where the rocks are hot enough and the water comes up at very high temperatures and very high pressure. You can then either send that water off as a direct distribution or you can pass it through a heat exchanger and then distribute that heat around people's houses, hospitals and places that need energy. It's great for bathing in too. However, this is only used where it's economical and the rocks are close enough to the surface.
	April 2006

	I'm curious about this digital era we've gone into. If you watch the television on digital signal, the clock that they show, especially on breakfast television, has a slightly different time than real time. This is because of the signal having to go up to the satellite and come back down again. I wondered if there was a way of solving this? Gordon in Huntingdon
	There is and they rely on Einstein's theory of relativity to get around the problem with GPS, but not really for everybody because it depends how far the signal has to travel. The only way round it is to provide local time signatures. And they're going to switch off the analogue signals so it's going to cease to be an issue and we'll all be slightly out of time. The thing is, we live in a world where the average person has their watch out by several minutes relative to Greenwich Mean Time, so a fraction of a second disparity on the television is probably not going to affect people's lives if I'm being really honest.
	April 2006

	I've been blind for forty years and when I dream, I can still see. I can see things I haven't seen like my grandchildren and places I haven't been to. How is this possible? Jill in Cambridge
	Humans are incredibly visual creatures. We devote over a third of our brain power just to being able to see. That makes us quite similar to dogs, although dogs of course live in less of a visual world and more of a smelly world. A dog's nose is 3000 times more sensitive to smell than a human. When you go to sleep and have a dream, the regions of the brain you use during the day to do various tasks light up if you have a brain scan while dreaming. If you look at people who are dreaming and look at the visual areas of the brain you'll see that they're becoming very active. When you wake people up when they're showing those signs and ask them what was happening, they'll say that they were in a field or walking around and experiencing something. They can give you a pretty graphic description. When you're blind, often what happens is that when you've seen once, the bits of the brain that used to do the seeing have laid down a pretty powerful memory of what's out there in the world around you. You know what colours there are you know what objects look like. When you go to sleep, although there's no direct input from the eyes now, still can generate those images and they're every bit as real as they were when you really were seeing. I have a lot of blind friends that they actually love going to sleep because it reminds them of what seeing is like, and it also reminds them of what colours are like.
	April 2006

	People say that dogs are colour-blind. Is that a fact? Les in Peterborough
	It depends on how you define colour-blind. The version of that urban myth that I've heard is that they see in black and white, and that's just not true. If you look at a dog's retina, the thing that turns light into neurochemistry or electrical signals, there are structures in the dog's retina called cones. These are identical to structures in the human retina called cones that can see coloured parts of the visual system. So dogs can definitely see colours. But if you analyse those cones, they paint a very different picture of what dogs see of the world than what humans do. The best description is that dogs are the equivalent of human red-green colour blindness. So they have a spectrum of colours that means they are pretty good at seeing greens, violets and blues, but at the red end of the spectrum they're less good. They probably appreciate it as a slightly different colour, such as yellow. But they're certainly not colour blind.
	April 2006

	Can you please repeat how many tonnes of blood the heart pumps in twenty four hours. Kate in Harlow
	The heart pumps around fifty times per minute. It pumps about five litres of blood a minute. So if you times that by sixty for the amount of blood in an hour and then times it by 24 for the number of hour in a day, it's about 7500 litres of blood every single day. Blood is about 1 gram per centimetre cubed, which means it's a thousand grams per litre. That means that if you pump 7500 litres in a day, that's 7.5 tonnes of blood pumped around your body every single day.
	April 2006

	Why is it that when I pull out my nose hair I get a really painful teary response? Ben in North Carolina
	Well for a start, don't pull your nose hair. You should clip it to avoid infections. It hurts because your nose is very sensitive and has lots of nerves in there. It's a super nerve reaction when it happens.
	April 2006

Making music with wine glasses

Make some interesting and eerie music with wineglasses.

What you need

A few wineglasses - ideally some cheap and some expensive

Some Water

A finger

What to Do

Try pinging the glasses, see how long they keeps ringing for

Pick the one that rang for the longest.

Wet your finger, then gently rub it around the rim of the glass - don't press too hard or you could break the glass.

- What happens?

Try adding some water to the glass, try again.

- Is there any difference?

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What may Happen

You should find that any glass that will ring for more than 3-4 seconds will start to vibrate and produce an eerie note as you move your finger around it. It may take a while to get the knack but it should work.

Different glasses will produce different notes and will work differently well, you should find that the glasses that ring for longest after you ping them are easiest to play.

If you add water you should find that the pitch of the note goes down.

With water
With less water

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What is going on?

These effects are all to do with a principle called resonance. Some things have a speed that they vibrate at really well, for example a swing - just by wobbling your legs at the right speed you can build up a great big swing and have lots of fun.

Your finger is doing something similar to the glass, as you slide it around, it will tend to stick, then slip, then stick then slip. Some  glasses have a speed at which they will vibrate really really well, if this sticking and slipping is at about the same speed as this the vibration will build up enough that you can start to hear it as the eerie note.

Some glasses are better at vibrating than others, cheap ones tend to have minute flaws in their structure that rub against one another while the glass is vibrating causing it to loose energy - a bit like putting your feet down on a swing. In this case you are never going to get it to vibrate well. The best glasses are large crystal wineglasses that haven't been decorated.

If you add water to the glass it essentially makes the glass heavier so it takes it longer to vibrate back and forth so vibration is slower and therefore the pitch is lower.

It may make you go mad

Instruments based on this very principle were very popular at the beginning of the 19th century, called Glass Harmonicas or Armonicas they consisted of a series of tuned glass bowls which the player could rub to produce different notes. Although after a while it was belived that the beautiful eerie sounds could make people particularly women go mad....

Although it was later discovered that they were marking the notes with lead paint, and the players were licking their fingers to play the insrtument, and therefore eating lots of poisonous lead paint, which was probably more of the problem.

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Written by Dave Ansell