Naked Scientists Podcast

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Question and Answer Show
5 May 2007
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5th Nov 2006

Naked Science Q&A and Record Breaking Fireworks


Dave Ansell

Kat Arney

Chris Smith

Why scratch your head at science when Dr Chris, Dr Dave and Dr Kat are here to answer all your questions?! In this week's Naked Science question and answer special, we discover why liquid washing tablets don't dissolve from the inside, why some genetic diseases only manifest in later life, is gravity constant, and why do men get hairy nostrils and ears when they hit sixty? There will also be a fireworks special in honour of bonfire night, including Dr Roy Lowry from the University of Plymouth who holds the record for firing the most rockets in five seconds, and Derek Thorne and Dave Ansell pull out an angle grinder for some sparkly Kitchen Science.

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News

 

Good News For Old, Fat Men

Now if you're old, overweight and male, then you could be given a new lease of life by chemicals found in grapes, wine and nuts - if you're a mouse that is. Researchers led by a team in the US have found that old male mice on a high-calorie diet enjoyed better...

 

Flu in your Genes

It's the time of year for sniffles, and many of us tell the boss we're laid up with flu when we've just got a bad cold. But flu can kill, though it usually targets the very young and very old. Every so often we get an epidemic of flu, such as the one in 1918, ...

 

Sperm Stopper

US researchers have produced a male "pill" capable of temporarily making rats infertile. Cheun-Yan Cheng, from the Centre for Biomedical Research in New York and his colleagues have found a way to block the maturation of sperm cells in the testis. Wh...


Questions

 

Do plants and trees communicate?


 

How do insects manage to fly in the rain?


 

Why after eating asparagus does your urine smell so strong?


 

Do white blood cells multiply by mitosis?


 

Is it really possible to drive a car onto a moving trailer like Knight Rider did?


 

When fireworks are released into the air they turn into smoke and dust. Is there any danger from this?


 

How many different things can we memorise, what is the most anyone could memorise?


 

Where does the microwave background radiation come from, how was it made and why is it still around?


 

Why is memory triggered by smells and music etc?


 

When I got towards retirement age, I started to get hairs growing out of my nose and my ears. Why?


 

Why do genetic diseases sometimes only develop in later life?


 

Is gravity around the planet constant? If you have a spinning ball and put a penny on it, it will be thrown off at the equator but not at the pole.




Fact or Fiction

The force needed to pull out a 2 inch (5 cm) nail from a piece of wood is the equivalent of lifting 26 kilograms (half a person)
TrueTrue
The thickness of the soap film on a bubble is about half a millimetre
TrueTrue
The world's first waterproofs were made in the 1500s
TrueTrue
The wheel was invented about 2000 years ago
TrueTrue
The world's biggest city is New York
TrueTrue
In the UK we quaff down 165 million cups of tea every day
TrueTrue
Tea made in a thin stainless steel teapot cools more quickly than tea brewed in a ceramic pot
TrueTrue
During the day, owing to the effects of gravity, the average person shrinks by over a centimetre (half an inch)
TrueTrue
The mammal with the largest brain is the African elephant
TrueTrue
A clock at the top of a mountain runs more quickly than a clock at sea-level
TrueTrue



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