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9th Sep 2007
More Answers to Your Questions
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This week, we look at the latest science news and tackle more of your questions. We uncover the source of the asteroid that finished off the dinosaurs, find out how moray eels eat like aliens, and although we know that breast is best, could nicotine in smokers' breast milk be affecting childrens' behaviour? Also, is the future of formula one eco-friendly? Meera investigates race cars running on biofuels, and built from hemp and cashew nuts! We discuss award winning beards, eerie glowing fish and what makes for a long life. Plus, we find out what to expect at this year's BA Festival of Science in York, and in Kitchen Science Dave demonstrates how a pair of paperbacks can be stronger than a quarterback.
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News
Scientists in the US and the Czech Republic have discovered the origins of the meteorite that helped to bring about the demise of the dinosaurs. Bill Bottke from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder Colorado, together with David Vokrouhlicky and David Nesvorny from Charles University in Pragu...
A New approach to fusion has been given the go-ahead near Oxford in the UK.Nuclear fusion is the power source for the Sun and involves smashing nuclei of light elements, like hydrogen, together so they fuse, releasing lots of energy. This is different from conventional nuclear power which invo...
Scientists have discovered how Moray eels manage to swallow things nearly as large as themselves - they have a second set of teeth in their throat, called pharyngeal jaws, that jump forwards and grab whatever's in the mouth and drag it down the animal's oesophagus. Rita Mehta, from UC Davis, made th...
Researchers in Toronto have developed a new form of display inspired by butterflies, they call it P-ink.Most displays today, whether that are conventional TV's, LCDs or big LED billboards work by emitting light. This is great at night but during the day they tend to look dull and washed out be...
Kitchen Science
Using nothing but a tiny bit of friction stick two books together so you can't pull them apart.
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Interviews
Breastfeeding is the best was to nurture an infant, but what if you're a smoker? We're always told that smoking while pregnant is bad for the baby, so what about nicotine in breastmilk? Chris spoke to Julie Mennella...
We’re all being asked to lower our carbon footprint and one area where you’d think this would be nearly impossible is the world of Formula one racing. But scientists are now working on a way to reduce the damage that results from this sport. Meera went along to the Science Museum to find out how....
Every year, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the BA, hold a festival. They go to a different university each year and the idea is to make science fun and interesting for the masses. We spoke to Sue Hordijenko, one of the people responsible for making it all happen......
Questions

Why can fish glow green?
It's quite unlikely that the glowing was due to radiation, if it was radioactive enough to glow like that you would probably get serious radiation poisoning just from being near it, and the fish would have been unlikely to live for long enough to get to catchworthy size. It's more likely that there were algae in the fish which phosphoresce, or there are other microorganisms which can glow in the same way, by taking energy in as one form and emitting it as light.

How small will electronic components get?
There definitely is a limit, because if you get too small then electrons can 'tunnel' between two wires which are too close together. That limit is somewhere around 10-50 atoms wide. There's a thing called 'redwall', where the semiconductor industry are making smaller and smaller microchips, with increasing numbers of transistors on them, but they predict that around 2012 they will no longer be able to make chips any smaller.
However, new technologies may yet find ways to shrink things even further.

Why does red that makes bulls so angry?
Bulls eyes are dichromatic - they have two colour pigments in their retina. They can see red, as well as being able to see other colours, but they would see things in a similar way to a colour blind person. There's nothing special about red, its more likely to be that the bull is excited by someone wearing silly clothes, dancing about and flapping something in the bull's direction. The bull is generally hot, bothered and fed up, but there's no evidence that there's anything special about the colour red.

Can unusual fish live in power station outlets?
The water coming out of a nuclear power station should be identical to that coming out of a normal power station, but it would be nice warm water. Chris used to sail near the outlet of a power station and found the water so warm it was like a bath! Because this water is so warm, they've found fish around UK power stations that you would normally find in the Mediterranean, which wouldn't survive a winter otherwise. Also, the warm water encourages other marine species that the fish can feed on.
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