The Best of the BA Festival
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This week we're bringing you the very best bits from the BA Festival of Science in York. We discover a chewing gum that dissolves in the wash but still keeps your breath fresh, get some good news about cancer and find out why jogging may not be good for heart patient recovery if it's near a busy road. Also, Chris risks his health to find out about plague control in 17th Century York, and chocolate may be nicer than it is naughty, as Roger Corder explains how it could be good for your health. Out and about in the festival, Meera explores the psychology of commuter cooperation during the 2005 London bombings, tunes in to non-contact musical instruments and gets immersed in pure colour. Plus, we tackle your questions about good viruses, antioxidants and the Aurora Borealis. In Kitchen science Ben & Dave explore the physics behind a football and find out how to 'Bend it like Beckham.'
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Chris travelled back in time with Sabine Clarke and James Sumner to find out how the people of 17th century York coped with the plague.
Being addicted to things is usually bad news but now there's evidence that getting hooked on chocolate might not be such a bad thing: Just so long as it's the dark variety. That said, is chocolate really addictive? To find out, Chris met up with anti-oxidant expert Roger Corder ...
In public toilets, there are often automatic hot air hand driers, which come on when you put your hand under them and go off again when you move away. How does the hand drier know when to switch on/off?
If bacteria are constantly evolving and developing resistance to things like antibiotics, why don't they become resistant to soap, ethanol or bleach?
Viruses - are they any good? Are any of them actually good for us or symbiotic? For example, cowpox provides immunity to smallpox.
I'm a long haul pilot for British Airways, and I've seen the Aurora Borealis quite a lot of times. Every time I've seen them they're Always green in colour, though it can vary. What causes it, and why do you see it on some nights but not others?
Meera went out to find the best bits of the festival, and wound up in crowd control!
I've got a small aviary at home with several different species of birds in it, and every so often when I have to add another one there, because of natural losses, the different birds always seem to know what they are, the budgies don't try and mate with the canaries and the finch...
Make an old kitchen,or toilet, roll tube fly and find out what it has to do with David Beckham's free kicks.
Do antioxidants in food and supplements really survive stomach acids? Is there any way to ensure that they get into the blood stream?
What is fire, and why is it hot?
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