News
As festival season approaches for Indian Hindus, environmentalists are trying to avoid a catastrophe caused by the faithful tossing millions of decorated statues of gods into rivers and waterways. The usually elaborately decorated effigies often contain toxic levels of heavy metals including lead, m...
For decades, there has been a wonderful mystery that has baffled marine biologists. The question is, where do baby turtles go?Sea turtles, as their name suggests, live their lives at sea, with females returning to land to lay their eggs on beaches. And after the tiny baby turtles have ha...
Scientists have discovered a molecular switch that turns on a cancer cell's ability to spread to other parts of the body.
Publishing in this week's Nature, MIT researcher Robert Weinberg and his colleagues were examining microRNAs, small pieces of single-stranded genetic material produced in the c...
In these days of globalization, international travel and exploration, it’s hard to imagine that there could still creatures hiding out there that have never been seen by man.So, it comes as a wonderful surprise that scientists have uncovered a treasure trove of brand new species in a mysterious and ...
Scientists have discovered that the brains of anorexics respond differently to certain tastes than the brains of control subjects, possibly explaining why sufferers eschew tasty foods.
Writing in this month's Neuropsychopharmacology, University of Pittsburgh researcher Walter Kaye, Angela Wagner a...
Kitchen Science
A handkerchief is not something you think of as very waterproof. Find out how waterproof a hanky can be and how this helps make coats waterproof yet breathable.
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Interviews
Kat Arney reports in with the latest news from the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Birmingham, UK.
Non-stick pans are great, they make it so much easier to clean cooked on scrambled egg! But the Thin Films and Interfaces group at Cambridge University have found a way to make a super non stick surface, just by changing the surface structure of ordinary Teflon. Ullrich Steiner explains......
Now, if you listen carefully you will notice that we, in the Naked Scientists are surrounded by paper. We usually try not to make you hear but similarly in offices all around the country incredible amounts of paper are thrown away on a daily basis. I’d just like to point out that I take all my paper...
Biocomposites, materials similar to plastics but made from biological material, could be the ideal replacement for petrochemical based plastics. Paul Fowler explained more to Chris...
Dr Ruth Cameron and Dr Serena Best from the Centre for Medical material at the University of Cambridge spoke to Chris about how they are using ceramics and polymers to help mend broken bones.
Questions

Can I water my houseplants with sea water?
Unless your houseplants are a particular type of plant that love to be in the sea or salty water (halophytic plants), then no. Because what you’re doing is adding too much salt to the plant. The roots of plants are only adapted to a certain level of salts or any kind of ions that are in the water. They’re only able to take up water in a certain concentration. If that becomes more concentrated the osmotic pressures go crazy and the plant is unable to take up any more water. So unless you are growing seaweeds, sea grasses or salt marsh plants then I think, stick to fresh water!

Do you get wetter running or walking in the rain?
Lots of people responded to this question with some very good points:
If you run, you're more likely to splash in puddles, and so your ankles and shoes will get wetter by running - BUT, this assumes it's been raining for a while, and there are already puddles around.
Also, running on wet ground is much more likely to result in you falling over, when you will get very wet indeed!
Obviously, the exact conditions of the rain means that it's very difficult to give the best speed to travel through rain, but Ronaldo Menezes sent us a link to Doug Craigen's calculator to work out exactly how much rain would hit you for given speed and rain conditions.
We tried the calculator with Chris' values, and found that if he jogs at 2 meters per second through 200m of vertical rain falling at 5m/s, he will be hit by 30.4ml of rain, but if he goes at 3m/s - only 27ml of water will hit him.
QotW
This week, Diana was asked why the sounds in a sea shell are the sounds of the sea shore...
Dave, Ben. I did the experiment, and got the correct result. I then repeated it, but this time i added soap to the water in the glass. I got the same ...
- paul.fr - 8th Oct 07
Also, what is the difference between a rainproof and a stormproof coat? Is it the size of the "hole's" in the material, which i suppose...
- paul.fr - 8th Oct 07
I think it is because soap reduces the surface tension, but doesn't actually kill it (soap bubbles are still pulled into spheres), and the holes ...
- daveshorts - 8th Oct 07
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