On this weeks Pan-Continental Naked Scientists we bring you the latest science news from the AAAS conference in Boston. We hear about why cholesterol-lowering drugs are good for us but bad for bacteria, see the map that shows mankind's effect on the oceans and discover the surprisingly complex science of sand castles. Also in this week's show, we look into the future for organ transplants - how bone marrow grafts could make rejection a thing of the past, keeping organs alive outside the body and how we can grow a beating heart in the lab! Plus, in Kitchen Science, we find out how to prove that blood circulates around the body!
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Do one of the experiments that helped to convince doctors that blood actually circulates around your body.
Organ Rejection is a big problem, overcome by immuno-suppressant drugs. But these drugs are quite toxic and leaves people vulnerable to infections and cancers. A new technique involving transplanting bone marrow along with an organ could change all that...
Donated organs need to be transported to the recipient as quickly as possible, and won't survive for long. Now, Oxford scientists have developed a technique that could extend the life of an organ outside the body...
A few weeks ago, we reported on the breakthrough where scientists in America had been able to build a beating heart in the lab. By using the scaffold of an existing heart, stripping out the old cells and seeding it with new ones, they've proven the principle that organs could b...
What is the smell of old books? The older the book, the better it smells. I’m not talking about the old mouldy smell of an ill-kept book. I’m talking about the heart-warming smell of a book you’ve loved and kept for twenty years. What is the smell of old books?
As far as I know plastics are synthesised from starting ingredients like oil. Will it be difficult to make plastics as well as oil supplies are depleted in the future? I can imagine a world where we are less dependent on energy perhaps but do you think we’ll still need them for p...
Why do my saucepans that I put in my dishwasher never dry properly unlike the plates etcetera? The pans always have water left in them whereas the plates are bone dry. My guess is it’s due to the Teflon® coating keeping the water in large globules.
I’ve got a five week old daughter who yawns. When she yawns he yawns as well. When he yawns she doesn’t yawn. Is the contagious yawning thing learnt or a cultural thing?
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