| Subscribe Free via itunes,yahoo or google |
< Previous Show | Next Show > |
16th Mar 2008
Cambridge Science Festival Highlights
|
|
This week, we catch up with the action from this year's Cambridge Science Festival. We find out what you could learn from a plasticine brain and how your next holiday could be literally out-of-this-world! We explore the science of Dr who's Sonic Screwdrivers, Spiderman and Skateboarders and find out how long the festival takes to prepare. Plus, how meteorite strikes benefit life on Earth, get a step closer to a cure for one of the most common forms of blindness and find out why chimps on TV could be harming their cousins in the wild. All this, and in Kitchen Science we show you how to make a Vacuum machine powered bazooka!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News
Many people assume that meteors hitting our planet can only spell disaster for living creatures. For example, we’ve all heard about the massive meteor strike 65 million years ago that is widely believed to have done for the dinosaurs.But scientists at the Natural History Museum of Denmark are now su...
Have you ever bought milk, only to discover it's gone off by the time you get home? A new device could stop spoiled food ever leaving the supermarket!
If food is not properly refrigerated, the amount of bacteria present will increase. This could mean that the food will 'go off' earlier ...
Researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine have mad a discovery that could lead to treatments for two of the leading causes of blindness – age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of blindness in people age 65 ...
Seeing Chimpanzees on TV and in adverts could be misleading the public into thinking chimps are thriving, when the reality is very different.
For 45 years, chimps could be seen advertising tea, and more recently have been advertising beer, careers advice and even in a promotional campaign by the Am...
Kitchen Science
Build a vacuum cleaner powered bazooka and launch projectiles across your garden.
QotW
How do they predict the tides with such precision? And who needs it that precise?
|
Interviews
For years, scientists have assumed that the first born of any batch of offspring have a better chance of survival out in the wild, although this may not necessarily be true in humans. This does apply to birds, and it seemed that the first laid egg might do better than it's siblings. However, Dr Ke...
The Cambridge Science Festival lasts just two weeks, with a lot of the action compressed into a very busy weekend, but how long does it take to organise? Nicola Buckley joined us in the studio...
As part of Science Saturday at the Science festival, we sent Meera Senthilingam off to roam around the hands-on activities in the Biology Zones, right in the centre of Cambridge. And here’s what she found...
Fancy a Holiday in Space? If you can afford it, it could be possible very soon...
Is there really any science in Dr Who? What does Spiderman have to do with a gecko? And how are skateboarders scientists?
Questions

Why does spinning make you feel sick?
Kat: I think this is all to do with the vestibular system, if that’s the right word. I’m sure Chris will pick me up on this from Australia if I’m wrong. Basically, inside your ears you have a system of interconnecting tubes that are all at right-angles to each other. In each plane: up down, left and right that are filled with fluid. They tell you which way is up and which way is left and right in your head so you know if you’re standing up or lying down. If you spin very fast the fluid in these canals will spin round. If you stop very suddenly, as in stopping an office chair, you stop but the fluid in your ears is still going. Your brain gets all confused. You think you’re still spinning but your eyes are telling you that you’re not spinning so it manifests as feeling very sick.
Ben: Isn’t this why people feel sick in long car journeys at all?
Kat: Exactly, it’s when you get an imbalance between what your ears are telling your brain and what your eyes are telling your brain. You get confused and that makes you feel nauseous.

Why doesn’t spinning affect dancers?
I think the answer to that is they actually use a special technique when they spinning round. If you watch a dancer who’s spinning round very fast they’ll flip their head round, very quickly so their head is actually fixing on one point and then flipping round very fast. Is this called spotting? This is what we think it’s called. Your head’s actually mostly stationary and you’re flipping round and focusing on one point so it affects your ear system a bit less.

Why do your fingers wrinkle in the Bath?
This is because of osmosis. What happens is that water will move into your cells. That makes sense of how skin swells up but it doesn’t necessarily make sense that your skin’s wrinkly. You'll notice when you have a bath you don’t get wrinkles all over. You get wrinkles on the soles of your feet, on your hands: especially your fingers.
This is because you have a layer of protective keratin. Keratin’s a kind of tough stuff, it’s what claws and nails and so on are made of. This means that the skin here is much thicker than elsewhere on your body, and this thick layer is made of dead, keratinised cells. This takes up more water than the thinner skin elsewhere, and so swells up, and goes wrinkly.

Why is urine hot or warm when you excrete it?
It’s been stored in your body which is that fantastic body temperature of 37 degrees. It’s like keeping something in an incubator, it’s nice and warm. When it comes out, it’s still warm. Because your skin is cooled by the air, anything at 37 degrees feels hot against your skin. You’ll notice this if you put your hand in some water that is 37 degrees, it doesn’t feel the same. It feels warmer than blood heat.
|
|
|