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29th Jun 2008
Evolution and Natural Selection
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It's 150 years since Darwin's theory of Evolution was presented to the Linnean Society, and so we've Naturally Selected the Science of Evolution! We find out why scientists have revisited a textbook example of natural selection in action, find out why horny sheep are gambling on good weather and how bacteria in the lab can evolve into a new species! We find out why tragedy almost kept Darwin's ideas from ever being seen, by looking at the archives of his own letters. Plus, why crocodiles chat from inside their eggs, a new way to send messages underwater and why Martian soil would be good for growing cabbages! And in kitchen science we find out which surface is best for keeping ice cool.
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News
Scientists have discovered that baby crocodiles talk to each other from inside their eggs in order to synchronise hatching. Writing in Current Biology, Jean Monnet University researchers Amelie Vergne and Nicholas Mathevon recorded the sounds made by a clutch crocodile eggs in the time leading up to...
Communications on land have come on in leaps and bounds over the last 20 or 30 years for relatively little money you can buy a phone which will transmit hundreds of thousands of characters every second, or you can buy a satellite phone which means you can talk to your mum from the middle of the Gobi...
A few weeks ago on the Naked Scientists we followed the story of the Odyssey, and how although the land has changed in the 3000 years since it was written, the poet knew his geography. Parts of the poem allowed modern scientists to locate the Island of Ithaca, even though the island has now be...
NASA's Phoenix lander which landed almost a month ago has started giving us our best view of the Martian soil yet.The lander is sitting on a plain near Mars' northern ice cap and has been digging in the soil and measuring its properties. After some problems in getting some soil inside as it was too ...
Kitchen Science
Does the speed of ice melting depend on what surface it's on? We compare an ice cube on a frying pan to an ice cube on a chopping board...
QotW
Can you tell me why, copper the metal is “copper in colour”, yet it is blue when in solution with sulphate, copper carbonate is colourless in solution, and when you flame test the element it is a green flame?
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Interviews
The evolution of the Peppered Moth is a textbook example of adaptation in the face of changing environmental conditions - yet the design of the original experiments have been criticised. Cambridge University scientists have been updating the experiment...
Evolving organisms on a lab bench allows a perfect view of how they change over time - but sometimes they can surprise us...
In Soay Sheep, having the biggest horns means you're more likely to breed - but it also means you're less likely to survive your first winter...
Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution were presented to the Linnean society on the 1st of July, 1858. 150 years on, we look through Darwin's own letters to find out more...
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