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13th Jul 2008

Olympic Science


Dave Ansell

Chris Smith

We're going for gold on this week's Olympian Naked Scientists, by discovering the sporty science of performance enhancement.  We find out how drugs can help boost an athlete's performance, and how the testing labs are hot on their heels!  We also explore how altitude training and hi-tech trainers can power athletes past their personal bests.  Plus, a stem cell cure for muscular dystrophy, flies with flu and how a rubber Anaconda could generate energy from waves.  And in Kitchen Science, we find out how to get the biggest bounce from two balls!

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News

Fly Flu Clue to Combating Virus

Scientists have modified an influenza virus so that it can infect fruit flies, enabling them to identify over 100 new ways to fight flu in future.Writing in this weeks Nature, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher Paul Ahlquist and his colleagues describe how, by replacing the outer coat of the...

Fossilised Feathers Show Their True Colours

Over the years there have been hundreds of films and thousands of pictures made of dinosaurs, where scientists have carefully pieced together their shape and lifestyle. One critical piece of information for painting an accurate picture has been missing however – the colour. Colours in mammals and m...

Stem cells rescue muscular dystrophy in mice

Scientists have shown that satellite cells, a form of muscle stem cell, can be used to repair muscles affected by muscular dystrophy. Working with mice and writing in the journal Cell, Harvard researcher Amy Wagers and here colleagues used chemical markers to identify a sub-population of adult muscl...

A Window on Solar Power

Solar cells are expensive and difficult to produce, as they have to be made in a computer chip plant, so you want to maximise the amount of energy you can get out of each one.  One way is to concentrate the light onto a cell using relatively cheap mirrors, or lenses.  This means that sever...


Kitchen Science

Part 1 Part 2 Listen
...or download as MP3 [1] [2]

Monster Bounces

Make a tennis ball bounce much higher than the height you dropped it from using a neat piece of physics.


QotW

Breathing Without Lungs?

How is it possible for a Bornean flat-headed frog to have no lungs and breathe through its skin?


Interviews

Anaconda Advances Wave Power

Could an Anaconda be the best way to extract power from waves? Possibly not the snake itself, but it's namesake - a rubber tube capable of harvesting wave power...

Performance Enhancing Drugs

We’ve seen the news stories in previous Olympic tournaments where athletes have been caught using performance enhancing drugs, such as steroids, to increase their chances of winning their event. But how much of a boost is this really giving them? We’ve got Professor Chris Cooper from the University ...

Cracking Down on Cheating Athletes

How are sport officials cracking down on athletes using the wide range of drugs available to boost their performance, including the natural chemicals in use? We’ve got Jonathon Danaceau from the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Lab at the University of Utah to give us the answers....

Running with Sports Technology

Another method often used by athletes to reach their peak performance is to use the best equipment or clothing on the market. Whether it’s the lightest bicycle or the toughest tennis racket, having the best equipment on your side can make a real difference. So we sent Meera Senthilingam along to Lou...


Questions

Are there any natural steroids?


What's the fastest a human could run?


What's the difference between petrol and diesel?


Regulating athletes' metabolism


Would athletes drug each other's drinks?


Is high testosterone an advantage in sport?


Is it faster to run barefoot?


Drugs in our water supply?



I think it gets really hard to answer, because what do you call a drug?...
- chris - 16th Jul 08

OK. When were the last olymics that were free from manufactured performance enhancing drugs?
...
- paul.fr - 17th Jul 08

Pass! Anyone know?...
- chris - 17th Jul 08

Is it possible to work backwards? Does anyone know the last Olympics when someone was not caught using performance enhancing drugs?...
- paul.fr - 18th Jul 08
Whole Thread | Post Reply



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