News
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...
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...
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...
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
Make a tennis ball bounce much higher than the height you dropped it from using a neat piece of physics.
QotW
How is it possible for a Bornean flat-headed frog to have no lungs and breathe through its skin?
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Interviews
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...
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 ...
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....
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?
I wanted to know if there are any naturally derived (or if there are only synthetic) steroids. Also, if there are any natural steroids would it be possible for an athlete to get them in his daily diet? Would that disqualify him from any sporting events?

What's the fastest a human could run?
What’s the fastest a human could run, theoretically. What’s the fastest a human could sprint at with the aid of all the latest blood and drug enhancements?

Regulating athletes' metabolism
Can we not just monitor athletes to see how their metabolism is behaving and then regulate it so everyone has the same level?

Would athletes drug each other's drinks?
I’ve always wondered something. If you were a really evil athlete and you had a competitor could you drug their drink in the pub the night before the event and they’d get knocked out of the competition?

Is it faster to run barefoot?
Is it faster to run barefoot? I run in my local sports track a few times a week trying to beat my personal best of 2:40 but to no avail. Last month, on a whim, I decided to run it barefoot. I ran 2:34 which is totally smashing my personal best. I’ve tried it again and since run 2:30s. As an experiment I ran my next few times in trainers and ran those speeds again. Is running barefoot faster for me and if so why?

Drugs in our water supply?
Drugs seem to be getting stronger and more common. Could they be excreted and end up 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
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