This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about surreptitious sleep; feeding hummingbirds; why bats don’t like the rain; and more.
The science of Osama—The hunt for Osama bin Laden and the events of his capture, death and its aftermath involved a whole raft of science and technology. In fact, without the back room boffins, it would have unfolded entirely differently, if at all.—New Scientist, Science and others
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20439-osama-bin-laden-how-dna-identified-his-body.html
Tooled-up T-cells take the fight to cancer—US researchers have come up with a clever way of helping the immune system to tackle cancer. They are equipping the body’s killer cells with small capsules which can carry boosters or special weapons to the fight.—Nature Medicine
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20435-tooledup-tcells-take-the-fight-to-cancer.html
First buildings may have been community centres The discovery by British and Israeli archaeologists of a large, 12,000-year-old, amphitheatre-like building in southern Jordan has added to a growing body of evidence that the earliest permanent buildings might not have been homes, but community centres.—Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
A Science story on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/05/first-buildings-may-have-been-co.html?ref=hp
Surreptitious sleep—American researchers have shown that some of the nerve cells in the brains of visibly awake rats go off-line briefly. Their work supports the idea that one of the functions of sleep may be for the brain to reconfigure.—Nature
A Nature story on this topic can be found at http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110427/full/news.2011.259.html
Hummingbird feeds with forked tongue—A high speed video of a hummingbird’s tongue when it is feeding has turned on its head the existing theory that they suck nectar out of flowers like drinking through a straw. In fact, the tongue divides into two and little extensions inside scoop up the nectar.—Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/05/how-the-hummingbirds-forked-tongue-traps-sweet-nectar.html
Why bats don’t like the rain—Bats take shelter when there’s serious rain. They find it harder to fly, but the reason why is not obvious.—Biology Letters
A Science story on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/05/scienceshot-why-bats-dont-like.html