This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about mobile drug labs; the corpse flower; Easter Island; dolphin gangs; and more
Drug labs leave lethal legacy—Mobile metamphetamine (crystal meth) labs leave behind a deadly cocktail of contaminants in residential neighbourhoods, and property owners are usually left to pay the considerable cost of cleaning up. One of Australia’s Cooperative Research Centres is working on cheaper and safer ways to remediate such areas.—Australasian Science
An story on this topic can be found in the June issue of Australasian Science.
Ancient female ancestors roamed far and wide for mates—A study of the teeth of 19 two-million-year-old human ancestors from cave sites in South Africa suggests it was the females who moved away from their birthplaces far more often than the larger males, who stayed surprisingly close to home and kin.—Nature
A Science story on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/06/ancient-female-ancestors-roamed-.html?ref=hp
Early Americans helped colonise Easter Island—It turns out that Thor Heyerdahl and his famous Kon-Tiki expedition may well have been right—at least partially. There is now clear genetic evidence that while Easter Island—one of the world’s most remote inhabited islands—was mostly colonised by settlers from Asia, at least some of its indigenous people came from South America.—Tissue Antigens
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20546-early-americans-helped-colonise-easter-island.html
Gold-mine worms show animals could be living on Mars—Tiny worms, half a millimetre long, have been found by a US microbiologist at depths of between one and three kilometres in South African gold mines. Not only is this astonishing given that multicellular organisms are rarely found deeper than 10 metres, but also because there are similar environments on Mars.—Nature
A Science story on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/06/hungry-worms-from-hell.html?ref=hp
Wave ‘invisibility cloak’ could shield coastlines—Metamaterials, the stuff of the latest research into ‘invisibility cloaks’, may have a serious practical application, shielding coastlines from destructive waves. The system could even double up as an energy plant.—New Scientist
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028154.500-wave-invisibility-cloak-could-shield-coastlines.html
Fishing has led to smaller Alaskan salmon—The size of Alaska’s sockeye salmon have shrunk by about 5 per cent since the 1940s, and researchers say that fishing is to blame. Because fisheries target bigger fish, they take a lot of the larger breeding females, and that means the eggs genetically destined to lead to bigger bodies in the next generation.—New Scientist
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20547-fishing-has-driven-evolution-of-smaller-alaskan-salmon.html
Mind over milkshake—If you want to lose weight, convince yourself that everything you eat is high in calories. It could lower your levels of a hunger hormone and suppress your appetite, according to American researchers.—Health Psychology
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028155.500-on-a-diet-try-mind-over-milkshake.html
US kids warned to avoid energy drinks—Schoolchildren in the US have been warned by the American Academy of Paediatrics to avoid energy drinks, and go easy on calorie-rich sports drinks.—Pediatrics
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028153.800-us-kids-should-avoid-energy-drinks.html
Californian dolphin gang caught killing porpoises—Seemingly random acts of violence by bottlenose dolphins on porpoises are starting to be put down to sexual frustration among young males. —Marine Mammal Science
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028154.700-californian-dolphin-gang-caught-killing-porpoises.html
Chinese ‘corpse flower’ to be mated in Scotland— At about three metres tall, the titan arum or corpse flower, the biggest flower in the world, has been dubbed “a charismatic megaplant”. It takes about a decade to flower and, when it does, possesses an odour like a rotting corpse. One has just flowered in Beijing and its pollen is being taken to Edinburgh to fertilise a plant there.—Science
A Science story on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/06/chinese-corpse-flower-finds-a-ma.html?ref=hp