Personal helicopters, pruney fingers and screwed up beetles

Tim’s blog

This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about personal helicopters; pruney fingers; screwed up beetles; rig recycling; and more…

Personal helicopters to learn traffic rules—The European Commission is taking the prospect of “personal aerial vehicles” (PAVs) seriously enough to kick off a $6-million research project to establish flight rules, and develop sensors to enable them to work. Called MyCopter, the project aims to ensure that PAVs can fly automatically in neat, well-spaced swarms.—New Scientist

A New Scientist report on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128195.100-personal-helicopters-to-learn-traffic-rules.html

Long-dead cane toads continue to haunt Australian wildlifeA Sydney group has found cane toad carcasses still harbour biologically active toxins for months after death. And these poisons can withstand temperatures of up to 49 °C.—Biological Invasions

A Science report on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/07/long-dead-cane-toads-continue-to.html?ref=hp

Pruney fingers grip betterThe wrinkles that develop on wet fingers could be an adaptation to give us better grip in slippery conditions, an American evolutionary biologist argues. He thinks the wrinkles act like the treads on wet road tyres, creating channels that allow water to run away when we press our fingertips on wet surfaces.—Brain, Behaviour and Evolution

A Nature report on this topic can be found at http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110628/full/news.2011.388.html

How tree frogs keep their feet sticky—Everyone knows how irritating it is trying to re-attach sticky tape after it has become dusty. Tree frogs have the same problem every day. They have evolved special channels to sluice away dirt and debris.—Science

A Science report on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/07/scienceshot-how-tree-frogs-keep.html?ref=hp

Beetles beat us to discovering the screw and nut—Weevils are screwed up animals. The legs of some species literally screw into the body, German entomologists have found. They have ridges at one end just like the thread on a screw. This fits into a hole like a nut. And they can twist their front legs through 90°, and their middle and hind legs through 130°.—Science

A Science report on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/06/scienceshot-a-beetle-with-screws.html?ref=hp

Old spiders weave messy webs—Researchers have now shown that, as spiders age, they build shabbier, less perfect webs. Dementia, here we all come.—Science

A Science report on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/07/scienceshot-old-spiders-weave.html?ref=hp

Rig recycling—Some 6500 ocean-drilling oil rigs are due for decommissioning by 2025 at a cost of about $100 billion. Researchers in Sydney suggest they might be able to contribute to a healthy environment—by acting as artificial reefs.—Australasian Science

An Australasian Science article on this topic can be found in the July, 2011 issue.

Magnetic nanoparticles fry tumours—Injecting magnetic nanoparticles into cancer cells, and then heating those particles using fluctuating magnetic fields, can eliminate tumours from mice with no apparent side effects, a Korean research group has found.—Nature Nanotechnology

A Science report on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/07/magnetic-nanoparticles-fry-tumor.html?ref=hp

Sleeping babies can hear when you’re upsetWaiting until the baby is asleep before you argue isn’t going to do much good, British researchers have found. They monitored brain activity in 21 infants while they slept, and found that the brains of sleeping babies respond to sound in almost the same way as when they are awake.—Current Biology

A New Scientist report on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20640-sleeping-babies-can-hear-youre-upset.html

Belly button ecosystems There’s enough life in the average human navel to have it designated a nature reserve, researchers in the US have found. In what started out as a bit of a joke, the microbiologists have already turned up more than 1400 species of bacteria, nearly half of them never before described.—New Scientist

A New Scientist blog on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/06/peter-aldhous-san-francisco-bu.html