This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about Twitter dialects; dazzling pirates; smart contact lenses; new urban bird species; and more
Rising seas look inevitable—Even if humans eliminate carbon dioxide emissions by 2100, the ocean warming already set in motion will lead to sea level rises that will flood coastal cities such as New York, Hong Kong and Melbourne, a Canadian scientist says. But we’ll have time to prepare. It will take hundreds of years.—Nature Geoscience
A Science story on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01/rising-seas-look-inevitable.html?ref=hp
First Earth-sized exoplanet discovered—Astronomers associated with NASA’s Kepler space telescope have announced finding the first rocky planet outside the solar system. And it’s not much bigger than Earth, although far too hot to support liquid water and life as we know it. But the researchers now consider it’s only a matter of time before they discover a planet fit for life.—Science/New Scientist
A Science story on this topic can be found at http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01/first-earth-sized-exoplanet-disc.html?ref=hp
Dazzling pirates on the high seas—Marauding pirates could soon find themselves up against a new, long-range, laser weapon designed by British scientists to blind them temporarily and leave them bewildered. The idea is not to harm the pirates, but rather to let them know they’ve been spotted and their potential prey is ready for them.—New Scientist
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19930-new-laser-to-dazzle-pirates-on-the-high-seas.html
Smart contact lenses to monitor health and provide information—Microelectronic engineers in the US and Europe are developing contact lenses which can monitor blood sugar levels in people with diabetes or look for signs of glaucoma. The lenses could also project print and images directly onto the field of view, researchers will tell a conference in Mexico later this month.—New Scientist
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927943.800-smart-contact-lenses-for-health-and-headup-displays.html
Social networks create their own regional dialects—People “tweeting” to each other are already evolving regional dialects like those in spoken language. And they are so pronounced, says an American researcher, that senders in the US can be located just by analysing the words they use.—New Scientist
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19936-social-networks-create-their-own-regional-dialects.html
Urban birds evolve new species which tune out city sounds—We already know that songbirds have to raise their voices to be heard in the city, but a Melbourne researcher now has evidence that they may actually be evolving new ‘urban’ species as a result.—Proceedings of the Royal Society B
A New Scientist story on this topic can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19926-hipster-bird-species-evolving-to-tune-out-urban-sounds.html