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Science In Action: 30/07/2010

30/07/2010

BBC World Service - Science In Action, 30/07/2010

Life on Mars; Sniff-controlled computers; Gregor Mendel; Extreme mammals; Eating insects

Searching for evidence of life on Mars; Sniff-controlled computers and wheelchairs; Moments of Genius from Tom Shakespeare - Gregor Mendel; Extreme mammals; Eating insects

SEARCHING FOR EVIDENCE LIFE ON MARS
Researchers from SETI Institute think that if you're going to find evidence of life on Mars, then you should look in the rocks.  Like certain rocks on earth, carbonate deposits are formed form the bodies of dead, fossilised creatures.  There are promising rocks on the Red planet, but the problem is that they are in a place that's too rocky for NASA's next rover to land!


SNIFF-CONTROL FOR SEVERELY DISABLED PEOPLE
The nerves that control our sniff response are based in the brain.  So if you are disabled by a spinal injury, the chances are you still have the ability to sniff, even if you lose all other control of your body.  Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have developed a device that can turn the sniff response into electrical signals which can be used to control computers for communication, drive electric wheelchairs or play computer games. 


MOMENTS OF GENIUS – GREGOR MENDEL
Tom Shakespeare is a research fellow at the Institute for Policy and Practice at Newcastle University, specializing in the fields of disability, bioethics and the arts.  His moment of scientific genius was when in the 19th century Gregor Mendel discovered inheritance (later known as genetic inheritance), by cross breeding hundreds and hundreds of pea plants.


EXTREME MAMMALS
Jon Stewart visits the exhibition called "Extreme Mammals: The Biggest, Smallest, and Most Amazing Mammals of All Time", at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.  He discovers that mammals (like us) have evolved some pretty far out adaptations. 


EATING INSECTS
Many people already do, but those in the west, US and parts of Australia and New Zealand, still pull a face when faced with the prospect of tucking into a deep fried locust or beetle grub.  But according to Professor Marcel Dicke at Wageningen University in the Netherlands – they're delicious, nutritious, safe, environmentally friendly and could be the answer to feeding a growing global population.

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