Original version

BBC World Service Online

Science in Action

Science In Action

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The BBC brings you all the week's science news.

Science In Action: 05/05/2011

05/05/2011

BBC World Service - Science In Action, 05/05/2011

New findings show that Foot and Mouth virus can be detected before its infectious

Foot and Mouth disease; Effect of global warming on food crop production; Gravity Probe B finally proves Einstein was right; Killing rats on South Georgia; Space tourists

Foot and Mouth Disease
Foot and Mouth Disease virus affects cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and buffalo.  It rarely kills the animal, but makes them very uncomfortable and reduces their productivity.  The disease is prevalent all over the world and outbreaks are tightly controlled, often by controversial culling of infected animals.  New research has shown that the disease can be detected before an animal becomes infectious and can pass the disease on to others and that this infectious period is much less than previously thought, giving hope for better control of the virus.


Climate change and crop production
Scientists have untangled the effect of global warming on global crop production for the four largest agricultural commodities – corn (or maize), wheat, rice and soybean. 


Gravity Probe B
Scientists at Stanford University and NASA have been trying to experimentally prove Einstein’s theory of gravity, by measuring the subtle way the Earth distorts space-time around it, and after over 50 years, they finally have. 


Searching for Osama bin Laden
There has been renewed interest in a paper published back in 2009, which appears to have fairly accurately predicted where Osama bin Laden was likely to be.  Geography professors at the University of California, Los Angeles, along with a class of undergraduates, said he was likely to be in a big town, not a cave, and calculated that there was an 88.9% chance he would be in Abbottabad, Pakistan.  That is of course where he was found.


Killing rats to save birds
Conservationists say they are pleased with early efforts to kill rats on South Georgia, in what is the biggest rodent eradication campaign in history.  No-one really knows how many rats inhabit the island in the South Atlantic, but it could be millions.  They were introduced on the ships of sealers and whalers in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the rodents have had a devastating impact on local seabird populations ever since.  The rats prey on seabird chicks as they sit on the ground before they can fly. But the laying of toxic bait in part of the island seems to have had success.


Space Tourists
With NASA's space shuttle Endeavour waiting for the all clear to launch for the last time, and the fleet set for retirement, the world of space travel is changing.  Now it is all about commercial spacecraft, with the promise of excursions into orbit for many more people.  Planetary scientists Dr. Cathy Olkin and Dr. Dan Durda from Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado in the US will be the first scientists to conduct research in zero-gravity aboard commercial spacecraft.  They are in training now and look forward to flying Virgin Galactic's "SpaceShipTwo", and XCOR Aerospace's "Lynx", in the not too distant future.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Science In Action

05/05/2011

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service