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Science In Action: 30/06/2011

30/06/2011

BBC World Service - Science In Action, 30/06/2011

Astronomers use oldest known Quasar in universe to study the early stages of the universe

Astronomers discover the oldest quasar; Obtaining a person's age from saliva; Old species of plankton turns up in the Atlantic; Tanzanian government's U-turn; Trying to save the Tasmanians devil

Oldest Quasar
When astronomers search the night skies for objects in space, the further away an object is in the universe, the further back in time the object is.  Now astronomers have discovered the most distant quasar to date.  The powerful galactic phenomenon is 12.9 billion light-years away; so from studying the light of the quasar we can look back at the universe when it was only 770 million years old.  Studying this quasar may help astrophysicists learn more about the time when the first stars and galaxies were forming.


Age and Saliva
Investigators may now have a new tool to help identify a person; a new technique has been used to look at the DNA in our saliva which has the ability to tell a person’s age. Researchers at the University of California, in Los Angeles, have shown a strong correlation between the chemical changes in DNA and the ageing process.  And have narrowed down a person’s age from a sample of saliva.


Phytoplankton in the Atlantic
The effects of climate change have become more apparent as time goes on.  New pieces of evidence for climate change have been building up at an alarming pace as strange new events occur due to the melting of the arctic.  A passage has opened up under the ice for species from the Pacific Ocean to enter the Atlantic.  The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research had sighted the plankton species that has been unseen in the Atlantic for 800,000 years


Serengeti Road
Now a major development on a story that we covered back in September last year.  We had reported that there was international opposition to the plans to build a new road through the Serengeti National Park.  The road would have caused massive disruption to the migration of more than a million wildebeest, but now the Tanzanian Government has decided not to build a major road through this UN World Heritage Site.


Tasmanian devil
Scientists are increasingly worried over a highly endangered marsupial, which lives on the Australian Island.  Two Tasmanian devils complete genomes have just been sequenced in an attempt to figure out why these wonderful animals are being killed by a highly contagious facial cancer.  This cancer has reduced the Devil's population in some parts of Tasmania by more than 90%.

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