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Factual: Science & Nature

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Science In Action: 27/10/2011

27/10/2011

BBC World Service - Science In Action, 27/10/2011

Investigating the seismology behind the recent Turkish earthquake

Investigating the seismology behind the recent Turkish earthquake; A global project examining the health of rivers; The Burmese Python and how it may unlock treatment for heart disease

EARTHQUAKE

Rescue teams in Turkey are having to make the difficult decision about whether to call off the search for survivors, following last Sunday's earthquake.  

It was the strongest in a decade, and aid agencies are warning of "hundreds, possibly thousands" of people buried under rubble.  

The country is already known for its vulnerability to quakes as it sits along major geological fault lines. 

Dr Richard Walker, from the University of Oxford in the UK, specialises in tectonics and earthquakes, and Jon Stewart asked him what it was about this region that makes it so volatile.

RIVERS

Across the world, we all depend on rivers for irrigation, industry and drinking water. But rivers are much more than that.  

They are habitats, and they are transportation for materials that end up in the ocean.  

A new project is bringing together scientists from different disciplines and countries to explore the health of six global rivers, including the Yangtze in China and the Ganges in India.  

The key question at the heart of the project is to find out exactly what rivers are carrying to the sea and what effect human activities like dam-building are having. 

Science in Action's Jeremy Grange joined one of the teams of researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, looking at the Connecticut River in the north-eastern United States.

PYTHON

Burmese Pythons are incredible creatures in their own right, but they could also hold the key to treating human heart disease.  

They are one of the six largest snakes in the world, and often grow up to four metres long.  

They can go without eating for a year, and when they do eat, they can swallow animals as large as pigs or goats.

 In Florida in the US, where they are an invasive species, they have been witnessed eating alligators.

What happens inside their bodies when they do eat is remarkable.  

Their entire digestive system expands, as does their heart.  

Studies in the journal Science, carried out by Professor Leslie Leinwand, suggest that this sudden expansion could show how to make our hearts larger and stronger.

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