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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: NASA Human Space Flight

A view of inside the Dragon V2 manned capsule designed to carry astronauts

18/09/2014

NASA Human Space Flight

BBC World Service - Science In Action, NASA Human Space Flight

US Space Agency is back in the astronaut transport business

NASA Human Space Flight; Emerald Ash Borer Femme Fatale; Pakistan Floods; On the Buses

NASA is back in the astronaut transport business.  Since the retirement of the Shuttle Fleet almost three years ago, the US space agency has relied on the Russians to ferry their crews to the ISS – but that costs around $71m for each seat.  Now, private companies Boeing and SpaceX have been selected to developed vehicles that can launch people.  BBC Science Correspondent Jonathan Amos joins us in the studio. 

Emerald Ash Borer Femme Fatale
The Emerald Ash Borer is an invasive species of beetle that rapidly becoming the most destructive forest pest ever seen in North America, according to the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service.  It was brought in, likely as a stowaway on a ship, in 2002 and has spread rapidly.  Now scientists have been able to create reproduction female beetles – they look stunning, earning their jewel-like name. They have an iridescent green shell, and it has taken some cutting edge techniques to replicate it.  Researchers are using them to attract males, and then electrocute them rapidly with a high voltage current.  Dr Michael Domingue, an entomologist and Professor Akhlesh Lakhtafia, an engineer from Penn State University in the US explain their research.

Pakistan Floods
It has been a week since the Jhelum and Chenab Rivers breached their banks and flooded parts of India and Pakistan; driving tens of thousands of families from their homes and destroying maize and paddy crops.  Now the BBC has learnt that there is no advance flood warning system in place in Kashmir.  Navin Singh Khadka, BBC World Service Environment Reporter has been following the story.

On the Buses
London's double decker Routemaster buses are iconic, but how can they be made greener?  Jack Stewart hops on one of the new diesel hybrid buses to meet Mike Weston, Transport for London's Director of Buses, to find how they are overcoming the problem of charging a bus that is transporting passengers for up to 19 hours a day.


(Photo caption: A view of inside the Dragon V2 manned capsule designed to carry astronauts after it was unveiled by SpaceX.  The Dragon V2 will ferry up to seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit © Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)


Presenter: Jack Stewart
Producer:  Ania Lichtarowicz

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