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Unexpected Elements

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The news you know, the science you don’t.

The news you know, the science you don’t. Unexpected Elements looks beyond everyday narratives to discover a goldmine of scientific stories and connections from around the globe. From Afronauts, to why we argue, to a deep dive on animal lifespans: see the world in a new way.

The Science Hour

Unexpected Elements: GM Wheat Trial Failure

GM wheat trial failure

04/07/2015

GM Wheat Trial Failure

BBC World Service - Unexpected Elements, GM Wheat Trial Failure

GM wheat trial has been ineffective at repelling aphids in the outdoor trial

After success in the lab, a genetically modified wheat trial turned out to be ineffective at repelling aphids in the outdoor trial.

Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire has just finished trials of a new way to repel aphids from wheat. It is a clever system, that takes a gene for a pheromone, called E beta farnesene, from peppermint, and inserts it into wheat. Aphids let off E Beta Farnesene when they are under attack or when a dead bug is detected, and the idea was to have the wheat produce the chemical alarm itself. In the lab, the plants had driven aphids away in their droves. But in the field, where controlled lab conditions are not present, there was no measurable reduction. So what has gone wrong? Adam Rutherford spoke to plant geneticist Dr Gia Aradottir who worked on the Rothamsted trial and professor Mike Bevan of the John Innes Institute.

Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis
A gene therapy has stabilised and slightly improved cystic fibrosis in some of 136 patients in a trial. Their lungs showed no decline, on average, after they inhaled healthy copies of the gene that causes CF once a month for a year, results published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine show.

London Bombings
It is almost a decade since bombs were detonated on three tube trains and a bus in London, killing 52 and injuring more than 700. Unusually the authorities in London took the step of proactively contacting people caught up in the bombings who were at risk of developing mental health problems, even phoning them at home to see if they might benefit from treatment. Not everybody caught up in an event like this develops post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, but in this case they found a significant minority were experiencing symptoms. For the newly qualified clinical psychologist, Rachel Handley, her very first job was to provide cognitive behavioural therapy. She spent the next two years talking to people about their experiences and helping them to find ways of coping. Ten years on she tells Claudia about what sort of difficulties people came to her with.

Sex-Changing Dragons
It is known that Australian bearded dragon lizards can change gender in the egg. Incubation temperatures of some reptiles can influence the sex of the babies. Unlike mammals, including humans, where the sex determination is purely based on the sex chromosomes inherited from the parents, some fish, amphibians and certain reptiles, including the dragons, have this other mode of sex determination. And when the temperature rises above 36ºC, the temperature mode of sex determination overrides the genetic mode. This means that lizards that are genetically male, are physically female. The researchers, at University of Canberra in Australia, have found these ‘sex reversed females’ breeding in the wild. They lay more eggs and all the offspring, provided the temperature remains hot during incubation, tend to be physically female, despite being genetically male. The implications of this ‘feminisation' of these lizard populations and a warming climate could become a concern.

Sounds Of Space
Dr Lucie Green listens in to the Sounds of Space. You may have heard the famous ‘singing comet’ – the soundscape created using measurements taken by the Rosetta spacecraft. Now, we bring you more sounds that have come from our exploration of the cosmos. Some have been recorded by microphones on-board interplanetary spacecraft. Others have been sonified from space data, from lightning on Jupiter to vibrations inside the Sun. All of them reveal tantalising secrets that have inspired scientists, artists and musicians to help us understand the universe beyond.

Music of Computers Through the Ages
How do you create an archive of the actual sounds of computers, and why would you do so? We talk to artist Matt Parker about his ambition to preserve the actual sounds of computers for the future. He planned a musical composition based on those sounds. Matt has now put the finishing touches on his project, The Imitation Archive, complete with his musical composition, and he offers us a preview ahead of the world premiere.

The Science Hour was presented by Roland  Pease with comments from Jonathan Amos.

Producer: Deborah Cohen

Photo: Wheat field  Credit: Getty Images

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