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Science In Action: Early Warning for Landslides

Magazines & Reviews

Early Warning for Landslides

21/12/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Early Warning for Landslides

Plans to develop an early warning system for landslides in the Western Ghats in India

Early Warning for Landslides, protecting Utah’s National Monuments from Presidential de-protection, 3D printed kidney, an app to identify disease carrying mosquitoes in the field.

A new research collaboration has been launched to look at ways to get early warning of landslides in the mountainous regions of south west India. The hill country of the Western Ghats suffer regular and deadly landslides, partly because they encounter a double monsoon season each year. An early warning system that factors in weather, topography and the geology of the region is being developed.

Palaeontologists suing Trump
President Donald Trump has moved to downsize two US national monuments in Utah. The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is against lifting this protective status as Bears Ears and Grand Staircase –Escalante include some of the most important sites in the world for vertebrate fossils before and after the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs.

3D Printed Kidney 
By printing bio-ink on silicone scaffolding, a team at Harvard in the US can print the intricate components of an artificial kidney which can filter blood and produce urine. The work is still at the early stages, and an entire 3D printed kidney is still a way off. Applications and potential for clinical medicine could be a new kind of dialysis for people with kidney failure, as well as being able to safely test whether new drugs damage the kidney.

Mosquito identification 
Different species of mosquito carry different diseases, and some are entirely harmless and provide useful ecological functions such as pollination. So it’s useful to know what species are around in order to take the right preventative measures for avoiding diseases such as Zika, Denge and Malaria. Luckily each species of mosquito makes a unique sound with their beating wings as they fly. A new app is being developed to identify the buzz and give users a heads up on the creature they’re dealing with.


Picture: Landslide in India, Credit: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Fiona Roberts

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