Science Updates is a weekly email alert from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
== NEW: ABC SCIENCE WEBSITE ==
We've re-launched the ABC Science website with a brand new look and improved navigation. Browse the ABC's extensive science content by topic, keyword or use tag clouds to really focus in on an area of interest. Also, video, audio and photo content are now much easier to find and use.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2447/0/
== IN DEPTH: INTERNET CONNECTIVITY ==
The internet now links an astonishing 20 percent of the world's six billion people, and many of these people connect daily via social networking sites. This week, we explore the phenomenon of social networking – the hottest thing to hit our screens since the dot com boom.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2448/0/
== YOUR PHOTOS: SUMMER STORMS ==
Australia had a hefty serve of storms this summer! Take a look at the photos of swollen rivers, lightning strikes and ominous clouds contributed by our audience.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2502/0/
== TOP STORIES FROM NEWS IN SCIENCE == http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/1759/0/
NANOWIRES MAY LIGHT YOUR HOME
Light-emitting diodes that give a warm glow to your home or office will be available within a few years, say Swedish researchers working with nanowires.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2449/0/
JELLY MAY HELP HOLD HUMANS TOGETHER
It may not look like much, but a slippery, jelly-like material developed by scientists in the US and Japan could soon be improving everything from artificial joints to contact lenses. http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2450/0/
ASTRONOMERS MOOT TELESCOPE FARM FOR MOON
Astronomers looking for a clear and quiet place from which to map the faintest echoes from the universe's infancy may have found a welcome mat on the far side of the moon.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2451/0/
BABY BOYS HAVE TOUGHER FIGHT FOR LIFE
Baby boys in developed nations are more likely to die than baby girls, a new study shows.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2452/0/
== IN THE SKY THIS WEEK == http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/1764/0/
The Last Quarter Moon is on Sunday March 30. The nothern sky is very attractive at the moment, with Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades cluster in the northwest, Gemini almost due north and Leo in the northeast. Mars is in Gemini, close to the moderately bright sar Mebsuta. During the week Mars and Mebsuta draw closer, and are very close on Monday March 31st. In the northeastern sky the ringed world Saturn is near to the bright star Regulus. Saturn is still very attractive in a small telescope. In the morning, Venus and Mercury are close together in the dawn twilight at the start of the week, and then draw apart. On Friday March 28, Venus, Mercury, Uranus and the star Phi Aquarii are all close together. High in the earlu morning sky is Jupiter, the waning Moon is close to Jupiter on March 31.
== ABC HEALTH & WELLBEING == http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/1765/0/
== THE PULSE: RAW EGGS AND BUGS ==
If you're going to use raw eggs to make mayonnaise, sauces, salad dressings or ice cream, take care lest you poison your guests, say food regulators.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2454/0/
== TRANSCRIPTS NOW ONLINE
REALTIME DIGITAL CITY (Catalyst: 20/03/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2455/0/
MEET DR CATHY FOLEY (Catalyst: 20/03/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2456/0/
KAKADU DOLPHINS (Catalyst: 20/03/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2457/0/
PALAEO REVOLUTION (Catalyst: 20/03/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2458/0/
AN INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR (In Conversation: 20/03/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2459/0/
YOUR INNER APE (All In The Mind: 22/03/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2460/0/
ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD (Science Show: 22/03/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/2461/0/
== COMING UP ON ABC RADIO == http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/1773/0/
SCIENCE SHOW - On the plain or in the drink - how we evolved
Saturday 29 March, 12.05pm & Monday 31 March, 7.05pm RN
Human beings are designed to run. Unlike other apes we have elastic tendons that enable us to lope long distances. Daniel Lieberman, professor of anthropology at Harvard, gives a compelling description of how our ancestors came out onto the plains to hunt down animals unable to sustain mini-marathons as we can. Steve Munro at the ANU disagrees. He sees signs of our aqueous past-not under water but alongside it-gathering shell fish in shallow beds. Can they both be right?
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/902/0/
ALL IN THE MIND – Your irrational mind
Saturday 29 March, 1.05pm, & Monday 31 March, 1.05pm RN
Like it or not, you're not the beast of reason you think you are. Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist at MIT, argues that we're surprisingly and predictably irrational. Sex, freebies, expectations, placebos, price – they all cloud our better judgement in sobering ways. Dan's unique research was partly inspired by a catastrophic accident which caused third degree burns to seventy percent of his body. He joins Natasha Mitchell in conversation.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/903/0/
THE PHILOSOPHER'S ZONE - Buffy the concept slayer
Saturday 29 March, 1.30pm & Monday 31 March, 1.35pm RN
The problem of evil, the nature of knowledge, the moral demands of duty - all of them big-time philosophical issues and all of them dealt with in one of the most successful TV shows of the last decade: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. This week, The Philosopher's Zone heads off to Sunnydale to find out what the vampire slayer has to tell us about the most pressing philosophical questions.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/904/0/
OCKHAM'S RAZOR - Cooking with hominids
Sunday 30 March, 8.45am RN
Journalist Dr Peter Lavelle from ABC Health Online in Sydney discusses the evolution of food from one to two million years ago when hominids discovered that by adding heat the chemical composition of food was changed making it easier to chew and digest. According to James Lovelock, advancing climate change will affect the world's temperate zones ultimately turning them to desert. So what will our food of the future look and taste like?
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/910/0/
INNOVATIONS
Sunday 30 March (0830hrs UT), Monday 31 March (1330 & 1705hrs UT), Wednesday 2 April (0430hrs UT), Radio Australia
A coating that enables fabric to clean itself when exposed to sunlight; your medical history at your fingertips anywhere in the world and, a mentoring scheme that encourages young scientists to work in ecological research.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/1775/0/
HEALTH REPORT – Conditional cash for children's health
Monday 31 March, 8.30am and 8.05pm RN
Many governments have implemented conditional cash transfer programs to improve the lives of poor families through interventions in health, nutrition and education. Today we examine the success of a Mexican initiative called 'Oportunidades' which was established in 1997.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/920/0/
IN CONVERSATION - Musician, author or physicist?
Thursday 3 April, 7.35pm
Neville Fletcher is all three. He has written learned papers on the workings of the didgeridoo, church organs and flutes - sufficient to become a distinguished fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He has done research as a physicist at the University of New England in Armidale, NSW and, recently, at the ANU in Canberra. He has also played the organ in public. Now Neville Fletcher has produced a volume of short stories. What next? Ballet?
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/1468/0/
== HIGHLIGHTS ON ABC TV == http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/1773/0/
CATALYST
ABC 1, Thursday 3 April, 8pm
In a time where women are having fewer children, and are waiting until later in life, IVF is more commonly used to assist pregnancy. However, traditional science can only go so far, and now, it may be up to ancient medical traditions such as acupuncture to pick up where traditional science has left it. Also, see the interesting study that reveals how a partial 'blockage' of an exit, is actually making it more efficient.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/115897/686964/834/0/
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