Science Updates is a weekly email alert from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
== DR KARL: MAYAN APOCALYPSE 2012 ==
The Mayans were wonderful astronomers and sophisticated mathematicians. They also had a complex system of calendars which some people believe predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2810/0/
== MAKE YOUR WORKPLACE GREENER ==
A great way to give your office a green-over is by choosing carefully what you buy and recycle. Green At Work's guide has all the info on the greenest sources of printing, paper and equipment, plus where to recycle old computers, mobile phones and toner cartridges.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2811/0/
== SURFING SCIENTIST: THE KNOT IN THE ROPE CONUNDRUM==
Here's a challenge that really can be done! Pick a piece of rope and tie a knot without letting go of either end.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2812/0/
== TOP STORIES FROM NEWS IN SCIENCE == http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/1759/0/
FLU COMES FRESH FROM ASIA EACH YEAR
Flu viruses evolve freshly somewhere in east or southeast Asia every year, spreading around the world over the next nine months before dying out, researchers report.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2813/0/
COPULATION CRIES HELP MALES RATE SUCCESS
Eavesdropping male Barbary macaques can tell by a female's cry whether copulation with another male has been an orgasmic experience.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2814/0/
THREE BLACK HOLES COLLIDE LIKE THIS
Researchers have simulated the outcome of what is perhaps the heaviest of heavyweight match-ups in the universe: the collision of three colossal black holes.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2815/0/
LEAF VEINS 'CRACK' UNDER STRESS
You might assume that a leaf's vein patterns fork, like tree branches splitting into twigs as they get further from the trunk. But peer carefully and you'll see that the veins make innumerable closed loops.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2816/0/
== IN THE SKY THIS WEEK == http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/1764/0/
The Full Moon is Sunday April 20. The evening sky in the north is enlivened by Mars and Saturn. In the Northwest Mars is in Gemini and forms an elongated triangle with the bright stars Castor and Pollux (the twins of Gemini). By the end of the week these three bright objects almost form a line. Saturn can be seen near the bright star Regulus. This is still a good time to observe this ringed world in a small telescope. On the morning of Thursday April 24 the waning Moon passes in front of the bright star Antares. With bright Jupiter below, this will be a very nice morning sight. In the eastern morning sky Venus can be seen very low in the morning twilight.
== ABC HEALTH & WELLBEING == http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/1765/0/
== THE PULSE: ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS SICKNESS ==
How can health workers improve communication with Indigenous patients? One way is to tell stories together.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2770/0/
== TRANSCRIPTS NOW ONLINE
BETTER ALLERGY TESTING (Catalyst: 10/04/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2808/0/
DINO MECHANICS (Catalyst: 10/04/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2817/0/
MEET SHEREE MARRIS (Catalyst: 10/04/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2818/0/
HOMO ERECTUS AND FOOD (In Conversation: 10/04/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2819/0/
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...MEET THE INGERSONS (All In The Mind: 12/04/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2807/0/
MYTHBUSTERS (Science Show: 12/04/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2820/0/
TEN QUESTIONS SCIENCE CAN'T ANSWER (YET!) (Science Show: 12/04/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2821/0/
PROSPECTS FOR CORAL REEFS (Science Show: 12/04/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/2822/0/
== COMING UP ON ABC RADIO == http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/1773/0/
SCIENCE SHOW - Chandra and the Death Star
Saturday 19 April, 12.05pm & Monday 21 April, 7.05pm RN
Imagine a cosmic jet ray so powerful it could destroy planets. As two galaxies circle each other one of them blasts the other with an unbelievably destructive force emanating from its black hole. This, known as the Death Star, was found late last year by the X Ray Observatory in space called Chandra. In its seven year working lifetime Chandra has found many such stunning celestial features and we review them in the Science Show this week. And it turns out, the man who runs the observatory HQ in Harvard is from Australia.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/902/0/
ALL IN THE MIND – Stone Age brains in 21st Century skulls
Saturday 19 April, 1.05pm, & Monday 21 April, 1.05pm RN
Front up to your shrink, and you bring a menagerie of hunter gatherers, ant eaters and reptiles from your ancestral past with you. Or so Professor Daniel Wilson and Dr Gary Galambos believe. Both clinical psychiatrists, they provocatively challenge their profession to look to the Darwinian roots of human neuroses, and the evolutionary battleground that is our stone-age brain.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/903/0/
THE PHILOSOPHER'S ZONE - Time for philosophers
Saturday 19 April, 1.30pm & Monday 21 April, 1.35pm RN
Time, as we all know, is money, but what else is it? Would it exist if nothing were changing or moving? Does it really have a direction? Are the future and the past real? Will the future be infinite? Was (or is) the past infinite? These and other questions will be tackled this week on The Philosopher's Zone - if there's time.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/904/0/
OCKHAM'S RAZOR - Ventriloquism, lip-reading and left and right.
Sunday 20 April, 8.45am RN
As a young child Professor John Bradshaw from the Department of Psychology at Monash University was fascinated by the Punch and Judy puppet plays and the very convincing ventriloquistic effects. This later led him to research how we hear – is it the left side of the brain or the right side that dominates our auditory signals? And do mouth movement asymmetries impact on our ability to lip read?
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/910/0/
INNOVATIONS
Sunday 20 April (0830hrs UT), Monday 21 April (1330 & 1705hrs UT), Wednesday 23 April (0430hrs UT), Radio Australia
Building a system to navigate through GPS dropouts; Nature's own little prospectors flag a path to the Earth's riches and, we take a look at the native green grasses of home.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/1775/0/
HEALTH REPORT – New clue to Parkinson's disease risk
Monday 21 April, 8.30am and 8.05pm RN
Urate is a normal component of blood. High levels can lead to gout, but urate might also have beneficial effects because it is a potent antioxidant. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have found that high levels of urate are strongly associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/920/0/
IN CONVERSATION - After the scientific mums, how about their children?
Thursday 24 April, 7.35pm
Dr Sue Stocklmayer's experiment with mothers was a huge success. She taught them science - so that they could, in turn, answer their children's questions. The mothers loved the course at the ANU and interest in the scheme was sparked around the world. So what next? And how do we stem what seems to be a stampede away from science in our youth. Dr Stocklmayer has some firm suggestions - even involving soap operas on TV!
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/1468/0/
== HIGHLIGHTS ON ABC TV == http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/1773/0/
CATALYST
ABC 1, Thursday 24 April, 8pm
This week, Catalyst looks at a possible cure for Type 1 Diabetes. Also, a group of kiwi scientists and filmmakers working together to preserve the whale species; and see how the invention of fibre optics some fifty years ago has allowed scientists to bend light in new ways. As if that weren't enough! Meet Dr Edwina Sutton, who may have discovered a single gene that can transform a mouse from female to male!
http://abcmail.net.au/t/130892/686964/834/0/
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