Science Updates is a weekly email alert from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
== QUIZ: THE WEATHER==
Everyone talks about the weather and everyone's an expert, right? Test your meteorological knowledge with this uplifting short quiz.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3215/0/
== DR KARL: BROWN NOTE: BAD VIBRATION MEGA-HURTS==
Most of us find music stimulating. But it has been suggested that one particular type of music can be a little too stimulating. Dr Karl lowers the tone to try and get to the truth.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3216/0/
== TOP STORIES FROM NEWS IN SCIENCE == http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/1759/0/
WHY HONEY STICKS TO THE SPOON
The argument over why honey is so sticky has been settled, and it seems both sides were right all along.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3217/0/
LOW TECH BEST IN CHINA, BURMA DISASTERS
We can send probes to the fringes of the solar system. Swap instant messages with friends on the other side of the world. So surely we have some hi-tech help for the hundreds of thousands of people in Burma and China.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3218/0/
BIRDS AND BEES ACT UP WITH CLIMATE CHANGE
Human-generated climate change made flowers bloom sooner and autumn leaves fall later, turned some polar bears into cannibals and some birds into early breeders, a vast global study reports.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3237/0/
RESEARCHERS PIN HOPES ON 2009 BUDGET
This year's Australian federal budget was predictably light on support for science research and development, according to commentators who are pinning their hopes on next year's budget.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3238/0/
== IN THE SKY THIS WEEK == http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/1764/0/
The Full Moon is Tuesday May 20 . The evening sky is to the north is enlivened by Mars and Saturn. In the North-west Mars is in Gemini near the bright stars Castor and Pollux (the twins of Gemini) and heads towards Cancer and the Beehive cluster during the week. On Thursday
March 22 Mars is in the heart of the Beehive cluster, this will look brilliant in binoculars. Mercury can be seen peaking up over the horizon at twilight. Saturn can be seen near the bright star Regulus high in the northern sky. Jupiter can now be seen above the eastern horizon in the late evening.
== ABC GREEN AT WORK == http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/2581/0/
== WHICH IS THE GREENEST PAPER OF THEM ALL? ==
Not sure which kind of paper to buy for the office? Green Guru tells all.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/2692/0/
== ABC HEALTH & WELLBEING == http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/1765/0/
== FACT BUSTER: IS CHOCOLATE GOOD FOR YOUR HEART? ==
Do you ever use the 'health' argument to justify your chocolate consumption? Find out whether it's justified, and have your say.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3220/0/
== TRANSCRIPTS NOW ONLINE
BLUE TONGUE (Catalyst: 08/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3221/0/
CRAB GLUE (Catalyst: 08/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3222/0/
CRUSHING CRITTERS (Catalyst: 08/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3223/0/
MEET ROBERT HUNTER (Catalyst: 08/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3224/0/
THE MAN WHO DATED THE HOBBIT (In Conversation: 08/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3225/0/
FLACCO – PARTHENOGENESIS (Science Show: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3226/0/
THE LOH DOWN ON SCIENCE – FINE WINE (Science Show: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3227/0/
MORE EXPENSIVE WINE TASTES BETTER (Science Show: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3228/0/
IMAGING TOOLS IN ASTRONOMY AND MEDICINE (Science Show: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3229/0/
PLATYPUS GENOME REVEALED (Science Show: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3230/0/
AMATEUR ASTRONOMY (Science Show: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3231/0/
RESEARCH FUNDING IN AUSTRALIA (Science Show: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3232/0/
CLIMATE POLICY NEEDED TO REDUCE RISKS OF THE UNKNOWNS IN FUTURE CLIMATE (Science Show: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3233/0/
QUITTING THE HABIT: NEUROBIOLOGY, ADDICTION AND THE INSIDIOUS CIGGIE (All In The Mind: 10/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3234/0/
GALILEO (The Ark: 11/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3235/0/
TIM JARVIS (Perspective: 12/05/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/3236/0/
== COMING UP ON ABC RADIO == http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/1773/0/
SCIENCE SHOW - Great Balls of…Something!
Saturday 17 May, 12.05pm & Monday 19 May, 7.05pm RN
They have been seen all over the world and defy explanation. Great hovering balls of lightning. If that's really what it is? Now Canberra physicist Prof. Robert Crompton has collected a file of cases and attempted to vet the theories. Are folk deluded? He thinks not. But the science struggles. And what was a ball of lightning doing floating in a flying aircraft?
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/902/0/
ALL IN THE MIND – The science of happiness
Saturday 17 May, 1.05pm, & Monday 19 May, 1.05pm RN
The pursuit of happiness is a global obsession. But can science investigate its slippery, subjective nature? What are the metrics – self report, brain activity or the good deeds we do? 5 world leaders in the field join Natasha Mitchell in conversation - neuroscientist Richard Davidson, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace, psychologist Daniel Gilbert and philosopher David Chalmers.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/903/0/
THE PHILOSOPHER'S ZONE - To be or not to be? (Part 1)
Saturday 17 May, 1.30pm & Monday 19 May, 1.35pm RN
Suicide has been a focus of philosophical examination in the West since at least the time of Plato, and for good reason: it raises a lot of difficult questions. What makes behaviour suicidal? Is suicidal behaviour rational and - the question that has obsessed philosophers down the ages - is it morally permissible? This week, the first part of a two-part investigation of this enigmatic and disconcerting phenomenon.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/904/0/
OCKHAM'S RAZOR - The global warming debate continued
Sunday 18 May, 8.45am RN
Recently Professor Don Aitkin presented a two part series on the challenges to global warming orthodoxies and today Professor Stephen Schneider, a climatologist at Stanford University, responds to these talks. For over 35 years he has been studying the pros and cons of this complex argument and participated in all four Intergovernmental Panels on Climate Change assessments. He is therefore well qualified to comment on what is often a misrepresentative presentation of climate change.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/910/0/
INNOVATIONS
Sunday 11 May (0830hrs UT), Monday 12 May (1330 & 1705hrs UT), Wednesday 14 May (0430hrs UT), Radio Australia
New frontiers in measuring radiation with a human cell-sized detector; East meets West to unlock the secrets of bitter melon, and, will funnel web spider venom save farmers from a pest invasion?
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/1775/0/
HEALTH REPORT – ABC Radio National's weekly health roundup
Monday 19 May, 8.30am and 8.05pm RN
Join Dr Norman Swan for news of the latest issues and developments in the world of health and medicine on this week's Health Report.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/920/0/
IN CONVERSATION - Eating the Sun
Thursday 22 May, 7.35pm
All plants and animals, things (apart from a few bugs in deep vents) depend on the sun to stay alive. Gigantic amounts of sunlight hit the Earth every day and chlorophyll in leaves captures it. We eat the leaves or other parts that they supply, and the cycle goes on. But could we make more of this supply and what are its limits? Now Oliver Morton, news editor of the journal Nature, has written a book called Eating the Sun. And the potential is extraordinary.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/1468/0/
== HIGHLIGHTS ON ABC TV == http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/1773/0/
CATALYST
ABC 1, Thursday 22 May, 8pm
(This episode of Catalyst was scheduled for May 15 but due to the Budget Right of Reply was postponed a week)
London is calling and the energy stakes are high but everyone in the city is a potential winner; a new green cement promises to reduce carbon emissions; and Dr Norman Swan asks, can you be fat and fit?
http://abcmail.net.au/t/154183/686964/834/0/
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