Science Updates is a weekly email alert from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
== HAPPY SCIENCE WEEK! == http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4629/0/
== PLAY CATCHMENT DETOX - NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK PROJECT ==
Catchment Detox is an online game where you manage a virtual river catchment. You get to decide what activities you undertake - whether to plant crops, log forests, build factories or set up national parks. Can you repair a damaged ecosystem and create a sustainable and thriving economy? By playing the game you could win a trip to the Kimberley.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4630/0/
== ABC INVENTORS, THEN AND NOW ==
Revisit some classic inventions from ABC1 shows The Inventors and The New Inventors, part of a free exhibition running during August 2008 in the foyer of the ABC's Ultimo Centre (700 Harris Street, Ultimo, Sydney). And if you're not in Sydney, check out our photo gallery of inventions online.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4631/0/
== SCIENCE EUREKA SCHOOLS PRIZE: WATCH THE NEXT GENERATION OF SLEEK GEEKS! ==
Watch the best videos submitted by students for this year's University of Sydney Sleek Geeks Eureka Science Schools' Prize. We reveal the winners of the primary school and university prizes and the finalists in the secondary schools' section. Stay tuned next week for all the winners.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4632/0/
== INDEPTH FEATURE - FOOD BOWL TO DUSTBOWL? ==
The Murray-Darling Basin grows more than one fifth of all the food produced in Australia, but how will it respond to dwindling water supplies?
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4633/0/
== QUIZ - MURRAY-DARLING BASIN ==
It's Australia's best known river system and our nation's food bowl but how well do you really know the Murray-Darling Basin? Take our quiz and find out.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4634/0/
== DR KARL - HAEMORRHOID REMEDIES COLD COMFORT FOR SUFFERERS ==
Bum humour is still a staple of schoolyard pranks and even silly television shows. But haemorrhoids are definitely no laughing matter. Just ask Dr Karl.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4635/0/
== STARSTUFF PODCAST - NASA SPOTS LAKES ON SATURN MOON ==
Stuart Gary discovers lakes on Saturn's moon, Titan; studies the first primordial proto-stars; reflects on the end of the NASA space-shuttle era; and reveals an invisibility cloak.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4567/0/
== VIDEO - ACE DAY JOBS - ARCHAEOLOGIST ==
Erin McGowan conserves ancient artefacts. Watch Ace Day Jobs to find out how she got her dream job travelling the world as an archaeologist.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4636/0/
== SURFING SCIENTIST - AIR HEAD ==
Air heads don't usually concern themselves with vacuum physics but this one can't live without it. It'll make a terrific noggin for your next cardboard robot or a nifty decoration to hang from your ceiling.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4637/0/
== TOP STORIES FROM NEWS IN SCIENCE == http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/1759/0/
PILL MAY PUT WOMEN OFF MR RIGHT'S SCENT
Contraceptive pills may disrupt women's innate ability to sniff out a genetically compatible partner, say UK researchers.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4638/0/
SEALS HELP MEASURE SOUTHERN OCEAN
Elephant seals armed with ocean sensors are helping scientists fill a critical blind spot in understanding the oceans surrounding the southern continent.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4639/0/
SCIENTISTS STOP THE AGEING PROCESS
Scientists have stopped the ageing process in an entire organ for the first time, a study released today says.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4640/0/
CHANGE IN THE WIND FOR CRCS
Australia's Co-operative Research Centres should focus more on public good outcomes and the needs of those who use their results, says a new report.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4641/0/
== IN THE SKY THIS WEEK ==
The Full Moon is Saturday 16 August. There is a partial lunar eclipse on the morning of Sunday 17 August, West Australians will have the best view, but everyone will see a decent slice of the Moon go into shadow. In WA the eclipse starts at 3:35 am and mid eclipse is 5:10 am. In central states it starts at 5:00 am and in eastern states it starts at 5:35 am, with the eclipse maximum lost in twilight. Still, both central and eastern states should see around 50 per cent of the Moon covered by Earth's shadow. This week sees yet more beautiful planetary configurations. You can see all five of the classic planets in the evening now: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn in the west, and Jupiter in the east. On Thursday 14 August Venus and Saturn are very close, with Mercury just below, making a fantastic sight. On the 15 and 16 August Mercury and Saturn are close, and from 19 to 21 August Venus and Mercury are close. Jupiter is the brightest object above the eastern horizon in the evening, and its moons look great in binoculars.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/1764/0/
== ABC HEALTH & WELLBEING == http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/1765/0/
== THE PULSE: GESTATIONAL DIABETES ==
Gestational diabetes - pre-diabetes in pregnancy - is on the rise, increasing a woman's risk of subsequent diabetes.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4642/0/
== TRANSCRIPTS NOW ONLINE ==
CLIMATE CODE RED (In Conversation: 07/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4643/0/
DON'T DIE YOUNG: THE IMMUNE SYSTEM (Catalyst: 07/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4644/0/
GREEN TURTLES IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIA (Science Show: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4645/0/
BANKSIAS (Science Show: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4646/0/
ANIMAL FARMING AND GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS (Science Show: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4647/0/
TAXONOMY (Science Show: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4648/0/
LAURA MOLINO – HELIUM ANYONE? (Science Show: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4649/0/
MINKE WHALES – MUTUAL INTEREST (Science Show: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4650/0/
KANGAROOS GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS BETTER THAN CATTLE (Science Show: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4651/0/
BEING YOUR OWN THERAPIST – BUDDHIST STYLE (All In The Mind: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4652/0/
OBJECTIVE TRUTH (Philosophers Zone: 09/08/2008)
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4653/0/
== COMING UP ON ABC RADIO == http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/1773/0/
THE SCIENCE SHOW - Rats!
Saturday 16 August, 12.05pm & Monday 18 August, 7.05pm RN
The dreaded black rat devours between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of the world's crops, depending on where you live. The cost in the USA is about US$19 billion each year; the global bill around one trillion dollars, according to Dr Ken Aplin of CSIRO. He has tracked several evolutionary lines for the rat in Asia. He says just about every household in Australia harbours them, perhaps unknowingly. But in Vietnam they are getting revenge: about 10 per cent of the street food offered to tourists as chicken or pork is in fact grilled rat. Ratatouille!
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/902/0/
ALL IN THE MIND - The stuff of thought with Steven Pinker
Saturday 16 August, 1.05pm & Monday 18 August, 1.05pm RN
How are new words born, and why do we often avoid speaking our mind? Does swearing have an evolutionary function, and what do linguistic taboos do to your brain? Acclaimed author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker is a self confessed verbivore. To him language is a window onto the human mind. He joins Natasha Mitchell in a feature interview to argue there's nothing mere about mere semantics.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/903/0/
OCKHAM'S RAZOR - Culture change
Sunday 17 August, 8.45am RN
From the University of Western Sydney, Professor of Literature Jane Goodall (who is also a crime novelist) admits to being fascinated by the dramatic unpredictability of culture change. Today she focuses on the debates surrounding climate change looking at two separate issues; one is the future of economic and technological conditions and the other is the immediate crises affecting the lifestyles of world populations.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/910/0/
INNOVATIONS
Sunday 17 August (0830hrs UT), Monday 18 August (1330 & 1705hrs UT), Wednesday 20 August (0430hrs UT), Radio Australia
Computers that can read human emotion; mobile phone technology to help beat depression; and an Australian company keeps up with the multimedia race.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/1775/0/
THE HEALTH REPORT - Lung transplant
Monday 18 August, 8.30am & 8.05pm RN
Australia has one of the highest success rates in organ and tissue transplantation, but it also has one of the world's lowest donation rates. About 3,000 Australians are on the official organ and tissue transplant waiting list and 20 per cent of the people waiting for a heart, lung or liver transplant will die before they receive one. ABC journalist Phil Ashley Brown met a patient 20 minutes after she received the good news that she would get new lungs and he followed her progress through the transplant and recovery.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/920/0/
IN CONVERSATION - Tropical Brains
Thursday 21 August, 7.35pm RN
The (relatively) new vice chancellor at James Cook University in Townsville is a scientist turned to business. Prof Sandra Harding reminds us that over one third of Australia is tropical and yet only one major university (apart from Charles Darwin in the NT) in this country is properly equipped to handle the range of topics so important to the north of our region. And, unlike some, they also have a successful campus in Singapore.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/1468/0/
== HIGHLIGHTS ON ABC TV == http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/1773/0/
CATALYST
ABC1, 8:00pm Thursday, 14 August 2008
A farmer and a former mine worker elevate their passion for science from the backyard to the front page; the Shine Dome; and celebrate the 2008 Eureka Prizes.
http://abcmail.net.au/t/224882/686964/4511/0/
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