Producer's report for 23 July 2006

Producer: Janine

Ably assisted by: (the late) Dean and Brendan

We did a split show this week, with the standard news stories we liked from the week as well as chatting about fears, phobias and anxieties.


Feature stories:

• Radio tags can expose surgical mistakes: http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060717/full/060717-5.html

• Antarctic researchers risk bone loss: http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/ps211,,.html

• Antarctic air link may shock the system: http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1690756.htm

• Why we love the music of our youth: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1688781.htm

• Music to match your mood: http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060717/full/060717-16.html

• Is it really you or jamais vu? http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1689668.htm

Science slam (the quickies at the end of the show):

• Dentists to give hurt panda false teeth: http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=12901098&src=rss/scienceNews

• Breastfeeding 'kills baby's pain': http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5190306.stm

• Scientists battle to save 'last living link': http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,19859367,00.html

• Bush casts his first veto on stem-cell bill: http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=12897138&src=rss/scienceNews

Be afraid...
Our discussion of phobias centred around the fact that we all have a fear of something, even though we know it's irrational and disproportionate to the situation. For me, it's spiders, for Dean it's magpies and Brendan's just plain afraid of losing.

But fear does have its place and the fear of snakes could have driven pre-human evolution. And fear could become costly for those afraid of crossing the Chesapeake Bay bridge in the USA.

There are some strange phobias out there (for a pretty full listing, go to http://www.phobialist.com/), but there is hope for treatments, whether it be using cortisol or D-cycloserine.


This was Dean's first time at the Fuzzy microphone (he previously featured as our Silent Barrell Boy on the second Radiothon trivia show) - well done, please do come back. But no more Manhatten Transfer. Ever.

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