Producer's report 25th March 2007

The 25th March was brought to you by the letter J; that is Jeevan, Jacqui, Julia and Josh....oh and Amy who was behind the panel in the 2XX makeshift studio. It goes to show that it takes a lot to bring 2XX down. The temporary studio is kinda cosy, especially when there are two microphones and five presenters.

We covered a wide range of topics in the show. First up was:

Mice with super vision.
Geneticists have breed mice that can see and distinguish among a broader spectrum of light waves. Normally mice and most mammals are red-green colour blind, they only have two different colour receptors in their eyes; blue and green. Humans an primates have three; blue, green and red. When the researchers added the red receptor gene to the mice, they were able to process the new sensory information straight away. Goes to show that the transition in primate evolution could have been very quick.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070322160852.htm

Next up was transgenic mosquitos

Clever termites
Jeevan interviewed Ra Inta from CSIRO entymology who is doing some cool things with termites. They have shown that termites can tell what sort of material their food is made of, without having to actually touch it....the key is vibrations
http://www.csiro.au/news/ps2wf.html


Climate Change
We had a bit of a discussion about whether climate change is a natural or a human made phenomena.

Second Life Hallucinations
Ever wanted to know what a hallucination is like? Researchers from the University of California want to educate people about the crippling disorder schizophrenia where sufferers have visual and auditory hallucinations. They are often negative experiences, for example, voices urging schizophrenia sufferers to hurt themselves.

The researchers have created a virtual hospital in Second Life, the popular online virtual world. Members can walk into a hospital where they hear voices and have hallucinations such as the floor falling away leaving users to walking on stepping stones above the clouds.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6453241.stm

Future Memories
The lead article in New Scientist last week was "Future Memories". Researchers have found that the part of the brain that creates our day dreams of the future also 'constructs' our memories. Our memory isn't like a recording after all...
www.newscientist.com

Life in the circus
Jacqui, Julia and Josh are all members of the Shell Questacon Science Circus, a group of young scientists that travel around Australia performing school science shows and running a science exhibition. We discussed the fun, trials and tribulations of being on the road and how to make the best slime.
www.questacon.edu.au/html/sqsc.html

Pet triangles
And finally, can people really grow to love a pet triangle? Check this out.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19325935.700&feedId=being-human_rss20




Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

Producer's Report 4 Mar 07

Producer: Dean
Contributors: Jacinta, Mike & newcomer Kat

News:

Improved predictions of warming-induced extinctions sought

A hidden twist in the black hole information paradox

Virtual-Reality Video Game Helps Link Depression To Specific Brain Area


Weather Feature:

Unintended consequences in road de-icing.

[Audio] Jacinta interviews Kenn Batt from the Canberra BOM about Tuesday's supercell storm.


Station Promo:

2XX suffered significant damage during Tuesday's storm and needs help. The music library and broadcast equipment have been badly water-damaged, as have the studios (the high water mark is a good foot and a half up the wall). Subscriptions will help, as always, but a major challenge will be rebuilding, so if you're a subscriber/volunteer please get in touch with station management (they've temporarily set up on the first floor of the Griffin Centre) and find out how you can help; from what I saw today they're really going to need people with building & technical skills to rebuild the office, reception & studios.


More Features:

Female koalas captive behaviours.

This day in science

1675 - John Flamsteed appointed first Astronomer Royal of England.
1774 - First sighting of Orion Nebula by William Herschel.
1877 - Emile Berliner invents the microphone.
1954 - Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, announces the first successful kidney transplant.
1955 - First radio facsimile transmission is sent across the continent of America.
1977 - The first Cray-1 supercomputer is shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.
1979 - U.S. Voyager I photo reveals Jupiter's rings.

featuring birthday call-out to the little fat kid from Hey Dad! and John Lennon's 1966 quip which led nicely to...

"Jesus in a box".

And while we're on ancient history... Laxatives kept Pharaohs on the throne.


This week's science event:

Mr Toad comes to Darwin: An evolutionary perspective on the cane toad invasion

Speaker: Professor Rick Shine FAA
ARC Federation Fellow
School of Biological Sciences
University of Sydney

When: Tuesday 6 March 2007
Drinks and refreshments 5.30pm, lecture 6–7pm

Where: Shine Dome, Gordon Street, Canberra

Cost: Free entry and parking

Bookings are recommended.
To reserve a place, please contact Susie.
Email: susie.barratt@science.org.au
Phone: 02 6201 9400
Fax: 02 6201 9494

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

Capital White-Out

I don't think I've ever experienced a storm quite like it. Even the biggest & baddest storms in Brisbane don't quite compare.

I'd watched it roll in from my balcony in Kingston for about an hour, then thought it was all show when only a few drops spattered down. I even jotted down a note to prompt some research for this weekend's show: "Is there a special name for a storm that's all thunder & lightning but no rain?". I pondered too soon; the wind picked up, there were bolts of lightning every few seconds and it bucketed down (& check out that radar image from the BOM - black!).

Then the eerie calm came...

...but it was not too long before the first twack, thwackthwack, thwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwackthwack
thwackthwackthwackthwackthwack (etc etc) of hail pelted down and blanketed the city.

The Canberra Times online coverage is pretty average, but the ABC Canberra site has a good collection of photos of the aftermath. There were so many pictures flying around on email today; most government email servers would have had their work cut out for them. Most have them had been posted to flickr by lunch time. The most spectacular were these of the storm from Yass.

The ice was still in piles around Civic this afternoon. Apart from the ice in this defoliated courtyard in this picture, I saw the remains of the snowman at The Avenue and hail piled up at least a metre in a stairwell leading to an underground carpark.

Hopefully we'll get to interview Kenn Batt from the BOM on this weekend's Fuzzy Logic.

UPDATE: Chris' office didn't fare well.

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

Producers Report - 25 Feb 07

Producer: Jacinta
Contributor: Dean
Observer: Jaykaprash, Kathryn E

News: Phasing out incandescent lights, Hollywood is going green by removing the silver from the silver screen.

Features:
(1) Video games: Action video games improve vision and the military applications, surgeons perform better if they play video games, some general discussion about video games, their uses (eg NRMA driver training) and potential for rehabilitation.

(2) Sport-type things: What Jacinta did on Saturday (ie a five hour AROC adventure race), why she is sore (delayed onset muscles soreness) and what she can do to recover faster. Crazy marathon man who just can’t stop running.

Amazing animal facts: Stumpy lizards have the worst pregnancies, guinea-pigs stampede [pdf] (very scary!), and cows transported to the Middle East benefit from sports drinks.

Quirky bit at the end: spearmint tea could potentially be used to treat mild hirsutism in women

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

Producer's Report - 18 Feb 07

Producer:
Eamon Lindsay

Presenters:
Nicole, Jeevan

Newsy Bits:

Bilk (not something I would down at after-work drinks!), HIV protein, Great Barrier Reef safe from Crown of Thorns attack (for now!), cyanide extraction and size DOES matter to fish.

Feature Articles:

The founders of Wikipedia, immune security and relationships, air conditioners heating up cities, motion sensitive space suits, rats whiskers and new history on chillies.

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

Fuzzy Logic 11 February

This has to be a first: my adding the producer's report on the same day as the show... And after seven hours of drinking, laughing and feasting (thanks for the fun, guys).

Today's show featured a new recruit, Michael, as well as Pip, one of our experienced campaigners.

She kicked things off with the very disturbing news that there's a shingleback lizard who gives birth to young that are the equivalent in human size of a seven year-old. Their scales don't stretch outwards like humans do so the baby lizard expands upwards, meaning the poor mother's organs are pushed upwards and she can barely move or breathe.

Also:

• There's a new blood test taking advantage of the fact that human babies shed cells into the mother's bloodstream at about 5 weeks - the newly-found ability to isolate enough foetal DNA to detect genetic defects means that amniocentesis may be become a thing of the past.
• A sixth star has been discovered in the Southern Cross and a computer has written a fairytale all on its own (sort of).
• French scientists have worked out how bees are able to determine how fast they're flying (thus providing an explanation for why they fall into still ponds and drown)
• Other researchers have developed a computer that uses tiny bubbles instead of electricity to make calculations
• Female Antarctic fur seals aren't the passive individuals they've previously been supposed to be when it comes to choosing a mate to try and avoid inbreeding, whereas there's a fish that selectively breeds with brothers and sisters because for them inbreeding isn't a bad thing
• A 14 year-old transsexual in Germany wants to bring his sex-change operation forward by two years
• Brain scans have measured changes in blood flow that signal poeple's intentions
• The Vikings may have used special crystals and their property of birefringence to be able to navigate in cloud, fog or bad weather
• A really exciting new census of the bacteria on human skin has detected more of them than anyone ever realised, and many of which are new and unidentified (this is no cause for panic and at this point we dipped into Fuzzy Knows Best and I ranted a little about the use of antibacterial sprays and wipes in the home - DO NOT USE THEM. They only promote bacterial resistance to antibiotics and they are not necessary if you keep your home clean and practice personal hygiene. Our immune systems need constant stimulation, so let your kids go play in the mud, it's good for them)
• The CSIRO has just released a new real-time information tool to help graziers in eastern Australia better cope with the impact of climate variations on pasture production
• And finally, and perhaps the story that appealed to my warped sense of humour the most, was the bombshell that the United Kingdom weighs 24,000,000 billion tonnes. No, not its inhabitants, the actual, physical bits of the earth's crust that make up their land mass.

Today was also the day we officially said goodbye to Tim and Chris - both are migrating to other places and we shall miss them. Hopefully as our European and Sydney correspondents we can still keep them on the show through all this new-fangled technology stuff.

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

Comet McNaught from Kingston

Comet McNaught from Kingston

Look at the speck! Look at the tail!

I thought I was going to be cursed with night after night of dreaded cloud cover thwarting my plan to get a look at Comet McNaught. A chance visit to my balcony around 9.45pm gave me an unexpected view for about ten minutes. This picture doesn't do it justice by a long shot.

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia