Blue Streak Science Podcast

We talk with crow researcher Kaeli Swift about a really interesting aspect of crow behavior Science News The Climate Lounge with Tom Di Liberto The Pub Quiz Science News with Sophie McManus and Chris MacAlister Cancer drugs may help the liver recover from common painkiller overdoses Painkiller overdoses can be lethal. In America, these overdoses occur around 100,000 times a year, both accidentally and in suicide attempts. Consequently, such overdoses are the leading cause of acute liver failure. A study published in Science Translational Medicine raises hope that experimental cancer drugs may alleviate the damage caused by painkiller overdose - and do so better than the current antidote, N-acetylcysteine, which must be administered within four hours to avert death or avoid the need for transplant. The new drugs were still effective 12 hours after overdose had occurred. The cancer drugs tested appear to work by blocking action of a common molecule, TGFbeta, which in this case is activated by inflammation an

Dr. Amber Stuver of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory Blue Streak Science News The Climate Lounge Pub Quiz Science News with Chris MacAlister and Nevena Hristozova New Horizons Sees Glow at Edge of Solar System It’s time for another update from my favourite little space probe; New Horizons. The explorer who brought us Pluto in all of its glory; with its heart and fart dunes, has something new to report on its way to its next rendezvous with Ultima Thule, an ultraviolet glow. So what could be causing a glow in deep space? Well the experts are all in agreement. It’s aliens. Aliens people, they’ve finally come! If only we had a space force to save us. Sorry, my error. It’s not aliens, it’s Hydrogen. The general consensus is that this glow is emanating from the edge of the heliosphere. The heliosphere is our solar system’s bubble, created by the sun’s solar winds blowing out through the solar system and it keeps interstellar matter from drifting in. So this glow is thought to be where the

Hurricane Maria’s death toll in Puerto Rico over 1,100 The Trump Administration Proposes to Scrap Automobile Fuel Efficiency Standards Also, Donald Trump picks a White House science officer The US state of California Hits Its Emissions Target Years Early! Interview with Dr. Grant Ballard, Chief Science Officer of Point Blue Conservation Science Science News with Nevena Hristozova and JD Goodwin Hurricane Maria’s death toll in Puerto Rico over 1,100 It is a story we keep mentioning and we will keep mentioning for as long as it’s necessary. Puerto Rico - the American territory which seems to be completely forsaken by the American administration, probably because they don’t have fancy golf courses there right now. The government claims 64 deaths between landfall in September 2017 and December 2017, while the official average comes to about 1140 people who lost their lives. Talk about fake news the government seems to be the best in cooking these up. Next to that the, months-long power shortages, the contamina

General Relativity passes the black hole test A day by the lake...on Mars The Climate Lounge And more! Science News with Amrita Sule and JD Goodwin Animals Frozen for 42,000 Years Wriggle to Life Not a lot of us are excited when we hear the phrase, "blast from the past”. But this time we do have news that goes about 40,000 years back. A team of researchers revived 2 nematodes from samples of permafrost in Siberia.  Scientists claim that these two nematodes have been frozen since the Pleistocene, thousands of years! Previously, nematodes that were frozen for about 39 years and also tardigrades frozen for about 30 years have been revived. However, this is the first time a complex organism like a nematode has been revived after thousands of years of frozen dormancy. For this new study Russian scientists worked in collaboration with Princeton University researchers and found two viable nematodes while analyzing about 300 soil samples collected from the melting permafrost. Both are believed to be females. On

Our first political endorsement! The Blue Streak Science News The Climate Lounge The Asshole of the Month Pub Quiz Political Endorsement Dr. Shannon Hader, Democrat for the 8th Congressional District in Washington We’re coming up on that silly season again, but this time around it seems so much more urgent because so many of us failed to see the reality that we faced during the last election. Part of that reality is that the anti-science and alternative-truth segment of our society have seized power. And folks, they’re making the most of it to roll back scientific progress and education. [caption id="attachment_1215" align="alignright" width="263"] Shannon Hader[/caption] However, in November we have a chance to slow them down. If we can elect candidates into Congress who understand the importance of science and critical thinking in good government then that will go a long way toward slowing down the damage to our nation and the world that is current happening unabated.   So this election season the Blue S

Conversation with Michael MacFerrin, Research Glaciologist Science News The Climate Lounge Pub Quiz Science News with Nevena Hristozova and Chris MacAlister An Origin of Cosmic Rays Discovered In a galaxy far far away… For real though - it’s really far - 4 billion light-years away. My calculations show that with the current tech for space flight we have, we could get there in 76.32 trillion years so it is freaking far! But anyway, the point is that this galaxy is a blazar - a type of an active galactic nucleus with a relativistic jet directed very nearly or directly towards Earth. These jets are essentially ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light. Relativistic beaming of electromagnetic radiation from the jet makes blazars appear much brighter than they would be if the jet were pointed in a direction away from the Earth. So far we knew that blazars are powerful sources of emission across the electromagnetic spectrum and are  sources of high-energy gamma ray photons. Now though we know somethi

On This Week’s Show We get an inside look on fossil restoration and paleontology with Mariana di Giacomo of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Science News The Climate Lounge Pub Quiz Science News with Chris MacAlister and Dr. Amrita Sule Wetlands Protection Rule put ‘too much emphasis’ on science, Trump officials complain It’s time for the continuing adventures of the Trump administration and their valiant efforts to protect you from the scourge of the environment and its evil plans to keep you healthy and alive! As scientists we shouldn’t make assumptions about things but I reckon it’s pretty safe to bet that if you’re taking time to this science podcast then you probably aren’t a fan of White House at the moment. So I’ll try to avoid preaching to the converted because there is some other interesting stuff going on. The broad picture is this. The United States has a Clean Water Act. It’s a law that gives isolated wetlands and waterways automatic federal protection. Whilst this may be one

Today we begin our pivot towards doing more interviews on the podcast. And we could not have chosen a better person to talk with than our good friend and science outreach superstar Chris Ryu. We had a terrific time talking about the Dorset Science & Technology Centre and the Atom Club. Chris' passion is in science, technology, and coding and his mission is to share this with children and adults in some of the more rural areas of southern England. We applaud the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in this important science outreach development.  On This Week’s Show Interview with Chris Ryu of the Dorset Science and Technology Centre Science News with Sophie McManus and JD Goodwin The Climate Lounge Pub Quiz Science News with Sophie McManus and JD Goodwin Crow vending machine skills 'redefine intelligence’ Last week a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports revealed further evidence for their cognitive abilities, and shows that these so-called “bird brains” can memorize tool shapes and

On This Week’s Show A**hole of the Month A Farewell to Koko Where’s all the Matter? Three places struggling to control HIV and AIDS Science News with Sophie McManus and JD Goodwin A Farewell to Koko Sophie McManus Koko, the famous ‘talking gorilla’, has died in California aged 46. Koko was born in 1971 in San Francisco zoo and when she became ill she needed hand-rearing. The student for the job was Penny Patterson, who also taught her some American sign language. In a couple of years Koko learned 80 signs, before she was moved to Stanford University. It is claimed she could understand 2000 English words and knew 1000 different signs. Apart from that, Penny Patterson described evidence for a sense of humour and a charming and creative sense of word play - she referred to a zebra as a ‘white tiger,’ a Pinocchio doll as an ‘elephant baby,’ and a mask as an ‘eye hat’. Koko famously loved cats - her favourite kitten was called All Ball, and the way she handled her kittens is obviously full of care. She tickled

On This Week’s Show The melt rate of the Antarctic...the news ain’t good, folks Mars Rover Opportunity Hunkers Down for the Big Dust Storm Animals Are Doing their best to avoid us, and staying up late Stephen Hawking’s ashes buried in Westminster Abbey The Pub Quiz There is no Climate Lounge today. Tom Di Liberto and his wonderful wife have just brought a new scientist into the world! Listener feedback Will Simmonds: "Just wanted to say I love the show, gives me great information and entertainment on my runs. I’m especially loving the pub quizzes, but maybe try expand on the answer with a fact, etc. The New Arsehole of the Month is a fantastic addition. However, I'm rather baffled at how some of these people acquire these high state positions." Science News with Dr. Amrita Sule and Chris MacAlister Antarctic Melt Rate Has Tripled in the Last 25 Years Antarctica is a continent roughly the size of United States and Mexico combined. It is covered with ice sheets. If all of this ice were to melt it would incr

On This Week’s Show New Horizons wakes up to explore the Kuiper Belt Hurricanes are slowing down Dogs and the flu virus The Climate Lounge The Pub Quiz Science News with Nevena Hristozova and Chris MacAlister Organic molecules found on Mars Mars stinks. Or at least it ought to, based on the fact that in has methane in its atmosphere. Truth is though, that the concentration of methane in the martian air is almost 2000 times lower than the one on earth. But why methane is of interest to scientists is because, on earth at least, it’s existence is related to the activity of living forms. Now, methane comes again in the spotlight of researchers, because they’ve finally had a breakthrough - they’ve finally detected a pattern in the concentration variations of the gas in the martian atmosphere. Curiosity observed changes in the methane content when travelling cross the planet from north to south. The original hypothesis was that this change is due to chemical conversion of molecules with the help of the strong ra

On This Week’s Show Evidence for a new fundamental particle Pluto has dunes CRISPR Gene-Editing Pioneers Win Kavli Prize for Nanoscience Oldest Known Lizard Fossil Discovered This Week in Science History Pub Quiz Listener feedback We heard from our good friend, Sam Danby, in Norway. Sam is a new father, a cancer researcher, and a footballer. Sam writes, "Once again, great to have you back with the podcast, and there’s something interesting every week. The new ‘where you been, what you doing’ feature is great!" Sam also asked about what to do all summer to entertain his 1 year old. Make it a science summer! Two of the best virtual and real places we know of for that are Matilda's Lab, Atom Club, and the Dorset Science and Technology Centre! Science on! Science News with Amrita Sule and Chris MacAlister Evidence Found for a New Fundamental Particle Time for some news from the world of Particle physics. Since past couple of days news headlines have been flashing about – evidence of a new fundamental particle

On This Week’s Show The Nipah virus The journal Scientific Reports retracts a paper...oops! The mysterious case of the stolen asteroid Speaking of asteroids, we learn how birds may have dodged the one that rubbed out the rest of the other dinosaurs The Blue Streak Science A**hole of the Month And the Pub Quiz Listener feedback NeilNextGen from London: “nice to see you guys back and podcasting every week. This is my favorite science podcast all time. I gotta say my favorite part has been the pub quiz. Keep up the good work.” Neil, thank you so much for those words of encouragement. Science News with Chris MacAlister and Nevena Hristozova Introducing the Nipah Virus   Last time I covered an amphibian pandemic, this time we have a possible human one. There’s not much room for a jovial attitude for this story. In the wake of health scares such as HIV, bird flu, Ebola and Zika there is a reason why governments consider a pandemic as one of the top threats to their population.  The new virus on the block is Nip

On This Week’s Show Megafauna Also, Mount Kilauea is still at it...now with a another thing to worry about Ebola is back in the news I gotta a gut feeling about one of these stories And let’s not forget the Climate Lounge with Tom Di Liberto Science News Diverse and abundant megafauna documented at new Atlantic US Marine National Monument Did you know today is the International Biodiversity day? And this story touches on the biodiversity of our vast oceans and deep seas. To my understanding, documenting deep-sea marine life can be extremely challenging. Often times, marine biologists have to go aboard an airplane to survey some of these regions. One such hotspot which was surveyed recently, lies on the edge of the continental shelf, where the shallow seas off New England drop sharply into the deep waters of the northwestern Atlantic. This region is called as Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and is the first American marine national monument in Atlantic waters. this status was design

On This Week's Show Science News Origins of amphibian-killing fungus uncovered How California becomes the first US state to mandate solar on new homes New discoveries about some ancient reptiles Science News Origins of amphibian-killing fungus uncovered This is a detective story. The chytrid fungus, also known as Bd (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) has been decimating amphibian populations globally for a good 20 years now after it was first discovered in dying frogs in Queensland, Australia. The fungus causes excessive skin shedding which makes the animals die of ‘thick skin’. Skin is such an essential organ to amphibians with many processes such as absorbing additional oxygen and releasing toxins. It’s a bit like amphibian eczema. The impact of the disease has been so great due to the huge amount of global trade of amphibians. With animals moving before people realised that there was a problem, by the time people noticed the problem it was already everywhere. This has made tracking its origins hard. So fa

Coming up on this week’s show The Climate Lounge with Tom Di Liberto The return of the What the Hell Was That game! Science News: Kilauea Volcano Erupts How birds got their beaks Kew Gardens Glasshouse Reopens Stephen Hawking's Final Theory About The Multiverse   Science News with Sophie McManus and Nevena Hristozova Kilauea Volcano Erupts Can you imagine living on top of an active volcano?! I am sure you are aware, but Kilauea has been kicking off lately. Nearly 2000 people have been evacuated around the south side of the island. They will probably move back soon, depending on developments, obviously. Move back to live on top of their active volcano. So, what happened? A series of small earthquakes was recently followed by a quake with mag 6.9 last Friday. A new fissure then opened up and started letting out hot lava. Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and has been in a state of eruption for the past 35 years. Tropical Visions video (co. Paradise Helicopters) is amazing to watch. It is li

Coming up on this week’s show Mysterious ice holes, INSIGHT into the interior of Mars, Early Grants are the Ticket, The Climate Lounge, and This Week in Science History     Listener feedback Regarding our story last week on plastic-eating bacteria, SC on Twitter writes: There was a scifi play on BBC tv in the 70’s which featured a bacteria that eats plastic. In the story it got loose from a lab and accelerated destroying all sorts of stuff including bringing down aircraft. Careful what you wish for..! Thank you, SC He brings up a good point because when it comes to grand ideas of introducing species to counter a human-caused problems our history is not so good. Examples: kudzu, the vine that ate the American south, and cane toads in Australia I’m all for tackling this critical problem in our oceans, but let’s do be cautious when it comes to unleashing microorganisms into our oceans. If you have any questions or comments you can do like SC and hit us up on Twitter, or you can email us at feedback@bluestreaksci

Plastic-eating Bacteria to the Rescue? Chris: [Ladies and gentlemen, we are at war! I’m not talking about a war on terror, a rogue state or even drugs, I’m talking about something much closer to home. I’m talking about plastic. Plasti-phobia is very popular at the moment; in the last week alone the UK government have announced a policy to ban the use of plastic straws in pubs, clubs and restaurants as the national still reels from the images shown in the stunning Blue Planet 2 series. And right here on Blue Streak Science we spoke a couple of weeks about a giant island of plastic adrift on the ocean, spreading micro-plastics far and wide and into the food chain. The reason that this war on plastic is so hard to win is that, despite these increasingly apparent environmental impacts, we just can’t quit it. It’s a bit like a guilty affair; we know that it’s reckless, irresponsible and hurts others but it’s just so convenient and easy. Especially for us in the world of science and laboratories; with our disposabl

Science News   Conservationists use astronomy software to save species An astrophysicist and a conservation biologist walk into a bar… No, this is not that kind of story, but a real one on how collaboration is the second name of Lady Science. A work showing how space science can be used in conservation efforts for endangered species was presented at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in the UnKi last week. In it, Dr Serge Wich of the Liverpool John Moores University, described how, through the power of words (!!!) he was able to land a collaboration which as a conservation biologist he never thought he would - with an astrophysicist, namely Dr Claire Burke. What happened is that, the biologist was talking to his neighbour, explaining the troubles of this research - as you do. His main issue was that protecting animals who are active at night is even harder than the ones active when there’s light. They had to rely only on secondary clues - abandoned nests, feces, leftover food etc. But this is ex

[caption id="attachment_2519" align="alignright" width="350"] Cheddar Man Image courtesy of Paul Townsend[/caption] Seriously, Cheddar Man?  What's next, Homo hummus? How about Jazz Man? We had a lovely science session today and talked about the aforementioned Fromage Fellow as well as how tree rings can be studied to determine future wildfire risk. In the Climate Tom Di Liberto tells us about what may be lurking in the melting permafrost. You ain't gonna like it! Science News Roundup with Nevena Hristozova and JD Goodwin These are summaries of our discussions on the podcast. For the full conversation please listen to this episode of the Blue Streak Science Podcast Tree Rings Reveal Increased Wildfire Risk for Southwestern US Cheddar Man: DNA shows early Briton had dark skin  Wikipedia Has Become a Science Reference Source The Climate Lounge with Tom Di Liberto Wait, there is WHAT in permafrost? In Closing Follow the science! The Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from San Francisco; Cambridge; Was