PRI's The World: Sci/Tech » Science Podcast

Scientist Warned of Japan Tsunami, Gabon’s Eco-Tourism Efforts

Rhitu Chatterjee — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:56:34 +0000

Japanese medical personnel check a woman evacuated from her home near the Fukushima 1 nuclear plant for radiation exposure in Japan. (Photo: Asahi Shimbun/epa/Corbis)

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This Week: We meet a Japanese paleontologist who had long warned his country that a massive tsunami was overdue. The pharmaceutical industry and much of the scientific community selectively publishes only positive results of medical research. Now, the British Medical Journal and many scientists are criticizing this practice and encouraging scientists to publish all results. A decade ago, Gabon produced big and positive headlines by setting aside more than ten percent of the country in a network of new national parks. The idea was to conserve the country’s rainforests and wildlife and profit from it through eco-tourism. But those efforts weren’t as successful as expected.

Scientist Warned of Japan’s Tsunami: Long before the tsunami hit Japan last year, paleontologist Koji Minoura had been warning of the danger. Minoura found evidence that a huge tsunami hit Sendai in the year 869, and he cautioned that a similar disaster was overdue.
Read more here.

Watch Nuclear Aftershocks Preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Click here to watch the Frontline documentary ‘Nuclear Aftershocks.’

Should All Medical Research be Published? The British Medical Journal (BMJ) recently printed an editorial attacking the pharmaceutical and science community for the long-existing habit of only selectively publishing the results of clinical trials. BMJ editor-in-chief Fiona Godlee and neuroscientist Colin Blakemore discuss whether a false picture is being put forward by medical science.

Gabon’s Eco-tourism Efforts Stumble: A decade ago Gabon established more than a dozen new national parks. The country aimed to bring in revenue through eco-tourism. But the story of one big tourism investor shows the difficulty of actually getting tourism dollars flowing.

Stephen Hawking on Future of Humankind, Rwanda’s Lake Kivu

Rhitu Chatterjee — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:22:36 +0000

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This Week: Happy New Year! We have a great show to start the new year with. You’ll hear from the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking turns 70 this Sunday and to mark the occasion, he answers questions from BBC listeners about the future of humankind. Also, Hawking’s biographer and one of his former students tell us more about him as a person. Lake Kivu in Rwanda is full of dissolved methane that could explode if it escapes from the lake. The Rwandan government is trying to reduce that threat by using the gas as a source of energy.

Hawking on the Future of Humankind: To mark his 70th birthday, physicist Stephen Hawking answered a selection of questions from the listeners of BBC Radio 4′s Today Program. The topics of the questions ranged from the origins of the universe to the prospects for extra terrestrial life and the impact on Einstein’s theory of relativity should neutrinos be confirmed to travel faster than light. It seems clear that Hawking believes we we will have to colonize space if we are to avoid catastrophe. Finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, he says, would be the greatest scientific discovery ever, but he is not optimistic about the likely outcome.
Read Hawking’s answers on the BBC’s website.

More on Hawking: Dr Harvey Reall, a reader in theoretical physics at Cambridge and a former student of Hawking, recalls his many conversations with Stephen Hawking as involving a fair amount of “banter”. Humour, he says, is something that is very important to the scientist. Hawking’s biographer Kitty Ferguson says that family has meant a tremendous amount to him. Physics “is not all his life”, she adds – there is much more to him than just the science. On the issue of science though, she says that Stephen Hawking takes ordinary people on a “huge adventure”, giving people a sense of wonder when they follow him.

Rwanda Lake Poses Danger, Energy Promise:A project in Rwanda plans to tap methane gas from Lake Kivu and burn it to generate electricity.
See pictures and read more here.

Listening to the Deep Ocean, Illegal Bird Trapping in Cyprus

Rhitu Chatterjee — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:55:19 +0000

Photo: NEPTUNE Canada

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This Week: Scientists and the general public are listening to the deep ocean, to whales, dolphins, under water volcanoes and people drilling for oil. But that has some worried. As many as 2 million songbirds a year are killed in the Mediterranean country, most to be eaten as a delicacy in local restaurants. A Saudi Arabian company has leased tens of thousands of acres in western Ethiopia to grow rice for export. The Ethiopian government says it will help provide food security for its citizens, but some who live in the region, say they’re not seeing any benefits.

Listening to the Deep Ocean:Scientists are establishing a worldwide network of deep-sea listening posts connected to the Internet. It allows researchers and the public to hear whales, ships and other underwater sounds. But the U.S. Navy is uneasy because these sounds might reveal the location of its submarines.
Read this story here.
My blog on efforts to understand noise pollution in the oceans.
Noisy oceans may hurt squids.

Saudi Company Invests in Ethiopian Agriculture:A Saudi Arabian company has leased tens of thousands of acres in western Ethiopia to grow rice for export. The Ethiopian government says it will help provide food security for its citizens, but some who live in the region, say they’re not seeing any benefits.

(Photos: Dallas McNamara)

Illegal Bird Trapping in Cyprus: As many as 2 million songbirds a year are killed in the Mediterranean country, most to be eaten as a delicacy in local restaurants.

Bird Flu Research Raises Terrorism Fears, Mystery Kidney Disease

Rhitu Chatterjee — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:32:24 +0000

Photo credit: Diann Prosser, USGS

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This Week: Scientists studying how bird flu is transmitted between species, have created a new strain that can pass easily between ferrets. But U.S. authorities are asking the researchers not to publish all their findings because they fear the data will be used by terrorists. An epidemic of chronic kidney disease is sweeping across Central America. Researchers don’t know the cause, but they think it may be related to working conditions in sugarcane fields. And a new study suggests that Beethoven’s deafness profoundly influenced his compositions. Also, a quick update on the Durban climate conference, since we covered the story in Podcast no. 140. Scroll down on this page to read the latest coverage on the new international climate treaty signed in Durban.

Kidney Disease Epidemic in Central America: Across Central America, large numbers of men are dying from kidney disease. The cause is unknown, but a growing body of evidence suggests that hard manual labor — especially in the region’s sugarcane fields — is partly to blame.
Read more here: http://www.theworld.org/2011/12/kidney-disease-epidemic/
PRI’s The World looked into this story with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of The Center for Public Integrity.
Learn how the United States promoted sugarcane production in Central America and resisted global attention to the CKD epidemic in this ICIJ story by reporters Sasha Chavkin and Ronnie Greene.

Bird Flu Research Raises Terrorism Fears: US authorities have asked the authors of two controversial bird flu studies to redact key details after a government advisory panel suggested the data could be used by terrorists. The papers show how a bird flu variant can pass easily between ferrets. Dutch researcher Ron Fouchier talks about the challenges of the study and what he thinks about the U.S. authorities’ request.
Read more here in this story by the BBC.
When Should Science be Censored? An article by the BBC’s Medical Correspondent, Fergus Walsh.

Beethoven’s Deafness Influenced his Music:A new study by Dutch researchers show that the German musicians deafness profoundly influenced his compositions. The researchers show that as his deafness progressed, he favored notes that were in the lower or middle-range. Eventually, when he became tonally deaf, he returned to using high notes.
Read more in this story on the BBC website.
Click here to read the study. The link also includes a video with the Isolo String Quartet demonstrating how Beethoven’s music changed over time.

The Durban Deal:> In The World Science Podcast no. 140, we brought you an update on the Durban climate conference. When I published that podcast, experts weren’t feeling hopeful about the negotiations at the conference ending in an international climate treaty. But those negotiations continued past the end date of the conference, and on December 11th, countries signed a treaty that legally binds them to cut emissions. The treaty has been named the Durban Deal and it won’t come into place until 2020. What are experts saying about the treaty? Here’s a list of links to help you make sense of the treaty and understand whether it’s likely to help slow down climate change.
“Durban deal clinched by two strong women, a united EU and a compromise.” On The Independent.
The Guardian on the the deal.
Reuters’ Analysis: “Durban deal may do little to cool heating planet.”
More on the deal on Mother Jones.
The Economist’s take.

Sea Level Rise Speeds Up, Satellites Spot Violence in Sudan Border

Rhitu Chatterjee — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:20:48 +0000

Emperor Penguins adults with chicks. (Photo: Michael Van Woert, NOAA NESDIS, ORA)
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This Week: The big U.N. climate meeting in Durban, South Africa is due to end today. For the past two weeks world leaders have been negotiating over proposals for a new global treaty to set binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions. We hear about the possibility of leaders signing a new treaty by the time the meeting ends. We’ll also hear about the latest science on sea level rise. And satellite imagery reveals human rights violation along the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

Climate Talks Face Stalemate: The World’s Marco Werman speaks with climate policy expert Kelly Sims Gallagher about the stalemate in the UN climate negotiations. Gallagher says it’s time for the US and China to step outside the UN process and try to reach a grand bargain on climate and other issues.
Follow our coverage of the Durban Climate Conference here.

Sea Levels Rise Faster Than Expected: Climate scientists say that as the world is warming up, polar ice is melting a lot faster than expected. Sam Eaton has the story.
Read the story here.
Climate change talks in South Africa.

Satellite Imagery Checks Violence Along Sudan’s Border: Human rights activists have come up with the Satellite Sentinel Project that purchases satellite imagery of Sudan and South Sudan and analyzes it to help find those who are waging war.
Click here to see some of the satellite images from the Sudan border.
More about the Satellite Sentinel Project.
Podcast 57: An in-depth interview about the science of using satellites to monitor human rights violation worldwide.

New Report on the Fukushima Disaster, How Ants Wage War

Rhitu Chatterjee — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 19:06:45 +0000

The Fukushima 1 NPP in 2002 (Photo: Wiki Commons)
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This Week: We learn about a new report that provides an in-depth look at the Fukushima disaster, hours and days after north-eastern Japan was struck by an earthquake and tsunami. European scientists have turned to DNA technology to identify illegally harvested fish. What do humans and ants have in common? Warfare, says ant researcher Mark Moffett. He says humans and ants fight in similar ways.

New Report on the Fukushima Disaster: The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant is considered the second worst nuclear disaster in history. A new report by a group of American nuclear experts describes in detail what happened at the plant after it was struck by the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Science journalist, Geoff Brumfiel has been writing about the Fukushima disaster for Nature magazine. He spoke with Marco Werman.
New Report by the U.S. based Institute of Nuclear Power Operations.
Computer modeling study suggests radiation toll from the Fukushima Daiichi plant was higher than Japanese government estimates.
Study maps radioactive contamination from the Fuskushima nuclear accident.
Nature magazine’s landing page on Fukushima. (Includes an interactive timeline of what happened at the plant)

New European Program Uses DNA to Counter Overfishing: To protect endangered populations of fish, scientists in Europe are devising new forensic techniques that can identify where a fish was caught. This should enable regulators to make sure fish being sold come from sustainably harvested populations. Ari Daniel Shapiro reports.

How Ants Wage War: When it comes to waging war, we humans devote a lot of time and resources to it. So do ants. And according to ant researcher Mark Moffett, there are many similarities between how humans and ants wage war.
Click here for photos of ants and interview transcript.
Scientific American: Ants and the Art of War.

Studying Human Emotions, Climate Affects Coffee Farming

Rhitu Chatterjee — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:37:54 +0000

Photo: Courtesy of Buster Benson (Flickr)
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This Week: A study on teaching computers to read human emotional expressions is taking lessons from an experiment by Charles Darwin. Climate Change is making farming harder for Ugandan coffee farmers. A study on macaques suggests that the size of our social circles affects the size and function of our brains.

Climate Change Raises Challenges Coffee Farming in Uganda:In recent years, changing weather patterns have begun to impact coffee crops around the world. One region that’s been hit hard recently is Uganda. Reporter Jill Braden Balderas has the story.

Crowdsourcing Darwin’s Experiment on Human Emotional Expressions: A professor of computer science at Cambridge University is teaching computers to read human facial expressions. And to do so, he is taking lessons from on an old experiment by Charles Darwin. Darwin used his dinner guests in this experiment. He asked them to tell him their reactions on seeing a series of photographs of a man with different expressions. Instead of dinner guests, the new experiment at Cambridge University is using crowdsourcing. Click here if you’re interested in participating in the study.
Read more about the project on human emotions.
Click here to learn about the Darwin Correspondence Project.

How Social Interactions Affect Our Brains:A new study by researchers in the UK suggests that the size of our social circles affects the structure and function of our brains.
Read more here.

World Population at Seven Billion, A Dutch Science Scandal

Rhitu Chatterjee — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:02:53 +0000

Photo: Joery Bruijntjes/Flickr
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This Week: On October 31st, world population reached seven billion. That’s according to the latest estimates by the United Nations Population Fund. We explore what that means for the planet and our future in it. We compare family planning programs in two South Asian countries. Also, breaking news about a Dutch science scandal.

World Population at Seven Billion: The seven billion number has raised fears about overpopulation. Problems with a growing population were first highlighted by Thomas Robert Malthus. Yes, his prediction of a population crash at one billion have not materialized. And yet, scientists warn that our growing numbers are a problem, especially due to a consumption problems. We explore why our population isn’t just a problem about numbers. We learn why Bangladesh was so successful in reducing birth rates in recent years. Also, scientist Jonathan Foley tells us about the environmental problems caused by current agricultural practices and how we can feed our growing numbers while reducing our footprint.
What’s your number? How many people were there when you were born? Click here to find out?
Read my story about population here. (the story is included in this episode)
The World at Seven Billion: Seven Stories.
The Changing World: Controlling People-The History of Population Control.

Dutch Social Scientist Admits to Faking Data:Back in April this year, we brought you an interview with Dutch social scientist, Siegwart Lindenberg. He and a colleague had published a study in the journal Science, that suggested that disordered environments promote discriminatory thoughts and behavior. We also held an online Forum discussion with Lindenberg. The results of that study have now been called into question by an ongoing investigation into the work of Lindenberg’s colleague, Diederik Stapel. An interim report released by the investigation earlier this week said the investigation has found several dozens of papers with tainted data. Stapel has been suspended from his position at Tilburg University, and the ongoing investigation is examining more than 150 of his publications.
Read my story here.
Stapel issues statement and admits to faking data.
Read more about the case on Science magazine’s blog.

New Hopes for Malaria Vaccine, The Dying Trees of Canal du Midi

Rhitu Chatterjee — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:57:57 +0000

Photo courtesy of Wildxplorer
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This Week: A Phase 3 trial of a new malaria vaccine shows that it can halve the risk of disease. We explore whether that is significant development for controlling malaria in the future. The magnificent trees that line France’s ancient Canal du Midi are now dying. A story about waters wars in a different part of Australia. (Listen to Part I of Australia’s Water Wars in Podcast 135.)

Malaria Vaccine Trial Raises Hopes: The pharmaceutical company Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) published the results of a large scale field trial of a malaria vaccine. The results show that the vaccine can halve the risk of disease. Now, that may not seem like a big deal, (most other vaccines have an efficiency of 90% and above) but experts are hailing this as significant progress. It is also the first vaccine for a parasitic disease to be so effective. In this episode, we hear more about the vaccine from a GSK representative. Then, we get some perspective from infectious disease expert Bill Foege, who you heard in Podcast no. 125.
Read the study about the malaria vaccine trial here.
More about the vaccine on the BBC’s website.

The Dying Trees of France’s Canal du Midi:The banks along France’s Canal du Midi, are lined with trees so majestic that UNESCO called them “a work of art.” Sadly, those trees are dying. The World’s Gerry Hadden brings us this story.

Australia’s Water Wars Part II: Farmers in the great Australian Outback have never had much access to water. Now ranchers and environmentalists in the region have formed an unlikely alliance to avoid the water wars. The World’s Jason Margolis brings us this story.
Read more about Jason’s story here.

Oldest Known Paint Workshop, Australia’s Water Wars

Rhitu Chatterjee — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:25:25 +0000

One of the abalone shells in the ancinet paint making tool kits. (Photo: Science/AAAS)
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This Week: Archaeologists have discovered the oldest known artists’ workshop in a cave in South Africa. We learn about that discovery. Then, a story about the battles over water in Australia’s heartland. Also, a discussion about race with a geneticist and an author.

A Stone Age Paint Workshop: Blombos cave is located on the southern coast of South Africa, about 185 miles east of Cape Town. Archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood of the University of Witwatersrand has been excavating the cave for nearly two decades. In 2008, his team stumbled upon a startling discovery: two abalone shells that seemed to be part of an ancient paint making kit. Hear more about the discovery and about Henshilwood’s connection to Blombos cave.

A 100,000 year old ochre processing workshop at Blombos cave, South Africa.

Video produced by: Loic Quentin

Australia’s Water Wars: Climate scientists are forecasting a dry future for southeastern Australia. The region is only just recovering from a 10 year long period of drought. And now the Australian government is telling farmers of the region that they will have to permanently reduce their water use to save the environment. The World’s Jason Margolis brings us this story.
See images and an illustration from Jason’s story.

Race, Genetics and Society: The BBC’s Evan Davis explores the biology and social underpinnings of race with geneticist Steve Jones and author Katharine Birbalsigh (author of To Miss With Love).
BBC Two’s Mixed Race Season.