Plato & Music, Hope for AIDS Prevention, Cassava Sting Operation
This week: Plato’s writings contain hidden meanings and musical structures. Big news about AIDS prevention efforts in Africa. Colombian scientists mount an attack on a nasty mealybug that’s devouring Thailand’s cassava crop. (Their weapon – a wasp that feasts on the pest.) Also in today’s show: finch songs in cities, the Planck telescope, and leaf-cutter ants. And don’t forget to stop by our online conversation about the origins of kindness with Israeli science historian Oren Harman.
Epiphany on Plato and Music: The writings of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato are cryptic and often end in riddles. Few Plato scholars claim to know precisely what the philosopher thought, but now a professor at Britain’s University of Manchester believes he has cracked a code hidden in Plato’s writings. Jay Kennedy is an expert on Greek mathematics and music theory. He talks about the epiphany he had as he was poring over his volumes of Plato one day.
Guest: Jay Kennedy
More on Plato’s writings
Hopeful News for AIDS Prevention: A new AIDS study suggests that there’s a way to encourage people to avoid the risky behavior that helps spread HIV. It involves paying them. A second study reports the development of a vaginal gel that offers protection against the virus.
Guest: David Wilson
More on the payment study by the World Bank.
The New York Times on the new AIDS studies.
Cassava Sting Operation: A team of Colombia-based scientists is mobilizing to stop a mealybug infestation from destroying the cassava crop in Thailand. To counter the pests, scientists are releasing hundreds of thousands of wasps.
Guest: Tony Bellotti, International Center for Tropical Agriculture
National Geographic’s take on the story (nice pictures here).
Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:
- Finches Songs in Cities: City noise isn’t a bother for human ears only. Birds seem to be bothered by it too. A new study shows that house finches change the frequency of their songs to adjust to noises in urban environments.
The Study.
More about birdsong and city noise
Check out pictures of Darwin’s finches on our Facebook page. - Leaf-cutter Ants Weed Out Leaf Fungi: Leaf-cutter ants are famous for their farming prowess.
These ants, which live in Central and South America, grow crops of fungi in their nests by feeding the fungi leaves harvested from plants. (See photo of ants returning to their nest with fungi food.) It turns out that these six-legged farmers are more sophisticated than scientists had realized. When the ants go looking for leaves to cut, they avoid harvesting leaves that already harbor fungi, which might compete with the fungi in their nest. - The Study.
Video and background about leaf-cutter ants and their fungus gardens, from PBS.
- The Planck Telescope Is Up and Running: And it has sent its first image of background microwave radiation. (That’s all the radiation left over from the Big Bang.) Scientists hope to learn more about the beginnings of the universe from future images.
More about the Planck Mission from the European Space Agency
Another version of the map with some landmarks labeled
Further explanation of the image, from the Bad Astronomy blog
Pick your own wavelength with Chromoscope
