This week:  World leaders have put off deciding on a climate treaty till next year. You’ll hear what that means for climate negotiations from hereon.  Then, a story about international guidelines about mammograms. You’ll also hear about China’s new interest in removing small dams on the Yangtze. Then some news about plans to paint the Andes white to slow down the melting of glaciers. And new findings about arsenic contamination of groundwater.

Beyond Copenhagen: The climate summit in Copenhagen is set to begin in a few weeks. But President Obama and leaders of other nations have postponed discussions over a new climate treaty to 2010. Find out about the likely direction of post-Copenhagen climate talks.
Report: By Jeb Sharb.
Links:
Collection of BBC stories on the Copenhagen summit.
More environment stories on The World.
The summit Website.

Mammograms Around the World: Most women should start regular breast cancer screening at age 50, not 40, according to new guidelines released in the US. The new guidelines have unleashed a heated debate and caused confusion for women and their doctors. International guidelines also call for screening to start at age 50.
Guest: David Dershaw, Director of Breast Imaging at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Links:
The new breast cancer screening guidelines.
Information on mammography from the New York Times.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• Ponds Contribute to Arsenic in Groundwater: Millions of people in Bangladesh, India, and other parts of Southeast Asia are poisoned from drinking arsenic contaminated groundwater. A new study suggests that human made ponds may be contributing to the problem by helping release arsenic from the soil and rocks into groundwater.  But the researchers sampled around just one village. Whether the results apply to all areas with arsenic contamination remains to be seen.
  Image credit: Charles Harvey
  

  The study.
  More information about arsenic contamination.
  

• Plans to Paint the Andes White: Global warming is causing the Peruvian glaciers to melt rapidly.  Mountains with less snow and ice will absorb more sunlight, and exacerbate warming. That’s why a Peruvian group wants to paint the Andes white, or at least a part of it for now. They will then watch to see if the paint reflects more light and thus slow the melting of glaciers. The World Bank has awarded them $200,000 to do a test run.
  Glaciares Peru, the organization planning the whitewash efforts.
  How light-colored surfaces keep the Earth cooler.
  See this year’s other winners of World Bank Development Marketplace grants.
• Preparing for Exploding Lakes: Scientists are meeting in Rwanda, in January of next year to decide how to deal with Lake Kivu. The lake is one of only three exploding lakes in the world, and two million people live near it. The international group of researchers that will congregate in January hope to devise a solution for a possible explosion in the near future.
  Information about the meeting from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
  How exploding lakes work.
  More about the 1986 eruption of Lake Nyos.

China Learns about Dam Removal from the US: China wants to remove some small dams on the Yangtze River. And Chinese engineers traveled all the way to Maine to learn more about dam removal.
Report: By The World’s Marina Giovanelli.
Links:
The Nature Conservancy’s Yangtze River Program.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Open Rivers Initiative.
Read a transcript of this story.
Video: A time-lapse video showing one of NOAA’s dam-removal and river restoration projects. (Credit: NOAA.)

Science Stories on Tech Podcast: The World’s technology correspondent, Clark Boyd has a couple of really nice science stories on this week’s Technology Podcast. One is the story of The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. That boy is  now a man named William Kamkwamba. The other is an interview with the Eoin Colfer, the author of a new science fiction book, the sequel to Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. So, don’t forget to check out The World’s Technology Podcast this week.

This week: Perceptions of the swine flu vaccine differ across the Atlantic. Japanese doctors discover a mother who passed cancer to her daughter in the womb. Dyslexia turns out to be more complex in Chinese-speaking people. Monkeys visit the “uncanny valley.” Scientists find the first known omnivorous spider. And our ancestor Ardi is now on Facebook.

Swine Flu Vaccine: A vaccine against the H1N1 swine flu virus is now available and is starting to reach people around the world. But while U.S. officials are recommending the vaccine for large segments of the population – including all children from 6 months to 24 years of age — many European medical professionals are less ready to recommend the vaccine. We explore cultural differences in how people in the U.S. and Europe perceive the risks and benefits of swine flu vaccination.
Guest: Jay Butler, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Report: By The World’s Gerry Hadden in Barcelona.
Guest: Robert Dingwall, University of Nottingham, UK.
Links:
Information on H1N1 flu from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More on H1N1 vaccine from the World Health Organization.

Cancer Transferred from Mother to Daughter: The tragic case of a 28-year-old woman in Japan may help scientists better understand the biology of cancer and the workings of the fetal immune system. The woman had cancer, and that cancer was transferred to her baby in the womb. Scientists say it is the first conclusive case of cancer being passed from pregnant mother to child.
Guest: Anthony Ford, Institute of Cancer Research, UK.
Links:
The study.
BBC coverage.
Transcript of this interview.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• Chinese Dyslexia: Dyslexia in Chinese-speaking people appears to be more complex than dyslexia in English speakers. In addition to having phonological problems — trouble associating sounds with print — Chinese-speaking dyslexics have additional trouble processing visual information.
  The study.
• Monkeys’ Uncanny Valley: People generally enjoy seeing robots and animated figures that look somewhat human, but when artificial beings resemble humans too closely, people are repelled by the depictions. The dip in people’s responses to such robots or images is called an “uncanny valley.” Scientists have now found that monkeys also have an uncanny valley.
  The study.
  Image: Some of the synthetic monkeys that seem to give real monkeys the creeps. (Credit: Shawn Steckenfinger.)
  
• Vegetarian Spider: Scientists have stumbled upon a spider with rare food habits. Of the 40,000 known spider species, Bagheera kiplingi appears to be the only one that eats a mostly vegetarian diet. The spider lives on acacia bushes in Central America. It eats the same food as its neighbors, which are aggressive stinging ants.
  The study.
  More about jumping spiders.
  Video: Watch a spider outmaneuver — and out-wait — ants in order to harvest her favorite plant parts. (She finally gets to eat after 22 seconds. Filmed by Christopher Meehan.)
  

Ardi on Facebook: It has been just two weeks since Ardi, our 4.4 million-year-old ancestor, made headlines worldwide. She now has a Facebook page. You can find and friend her here.
Ardi doesn’t approve of this song, but you could still take a listen.
Find out more about Ardi on The World Science Podcast number 34.

This week: New ideas about when, where, and why humans domesticated wolves, the ancestors of modern dogs. A trove of unusual creatures turns up in Papua New Guinea. We mark the 25th anniversary of genetic fingerprinting. And hospitals cope with a worldwide shortage of medical isotopes.

Man’s Best Meal?: A new study suggests that people first began domesticating wolves — the ancestors of today’s dogs — more for lunch than for loyalty. Scientists in Sweden and China have traced the genetic origins of canines to a region where dog meat has long been on the menu.
Guest: Peter Savolainen, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

DNA Fingerprinting: A quarter century ago, a professor at Leicester University in the UK stumbled on a way to distinguish individuals based on markers in their DNA. On this anniversary, we talk to a philosopher about genetics and the nature of human identity.
Guest: Julian Baggini, author and philosopher.

Medical Isotope Shortage: The shutdown of nuclear reactors in Canada and Holland has created a severe shortage in medical isotopes used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other ailments. We look at what the shortage means for patients, and how two of the biggest users of the isotopes — Britain and the U.S. — found themselves dependent on other countries for their supply.
Report: By The World’s Laura Lynch in London.

Papua New Guinea’s New Creatures: You could be forgiven if you’re skeptical about the claims of an expedition team that just got back from Papua New Guinea. The scientists say they’ve discovered a camouflaged gecko, a fanged frog, and a fish that makes grunting noises. But leave your skepticism at the door. (See pictures here.)
Guest: George McGavin, Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Music: Candied Pecans, by Axleman

This week, we have two stories about health problems in Iran. In Tehran, more and more people are buying cars, which is causing air pollution and related illnesses. And northeast of Tehran, the province of Golestan is plagued by high rates of esophageal cancer, which a new study suggests results from a local custom—drinking extremely hot tea.  Dr. Reza Malekzadeh tells us about his study.

Also: Good news about heart disease, which kills millions of people every year. A relatively new treatment that combines five pills in one—known as the polypill—reduces the risk of heart disease by treating high blood pressure and cholesterol all at once.

Scalding tea and high cholesterol may be bad for your health—but what about going to Mars? This week in Moscow, six men were locked into a space capsule. It’s an experiment to find out how astronauts might cope—or not cope—with a journey to and from Mars. They’ll try to stay in for 100 days, but the real voyage would take more than two years. Keep track of how the volunteers are doing by reading their Mars Diary, hosted by the European Space Agency.

Also this week: A mass toad killing in Australia. Citizens turned in thousands of the invasive cane toads, but researchers say ants may lend a hand—or a mandible—in the future. The Guardian posted video of ants attacking the baby toads. Also: rosy cheeks really do make you look healthy, and your brain may know what it wants before you do.

Music:
Bruce Springsteen, Trapped
T Bone Walker, Vacation

This week, psychologist David Matsumoto explains why there are fewer smiles in Russia or Korea than in the U.S.—and why many people think Americans are a bunch of cheerful dopes. Take this test: Can you tell the real smiles from the fake?

In Panama, two American ecologists, Joe Wright and Bill Laurance, are having a debate: When it comes to preserving tropical ecosystems, are recent forests a good substitute for old-growth forests?

Also from Panama, we have a story about the HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer. Panama recently started offering the shots free to girls, but the government has failed to mention a basic fact: the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted disease. In the U.S., the vaccine has been controversial, with political conservatives saying that it encourages teen sexual activity. Panama has sidestepped that issue by referring to the vaccine as a “cancer” vaccine.

In Kenya and Uganda, there’s also a vaccine drive—this one against polio. Chris Maher of the World Health Organization hopes the effort will suppress the outbreak.

And climate researcher Glen Peters says the West plays a key role in China’s booming greenhouse gas emissions.