This week: We meet an Indian scientist who spent nearly three decades developing improved varieties of pigeon pea. A Dutch company is trying to make urban agriculture a possibility. And faced with the shortage of electricity, residents of Tokyo find creative ways of dealing with a hot summer.

Developing Hybrid Pigeon Pea: It’s not your most glamorous of crops. But pigeon pea is popular among thousands of subsistence farmers in India and other parts of the world. There are reasons for it’s popularity, especially in arid, drought-stricken areas. It’s deep roots impart drought tolerance to the plant. It also replenishes levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil, so farmers don’t have to rely as much on fertilizers. Crop scientist K.B. Saxena, of the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has spent nearly three decades developing high-yielding hybrid varieties of pigeon pea. Now, Indian farmers are benefiting from his years of work, by using his newly developed varieties.
Learn more about pigeon pea from ICRISAT’s website.
See pictures of Saxena’s pigeon pea hybrids, and take a tour of ICRISAT in this slide show:

Japanese Get Creative Without AC: This summer is especially hot for residents of Tokyo. Not because temperatures are higher than usual, but because of the ongoing electricity shortage since the shut down of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. So companies are getting creative: shuffling the work week, getting wild with its dress code, and covering buildings in vines. Reporter Liz Ruskin has the story.

Indoor Farming in the Netherlands: A Dutch experiment is attempting to make urban growing a viable possibility. Clark Boyd has the story.

Big-Butt Ants in Colombia We’re taking you on an unusual culinary tour. We begin in Colombia, where people are busy preparing a spring delicacy: what locals call hormiga culona or ‘big-bottomed ants.’ These are a certain kind of leafcutter ant, and their big bottoms as laden with eggs. They can fetch up to $ 40 a pound. John Otis reports.
Read the story here.

The Case for Eating Insects: Dutch entomologist Arnold van Huis tells us about other cultures that eat insects. And he wants us all to consider eating bugs. It’s good for the planet, he says and bugs are “just delicious!” Van Huis is the guest in our latest Science Forum discussion. Stop by and share your thoughts, questions and insect recipes if you have any.

Wolves Return to Catalonia: The World’s Gerry Hadden reports on the return of wolves to the Catalan region of Spain. Even though there have been attacks on sheep, local farmers say they think it’s good that wolves have returned.
Read the story here.

Melting Ice Sheets in Greeland:The World’s Daniel Grossman reports from Greenland on disturbing changes in the ice sheet there. A new report says ice in Greenland and other northern regions is melting far faster than predicted just a few years ago, with possibly serious consequences for global sea levels.

Leech Hunter: Mark Siddall is a curator in the department of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. He collects leeches from remote corners of the globe, to understand their diversity and evolution. Siddall says that understanding the blood-sucking behavior of leeches can inform and help in the development of anti-coagulants for medical uses.
Watch Mark Siddall in the Kingdom of the Leeches, from NOVA scienceNOW.

Siddall in NOVA’s The Secret Life of Scientists.
More on leeches from NOVA.
How does blood clot? Find out in this video.

The Earth’s Cryosphere is Rapidly Melting: That’s according to a new report released recently by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme. Walt Meier is one of the authors. He explains the findings to The World’s Lisa Mullins.

This week: Rapid changes in climate are altering the Antarctic ecosystem. Our Science Forum discussion about life and work at the South Pole continues through next week. Stop by with your questions for Freija Descamps. We hear about a thriving underground bushmeat trade in Paris. Japan’s nuclear catastrophe has led several countries to scrutinize their own nuclear safety.

Warming Climate Alters Antarctic Climate: Eric Niiler reports from McMurdo Sound in Antarctica on how rapid changes in the climate are affecting some of the continent’s species and changing its ecosystems.
Read more here.

Thriving Bushmeat Black Market in Paris: Genevieve Oger reports from Paris on the underground trade in bushmeat from West Africa. The illicit trade worries health officials and some, but not all, conservationists.
Read more here.
The scale of illegal meat importation from Africa to Europe via Paris.

Global Nuclear Safety up for Scrutiny: The World’s Clark Boyd reports on the ongoing debate over the future of nuclear energy in the wake of the crisis at the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.
Read more here.
Update on Japan’s situation by The World’s environment editor, Peter Thomson.
Follow our continuing coverage of Japan here.

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This week: A new report says the Arctic permafrost is rapidly thawing due to climate change. We hear about a study of dengue fever in a modern Malaysian city, which shows that mosquito-borne diseases can occur in clean, well-planned environments — not just in poverty-stricken areas. We talk to a researcher who has been studying the secrets behind long-distance navigation by tiger sharks in the Pacific.

Melting Permafrost: We have heard a lot about the problem of melting ice as climate change warms the Arctic. But scientists are also worried about something else that is melting up there – permafrost. Permafrost is the permanently frozen soil underneath much of the northern part of the planet. Now, a report says over half of it may thaw out within the next 200 years, with big consequences for the global climate.
The projected changes in permafrost.
National Snow and Ice Data Center.
All about frozen ground.

Dengue Fever in Malaysia: We think of mosquito-borne infectious diseases like dengue as ailments that plague poor parts of the world. But modern urban development does not necessarily lead to controlling such diseases, according to new findings recently presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Kate Mulligan is a graduate student at Canada’s McMaster University, and her research shows that well-planned, modern cities can also cause the spread of infectious diseases like dengue fever.

How Sharks Find Their Way: The Pacific Ocean is home to countless species of fish that have a natural ability to navigate around their underwater environment. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with marine biologist Yannis Papastamatiou of the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville about his research on how fish of one species — the tiger shark — seem to  how exactly where they’re going.

This week:  We just launched a four-part series on health care rationing. You’ll hear the first story in today’s show. It’s about a South African committee that decides who received life-saving kidney dialysis and who doesn’t. Check out our series page here.  Elsa brings news about cholera in Haiti, and phone networks in the U.K. Join our online discussion on coal and China with journalist Jeff Goodell here.

A South African Health Care Rationing Committee: In South Africa, the government puts limits on life-sustaining kidney dialysis, and that puts medical professionals in a difficult position. They are tasked with deciding who lives and who dies. This is the story of two patients and the committee that determined their fates.
Reporter: Sheri Fink
Related slide shows, graphics and more.
Our Rationing Health Series page.

Socks May Help Malaria Prevention: A new study suggests that smelly socks may help in malaria prevention. Odors from the socks could be used to lure mosquitoes into traps.
Guest: Dr. Renate Smallegange
The study in Malaria journal.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• The Mysterious Origins of Haitian Cholera: More than 90,000 Haitians have been sickened with cholera since October. Researchers have now sequenced the full genome of the Haitian cholera bacteria, and found that it most closely matches strains from Bangladesh. This supports the idea that the outbreak may be an import from south Asia. But the case is far from closed. Skeptics say that the two cholera isolates used in the new study did not capture genetic variation among the Haitian bacteria, which may have been well established along the island’s coast long before the outbreak.
  CDC page on Haitian cholera.
  The sequencing study.
  The new sequence reveals an especially toxic version of the cholera bacterium.
  Suspicions that UN peacekeepers may have introduced the cholera led to violence against the troops.
  A report filed by a French epidemiologist seemed to support those suspicions.
  But, as reported here and here, some experts say the judgment has been far too hasty, and that the cholera bacteria may have been lurking along Haiti’s coast for a long time.
• An Anti-Viral for Mosquitoes: Australian researchers are using one infection to fight another: Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria are unable to transmit the dengue virus, which causes severe fevers in humans. Although about 60% of insect species naturally harbor Wolbachia, disease-carrying mosquitoes do not. But researchers can infect them in the lab–and Wolbachia manipulates mosquito reproduction to spread quickly through a population. Upcoming field trials in Queensland will test how well an introduced Wolbachia infection spreads to wild mosquitoes there.
  How Wolbachia quickly infiltrates insect populations.
  Website of the Eliminate Dengue research team, including links to many of the studies upon which the field trials are based.
  University of Queensland news release on the upcoming trial.
• Re-mapping the United Kingdom: Researchers have redrawn the map of the United Kingdom based on
  phone-call data that reveal which regions talk to themselves the most. Another team has found that European countries that share borders, languages or cultural alliances (i.e. that vote for one another in the Eurovision song contest) also tend to report the same top news stories. These are two examples of how high-speed computing allows researchers to sift through vast amounts of data to find insights into how we relate to the world around us.
  The phone study.
  The news study.
  BBC coverage.

Listen to a story by The World’s Mary Kay Magistad about China’s growing dependence on coal. That’s followed by our interview with journalist and author Jeff Goodell. He was our guest in this Science Forum discussion.

Goodell is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and is the author of the 2006 book Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future.

Despite being the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, coal continues to be used globally at a growing pace.

Here in the U.S., roughly half of our electricity comes from coal, and utility companies are continuing to build new coal power plants. But not for long, says Goodell. “The era of fossil fuels is coming to a close.”

That’s because coal reserves are finite, and we will eventually exhaust them. Add to that the growing concerns over the human and environmental costs of coal which have led to tighter regulation of the industry here in the U.S.

Goodell says energy companies and local economies can benefit from exploring renewable sources of energy.

But how to wean ourselves away from this relatively abundant resource? And can we do it soon enough? Ask Goodell. Check out our conversation with Goodell.

• If we accounted for the human and environmental costs of coal, how expensive would it be?
• How much more are you willing to pay to switch from coal to renewable sources of energy?

Additional Resources:

• Listen to our series on China’s Coal Habit by The World’s Mary Kay Magistad.
• ‘After a Strong Counterattack, Big Coal Makes a Comeback,’ by Jeff Goodell, Yale360.
• ‘Coal Industry Spending to Sway Next Congress,’ John M. Broder, New York Times.

This week:  We’re taking you to Scotland where a wildcat is facing threats to its survival.  A visit just south of here to Florida to learn about a collaboration between American and Cuban researchers. Elsa brings news about how different cultures visualize time, fish that sleep on mucus cocoons and sharing resources. Also, our conversation about nuclear energy with M.V. Ramana and Alex Glaser continues through next week. Check it out, and join the conversation here.

The Wildcat of Scotland: Some of the world’s most endangered wildlife are obscure species, haunting far-flung corners of the planet, but other endangered creatures are much more familiar. Scotland is the last refuge of a small wild cat that has prowled parts of Great Britain since the last ice age.
Reporter: Ari Daniel Shapiro
Scottish Wildcat Association.
Highland Wildlife Park.
Cairngorms Wildcat Project.

US, Cuba Scientists Collaborate on Gulf Research: For the first time in decades, scientists from Cuba and the US are officially collaborating on Gulf of Mexico research.
Reporter: Lygia Navarro
Trinational Initiative for Marine Science and Conservation in the Gulf of Mexico and W Caribbean.
AP Enterprise: Scientists lower Gulf health grade (On Yahoo News).

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories

• Time Goes West: Time doesn’t always progress from left to right, as it’s visualized on the time lines of Western cultures. An aboriginal community in northeast Australia visualizes the past in the east and the future in the west. And they always know which way is which, because they use the cardinal directions to describe not just time, but all sorts of objects and movements.
  The study.
  Science News coverage.
  Does Your Language Shape How You Think? (Article from the New York Times Magazine.)
  Lost in Translation (Wall Street Journal article by one of the study authors.)
• Cozy Mucus Cocoons: Several species of coral reef fish swaddle themselves in mucus cocoons before they fall asleep each night. Researchers have found that the cocoons act like mosquito nets, protecting the fish from blood-sucking crustaceans.
  The study.
  BBC coverage.
• Cooperation in Ethiopia: Some Ethiopian communities are better than others at managing their collectively-owned forests. New research helps explain why that is, and could eventually help policymakers promote sustainable management of other shared resources.
  The study.
  The Tragedy of the Commons, a seminal 1968 essay that predicted a dire outcome for collectively owned resources.
• Flying versus Driving: In the long run, cars have a bigger climate impact than airplanes. That’s because cars emit more CO2 per person per mile. (Airplanes have a stronger immediate effect because they impact clouds and ozone more directly–but those effects fade after the first few years.)
  The study.
  Discovery News coverage.
  Our previous coverage of air travel and climate.

Music in Science: Patrick McCray is a historian of science who studies interactions between culture and technology. He’s written several books, and is working on another one about visions for the technological future. When he’s writing, he likes soothing classical music, but editing is a different story. Find out what aggressive music helps him rip words off the page.
Guest: Patrick McCray.
Classical Music: Piano Trio No. 7 in B flat (Movement II: Scherzo), by Ludwig von Beethoven. Performed by the Chung Trio.
Song: New Day Rising, by Hüsker Dü.

This week:  You’ll hear the first of my stories from my recent trip to India. It’s about India’s ambitious plans for expanding its civilian power sector. That’s followed by an interview with M.V. Ramana, a nuclear analyst about Asia’s rush to build nuclear power plants. Ramana and his colleague Alexander Glaser are guests in our latest Science Forum discussion, and they’re taking your questions about the pros and cons of nuclear power. So, do stop by and share your thoughts. (Photo courtesy of Amy).

India’s Nuclear Plans Hit Road Bumps: Today India’s booming economy relies heavily on coal. But those coal reserves are finite, and come with heavy environmental costs. So the country is eying other sources of energy. Nuclear energy currently provides roughly 3% of India’s total energy needs. The government wants to amp it up to some 10% by 2030, with help from other countries like the U.S. But people in India are concerned about liability issues in case of an accident and land acquisition to build new plants.
Reporter: Rhitu Chatterjee
View a photo/video slide show from my trip to India.

Asia’s Push for Nuclear Power–a Wise Bet? Many Asian countries including China, Vietnam, and South Korea have big plans for nuclear power. But what are the risks from this trend? Our Forum guest, M.V Ramana talks to Marco Werman about the issue, and also about the global landscape of nuclear energy. What do you think about the tradeoffs of nuclear energy? Should the U.S. too follow Asia’s lead? Bring your thoughts and questions to our online discussion with Ramana and his colleague, Alex Galser.
Guest: M.V. Ramana
Join our online Science Forum discussion about nuclear energy. Ramana and Glaser are taking your questions through November 19th.

Listen to a story by Rhitu Chatterjee about India’s nuclear energy plans. That’s followed by an interview with physicist M.V. Ramana of Princeton University.

Ramana is our guest in this Science Forum discussion, and he’s joined by Princeton colleague Alexander Glaser. Both scholars analyze the nuclear industry. They’ll be taking your comments and questions through November 19th.

India’s economy is booming, its people are hungry for energy, and the country wants to move away from its heavy reliance on coal and other fossil fuels. So India is eyeing other sources of energy — including nuclear. It’s planning a ten-fold increase in its nuclear power generation capacity in the next 20 years.

The same is true for many Asian countries. China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and neighboring countries plan to build new nuclear power plants. But is nuclear energy a wise solution to these countries’ energy needs?

Ramana says that many Asian countries aren’t prepared to understand and manage the risks from nuclear power plants. For example, he says Vietnam and Bangladesh don’t even have an agency to regulate the nuclear industry. Does this mean Asia’s investment in nuclear power is a risky bet?

Join the conversation with Ramana and Glaser. It’s just to the right.

• How do you view the trade-offs of nuclear energy? Do you support nuclear power as a way to combat climate change?
• The United States is encouraging India’s nuclear power expansion. Should it be doing so?
• If Asia’s rising economic powers are investing in new nuclear plants, will other nations follow suit?

Watch this video of local protests to a proposed nuclear power plant in India.

Additional Resources:

• The Future of Nuclear Power – an MIT report.
• Will Asia dominate the global nuclear industry?
• Asia’s nuclear energy growth.