Who says that robots have to be tall, dark, humanoid and metallic? Certainly not George W. Whitesides and his team at Harvard. They’ve created a whole new set of robots that take their cues from worms and starfish, not Arnie and the Terminator. These soft, flexible and squishy ‘bots can do all manner of interesting maneuvers. The hope is that they will be able to go where few other kinds of robots can. In this week’s tech podcast, you’ll hear Professor Whitesides talk about the advantages these robots have. We can’t resist giving you this video sampler as well:

There’s also this:

Also in the podcast this week, we’ll hear about two compounds that have been very much in use, and in the news, both in the United States and elsewhere: pepper spray and tear gas. One of the inventors of modern pepper spray tells us why he’s now speaking out about its use. We’ll also hear from an expert on tear gas.

We also will tell you about some research on the development of a new kind of contact lens – one that might be able to actually project your email right in front of your eyeballs. And we’ll end with a check-in one of WTP’s favorite stories, Bletchley Park in the UK. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Sue Black, who is fighting to save the building and the grounds where British code-breakers cracked German codes during World War II. Truly, tech that still matters.

A reminder that you can ignore us equally on Twitter, Facebook, and now Google +.

For the past few “B-side” podcasts, we’ve been taking you on a global tour of some of the world’s most stunning monuments and buildings, all in an effort to understand the geometry that underlies our everyday lives. Structural engineer Cecil Balmond has told you about circles at Stonehenge, and squares at India’s Taj Mahal. Now it’s time to totter off to Egypt, to discover the secrets of triangles at The Great Pyramid of Giza. If you’d like to know more about the Great Pyramid, we suggest this NOVA site.

A reminder that you can ignore us equally on Twitter, Facebook, and now Google +

On a recent episode of WTP, we talked about new methods of disposing of your earthly remains once you’ve passed on. Well, this time around, we’re going to feature the story of a man (not pictured here) who decided to take an old school approach. A very old school approach. Alan Billis, a British taxi driver with terminal cancer, agreed to have his body treated like the Pharoahs of ancient Egypt after he died. On this episode of the Tech Podcast, you’ll hear an interview about the tools and techniques used. It’s with Dr. Stephen Buckley of the University of York. He’s the man who actually did Mr. Billis’ mummification. As Alan Billis’ wife put it, quite rightly: “I’m the only woman in England who has a mummy for a husband.”

Also in this episode, you’ll hear about Duqu, a “Son of Stuxnet” variant that has been found on computers in Europe. We’ll also give you a nice, juicy interview with author Misha Glenny, who talks about his new book DarkMarket: CyberThieves, CyberCops and You. He discusses his work here in this TED video.

We’ll also have items on mobile phone-based grocery shopping in South Korea, and on the Solar Power Decathalon!

A reminder that you can ignore us equally on Twitter, Facebook, and now Google +.

(Photo: Sherurcij)

Looming Quake Risk in Japan: A series of studies in Science, as reported by Nature, suggests another big quake could be in the offing south of where the Great Tohoku Earthquake struck.

Congress Restricts Sino-American Science Collaboration: Here’s one I missed a couple of weeks ago. A little-known clause in the latest federal budget bans certain forms of scientific collaboration between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China. Here’s one take on the issue from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Skin Disease in the Mind: A Mayo Clinic study suggests that Morgellons disease — which sufferers say is caused by parasites crawling under the skin — is actually caused by delusions, says a story in the L.A. Times. (The disease sounds reminiscent of Guinea worm disease, which is all too real. Check out my story on a former U.S. president’s battle against Guinea worm.)

Mummies with Heart Disease: We’ve heard this before: scientists put mummies in CT scanners to diagnose diseases of ancient Egypt. But this latest study is especially large and finds a surprisingly high rate of atherosclerosis. Report by Discovery News.

DDT vs. Malaria: The New York Times provides an update on a controversy in Northern Uganda. Are the benefits of combating malaria with DDT worth the risks? It’s a subject we investigated in 2009 with a lengthy news report and a World Science Forum discussion.

David Baron is the health & science editor at The World.

(Photo: flickr image by Ian Turton.)

In this week’s podcast, we focus on Egypt’s tech shutdown, and some various tech workarounds. Follow @Jan25voices and @speak2tweet for audio updates from Egyptians on the ground.

Last Friday, the Egyptian government shut down most access to the Internet. It also cut off mobile phone service.

Though cell phone service is slowly being restored, most Egyptians still can’t get online. But that doesn’t mean Egyptians haven’t been able to make their voices heard — with a little outside help.

With Twitter, Facebook, cell phones and text messaging unavailable, printed flyers and word of mouth have become the new ways of organizing. Activists inside the country were not the only ones shocked by the Egyptian government’s decision to shut down most telecommunications.

“That was a very extraordinary move,” said Jonatan Walck, who is part of the volunteer group, Telecomix. “It was nothing you could prepare for.”

Telecomix helps people get around Internet censorship. Last Friday, the group decided to try to re-establish Internet access for Egyptians by asking European Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to free up lines once used for dial-up access.

The European ISPs did so free of charge, and Walck said Telecomix started distributing the access numbers by any means necessary — even by fax — to Egyptians.

“We’ve had nice ISPs around Europe open up those modem pools that are normally closed down, and provide them without any cost.”

John Scott-Railton, a graduate student in urban planning at UCLA, took a different tack. He was tracking events in Egypt via Twitter.

“It’s a place and a people that I have a lot of affection for, but the government has always broken my heart,” he said, “and I know a lot of people of my generation who are inhabiting an ossified system filled with stuff that’s older than stuff in my grandmother’s attic.”

When the Internet went dark, he figured that cell phones would quickly follow, so he called friends and acquaintances in Egypt and got landline numbers for them. When the cell phones were cut, he started calling Egypt — on his own dime.

At first, he would just take notes, and then send out a Twitter message. Then, he said, he realized that there is nothing like hearing the voice of these young people.

“I think that is the real corrective to distant images with a zoom lens of people and police,” Scott-Railton said.

He found an online service that allowed him to record and publish the audio from his phone calls. One voice said, “I’m walking down the street right now, people with sound systems. And they’re going with the same slogans — out with Mubarak.”

Another said, “right now, there are about 20 people on the bridge, and they’re out with brooms and plastic bags, and they’re just cleaning.”

Still another said, “thirty years of corruption has just fuelled this on for the people. Mubarak just doesn’t get it, and he won’t get it until he’s gone from power.”

Scott-Railton is compiling this audio on Twitter at “Jan25Voices.” He said he will continue to do this as long as his studies don’t suffer — or until he gets the phone bill.

• Telecomix official site
• More on Jan25Voices

Tetris, as many of you probably know, can be completely addictive. There’s just something about stacking all those shapes in nice even rows. And in recent years, we’ve been told that researchers think Tetris may be more than just an excellent time-killer. Well, now there’s a new study from Oxford University that shows Tetris may help reduce trauma. From the BBC: “Volunteers were exposed to distressing images, with some given the game to play 30 minutes later, the PLoS One journal reported. Players had fewer “flashbacks”, perhaps because it helped disrupt the laying down of memories, said the scientists. It is hoped the study could aid the development of new strategies for minimising the impact of trauma.” In this week’s WTP, We’ll hear more from Dr. Emily Holmes, one of the researchers who worked on the study.

Also in this episode, we’ll take a look at one of the latest ways the open-source mapping and texting platform, Ushahidi, is being used. In Cairo, Harassmap is using it to document cases of sexual harassment of Egyptian women.

Then, we’ll hear about about another mapping project called Facts on the Ground, a web and iPhone app that will give you the latest information on Israeli settlement activity collected by Americans for Peace Now.

And we’ll end the podcast with one of our favorite topics: the use of technology in classroom learning. This time, we travel to South Africa to hear about how cell phones are being used to help local students. Here’s the promised video:

Remember, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

This week:  You’ll hear about the challenges faced by Arab women scientists. We talk about the limits of the international treaty to save endangered species. And Elsa brings some exciting, yet moldy, news. (Photo: Students Samah Majadla (left) and Sarah Tulimat. Photo by Katy Clark originally accompanied this story.)

Arab Women in Science: In the past year, the U.S. and the Arab Science and Technology Foundation have started several initiatives to train and mentor women scientists in Arab countries. The programs are aimed at increasing the number of women in science- and technology-related fields. I spoke with an Egyptian electrical engineer, Ghada Amer, about the challenges she faced in her career. She heads the Arab Women in Science & Technology program.
Guest: Ghada Amer
Arab Women in Science & Technology.
US women’s colleges appeal to Muslims.

Debating the Limits of Endangered Species Treaty: The only international treaty for protecting endangered species has recently revealed its limits. Critics say the treaty has flaws, but supporters argue it’s still a vital tool in the battle against extinction.
Report by: Gerry Hadden
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Read a transcript of the story.
“Tuna’s End,” an article from the New York Times Magazine.

Elsa’s Favorite Stories:

• French Cave Art: The prehistoric artwork in Lascaux cave was discovered in 1940. Since then it has been threatened with degradation due to condensation, lichens, algae, and fungi that have swept the cavern in the wake of modern exploration and management. A few years ago, the United Nations considered listing the cave as an endangered World Heritage Site–but France has appointed a new committee of scientists to solve the cave’s microbe problems.
  Virtual tour of Lascaux.
  Nature News coverage.
  Time magazine coverage (2006).
• Fungi Generate Wind: When it’s time to reproduce, the fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum ejects its spores at about 20 miles per hour. But that speed is insufficient to carry the spores far – individual spores would go about one tenth of an inch before being stopped by air resistance. But the fungus overcomes that hurdle by throwing its spores out in a rapid wave across the fungal fruiting body, causing thousands of spores to be released almost simultaneously. That’s enough to generate a small wind that carries spores 20 to 30 times farther than any one of them could go alone. The extra distance helps them pick up atmospheric air currents and reach their plant hosts.
  The study.
  

This week: Particle accelerators are helping scientists peek inside prehistoric bugs trapped in amber. One group of archaeologists has found the oldest evidence for communal feasting. Another group has stumbled upon signs of antibiotic use by ancient Nubians. British scientists have built a bridge for dormice. And climate change may not fuel conflict in Africa after all. We’re still talking tigers in our latest Science Forum discussion. Stop by with your questions and thoughts. And please tell us what you think of our reporting in this online survey!

Ancient Communal Feasts: Archaeologists have stumbled upon the oldest known evidence for communal feasting. The site of the discovery is northern Israel where people were feasting to commemorate the death of an elder some 12,000 years ago.
Guest: Natalie Munro.
The study.

Elsa’s Favorite Stories:

• Africa’s Non-Climate Wars: Back in November, we reported on a study which concluded that for every degree Celsius increase in temperature the chance of civil war in Africa increased by 50%. That’s because hot dry years could lead to food shortages and unrest. But a new study says the relationship is not so clear and that traditional political and economic factors are more important than climate.
  The new study.
  The previous study.
  Podcast 81, where we talked about the previous study.
  Related post from Discover magazine’s 80 Beats blog.
• Elephants Don’t Like Ants: Big and burly as they are, elephants will avoid insects that bite and sting. If an elephant hears a bee or smells an ant, it will take off. A kind of acacia tree has adapted to take advantage of this. The whistling-thorn tree houses ants inside its thorns and that keeps elephants from wrecking it like they do other acacia trees. The ants help stabilize the amount of tree cover in the savanna ecosystem.
  The study. (Includes a video narrated by one of the authors.)
  More about elephants and bees in Podcast 18 and Podcast 65.
  Termites also have a notable effect on the savanna landscape.
  Here’s a video of what elephants can do to trees that don’t have ant bodyguards! Video by Ed Yong.
  
• Antibiotics in Nubian “Beer”: In the early 1980s, anthropologists noticed that bones of 2,000-year-old Nubian mummies fluoresced under black light, as do bones of modern humans who’ve taken the antibiotic tetracycline. That observation launched a series of studies about ancient antibiotic use, and researchers have concluded that the Nubians regularly produced a fermented beverage that contained tetracycline-producing bacteria. Their latest evidence includes extraction and chemical identification of the tetracycline from the mummies’ bones.
  The study.
  In Podcast 49, we talked about another ancient medicine, from Egypt.
  The photo at right shows tetracycline-labeled bone fluorescing under black light. Photo courtesy of eScienceCommons.
• No Mammoth-Killer Comet: Nearly 13,000 years ago, mammoths and other megafauna went extinct across North America. Researchers have proposed that the mass extinction resulted from a comet or meteorite that exploded over the continent but the hypothesis seems not to have held up well under scrutiny. A new study deals what may be the final blow to the notion of a mammoth-killer impact.
  The study.
  The original mammoth-killer study.
  ScienceNOW coverage.
  More on the various explanations for the mass extinction from NOVA.

Peering Inside Ancient Bugs: Remember the mosquito trapped in amber in the movie Jurassic Park? Of course scientists can’t really use DNA from ancient mosquitoes to recreate dinosaurs but they can gain valuable insights by studying all sorts of ancient insects preserved in fossilized tree resin. Getting to the insects through the amber is fraught with difficulties. Now scientists in France are using a Synchrotron particle accelerator to scan opaque amber and create 3-D models of these insects.
Report by: Ari Daniel Shapiro.

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
A few images of the insects.

A Bridge for Dormice: What has big shiny, black eyes and small, rounded ears, a cute fluffy tail and a suspension bridge? Its a British dormouse. The charming little rodent has a new way to cross a highway in the form of a $ 250,000 bridge in South Wales.
Guest: Robert Jones Parry, the conservation manager of the Wildlife Trust of South Wales.
BBC video about the bridge.

What the Internet Does to Your Brain: Find out in this week’s Technology podcast by my colleague Clark Boyd.

We Need Your Help! Give us your feedback. Take a minute to fill out this online survey.

This week: Geologists say they expected the earthquake in Haiti. Some European countries have overstocked the H1N1 vaccine and are trying to unload excess doses. Engineers and archaeologists are collaborating to expand Rome’s metro system. Elsa is back from vacation and her favorites stories include one about ancient Egyptian eyeliners. Finally, a listener tells us about his favorite music for doing science.

Haiti’s Seismic History: Haiti has had more than its share of natural disasters. Every year the country is hit by violent tropical storms, not earthquakes.  But geologists say that this week’s earthquake should not have come as a surprise. I spoke to a couple of geologists to find out why. Its a story I did for the radio show earlier this week.
Report by: Rhitu Chatterjee.
Live updates about Haiti from the BBC.
The quake could have been worse, says one scientist.

Flu Vaccine Overstock: After last year’s rush to stock up on the vaccine against the H1N1 flu, some European countries are now trying to unload millions of doses. Countries such as Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, and France have found themselves with huge stockpiles because far fewer citizens than expected sought out the vaccine. Governments are hoping to cancel orders or sell the excess vaccines to developing nations.
Report by: The World’s Gerry Hadden.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• Lead in Ancient Egyptian Eyeliner: Ancient Egyptians might have been unaware of lead poisoning. But they might have known of some health benefits of lead that we are unaware of. That’s the conclusion of a new study that analyzed the novel lead salts found in the famous black eyeliners of ancient Egyptians sampled from a collection at France’s Louvre Museum.
  The study.
  The Egyptian Antiquities collection at the Louvre.
• Inflatable Female Cane Toads: Australian scientists have found that female cane toads are a fairly empowered lot. A female toad picks a male with the best call. But she wards off the smaller, unworthy suitors by inflating herself and causing them to loosen their grip on her. (Or if she prefers a smaller guy, she can make that happen too.)
  The study.
  BBC coverage.
  More about cane toads.
• Cricket Pollinators: A researcher working on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean has found the first evidence of a cricket pollinating flowers. Crickets are omnivorous and normally don’t use nectar as a food source. The researchers think that the raspy cricket on Reunion might have developed a taste for orchid nectar and become an important pollinator because of a scarcity of other insects on the island.
  The study.
  Watch the video of the raspy cricket caught in the act of pollinating an orchid.
  

Rome’s New Metro Line: Expanding Rome’s metro system is not an easy task. In a city with a rich history, building a metro line could mean endangering the city’s historical sites. That’s why engineers and archaeologists are collaborating to build Rome’s third metro line.
Report by: The BBC’s Duncan Kennedy.
See a BBC video of the new construction.

Music in Science: Biologist D J Braiser tells us which songs best describe his experience of doing science.

This week: In this week’s podcast you’ll hear how Egyptians are coping with environmental threats to the Nile Delta.  We have two stories on bears — one about humming bears (no, I’m not talking about Winnie the Pooh), the other about a shortage of females among French brown bears.  And then some potentially good — and bad — news about carbon nanotubes. Also: plastic in the diet of albatrosses, a Halloween story about a sea monster from millions of years ago, and a surprise visitor… in a biocontainment suit.

Nile Delta and Rising Seas: A few weeks ago, you heard how farmers in Bangladesh are fighting against rising seas. This week, we’ll take you to Egypt’s Nile Delta — one of the three areas on Earth most vulnerable to rising seas.  You’ll hear what some Egyptians are doing to prepare for the dramatic changes to come.
Report: By Christian Fraser in Egypt.
Egypt’s Ministry of Environmental Affairs
BBC story on threatened deltas around the world
Maps showing projected effects of rising sea levels in the Nile Delta region

Humming Black Bears: It turns out that Winnie the Pooh (the fictitious creation of British author A. A. Milne) isn’t the only bear that hums. An American researcher has discovered real humming bears. The researcher also claims — and I find this hard to believe — that real bears don’t like honey.
Guest: Lynn Rogers
BBC story, includes three videos of black bears
Is your curiosity about bears piqued? Find out more on them here.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• French Brown Bears: France’s brown bear population is teetering on the verge of extinction, and a new study suggests one reason: there aren’t enough females to mate with the male bears. Should France import female bears to help the males — and the species?
  The study
  Story from the Telegraph on the French bear controversy
  World Wildlife Fund page on human-wildlife conflict
• Plastic-Eating Albatrosses:You’ve already heard about the giant patch of plastic accumulating in the Pacific. You might also have heard that sea birds are dying from eating the plastic. Now we learn that some Laysan albatrosses are eating diets especially rich in plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
  The study
  Altered Oceans Series from LA Times
  Video showing the assorted plastic junk that killed one albatross chick.
  By Paulo Maurin, University of Hawaii with narration by Cynthia Vanderlip, Hawaii Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
  
• Nanotubes in Tomatoes and Mouse Lungs: You’d expect to find nanotechnology in your iPod or computer, but what about nanotubes in tomatoes? Scientists have found that carbon nanotubes help tomato seeds germinate and grow faster. Meanwhile, another group of researchers has this cautionary note — not only do carbon nanotubes look like asbestos, they can also accumulate in the lining of mouse lungs.
  The tomato study
  The lung study
  Collection of nano stories from Scientific American

A Jurassic Sea Monster: It was gigantic, about the size of a sperm whale, and it was strong enough to bite your car in half and swallow you whole. It’s called a pliosaur, and scientists have just uncovered an intact skull along the coast of England.
Guest: Richard Forrest
BBC story about the pliosaur, includes a video of the fossil find
More on pliosaurs and other ocean-faring reptiles