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

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: Scientists add a new chapter to the story of human evolution. Champagne bubbles enhance the drink’s flavor. A bacterial pathogen could help fight disease-carrying mosquitoes.  Ig Nobel prize winners announced, while blogs and betting sites are abuzz with speculation about this year’s Nobel contenders. A walk through China’s innovative past.

Ardi, Our Ancient Ancestor: In the early 1990s, paleontologists discovered a hominid fossil in what is now the Afar region of Ethiopia. It was 4.4 million years old and belonged to a female. The researchers who discovered the skeleton named her Ardipithicus ramidus, or Ardi. This week, an international team of researchers describes Ardi and her ancient environment in a series of studies in the journal Science.
Guests: Tim White and Owen Lovejoy.
The Studies in Science.
Discovery: Ardi
Human Evolution Research Center

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• Champagne Bubbles Flavor the Drink: A group of German and French researchers has discovered that the secret to Champagne’s flavor lies in its fizz. Champagne bubbles concentrate the chemicals that give the drink its rich aromas. When the bubbles rise to the top, they bring these flavored compounds to the surface.
  The Study.
  Read more about champagne bubbles.
• Mosquitoes Beware! Scientists are trying to use a bacterial pathogen originally taken from fruit flies to fight diseases spread by mosquitoes. When infected with the bacteria, the immune systems of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes became hyper active. And the mosquitoes were better able to fight off other pathogens, including the yellow fever virus, thus reducing the chances of spreading the pathogens to humans.
  The Study.
  Les Barker’s poem, Gladys, about two mosquitoes.
  
• Speculation on This Year’s Nobel Contenders: Blogs and online betting sites are busy speculating on this year’s Nobel contenders. The Nobel Prizes will be announced next week, starting Monday, October 5th.
  Who are the contenders? Find out here.
  You could try your luck at Guess-A-Nobel Contest, and see if you win an iPod.
  Or throw in your speculation and try winning a guest post on the Uncertain Principles blog.

Ig Nobel Awardees Announced: On October 1st, the Annals of Improbable Research presented the 19th Annual First Ig Nobel Awards. Among the winners were Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, who won the veterinary medicine prize for showing that cows with names produce more milk than unnamed cows. The winners of the Peace Prize were forensic pathologist Stephan Bolliger and his colleagues from the University of Bern, in Switzerland, for finding out whether it is better to be smashed on the head with a full beer bottle or an empty one. The empty beer bottle turned out to be more lethal.
Guests: Peter Rowlinson and Stephan Bolliger.
Meet the other Ig Nobel winners here.

China’s innovative past: China invented paper, printing, the compass and the seismograph. And then, about 500 years ago, it lost its innovative edge. Now China hopes to regain its creative advantage.
Report: By The World’s Mary Kay Magistad, in Beijing.

Music: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, by The Beatles.

Poem: Gladys, by Les Barker.

This week: Four stories on efforts to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. French President Nicholas Sarkozy wants to impose a carbon tax on French citizens to lower their carbon emissions. A Londoner takes off on a world tour in his green mobile home.  International entrepreneurs and government officials visit North Dakota to show people how to make money while shrinking their carbon footprint. And scientists are pumping carbon dioxide into rocks in Iceland, with hopes of keeping it there for the foreseeable future. But first, a new dinosaur fossil from Inner Mongolia.

Tiny T. Rex: Scientists have discovered a tiny version of Tyrannosaurus rex – the monster star of Jurassic Park. This new dinosaur, called Raptorex, was only about one percent as big as T. rex, but you still wouldn’t want to run into it. It had powerful jaws and strong legs suited for running down its prey. It roamed the earth about 125 million years ago, and its fossil was unearthed from a land of vast grasslands — Inner Mongolia.
Guest: Paul Sereno, University of Chicago.
Video: “Bizarre Dinos,” which features this discovery, premieres Sunday, October 11 at 8 pm on the National Geographic Channel
Video: Paleontologist Paul Sereno discusses his new findings.

French Carbon Tax: French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to impose a carbon tax on households and businesses that emit greenhouse gases. But the French say they feel too taxed already.
Guest: Guillaume Debre, Washington correspondent, French TV Channel TF-1.

Climate Talks in North Dakota: Fighting climate change need not mean higher taxes and job losses. Many environmentalists argue it’s possible to make money by reducing one’s carbon footprint. Last month, a group of entrepreneurs and government representatives from around the world brought that message to an unlikely venue.
Report: By The World’s Jason Margolis in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Green Adventures: A former journalist turned eco-adventurer sets out on an ambitious world tour on a low-carbon budget.
Report: By The World’s Laura Lynch in London.
Follow the bio truck expedition online.

Burying CO2: One way to deal with excess carbon emissions could be to store CO2 underground. Many countries are investing in so-called carbon sequestration technologies. One of the most promising projects is based in Iceland.
Report: By Ashley Ahearn, outside Reykjavik, Iceland.

Music: Iceland, by The Faceless Orchestra.

Researchers and surgeons in London are helping the blind to see.  They have devised an artificial retina—a crude bionic eye—that operates wirelessly.

Can evolutionary principles be applied to language?  Some biologists say yes. They have studied how English is evolving and have identified what they believe are the most ancient words.

In environmental news, a group of Belgian scientists in Antarctica just opened the first polar research base powered entirely by wind and sun. We talk with project manager Alain Hubert. We also hear about dramatic changes in U.S. environmental policy. Mark Hertsgaard, who writes about the environment for The Nation, says the Obama administration has taken a new approach to renewable energy. The administration has also changed America’s position on a global treaty to combat mercury pollution.

There’s a newly discovered creature in the sea (hopefully not ingesting too much mercury). Biologists have found a very colorful fish in Indonesia. They suspect the species has been around for tens of millions of years.

You know those drawings of Tyrannosaurus rex chasing after prey, with arms hanging loosely down? It turns out this image is incorrect. In reality, the dinsosaur’s palms faced inward, toward one another, just like their descendants, birds. Scientists have long suspected this, but they now have proof. Paleontologists have found fossilized handprints and footprints made by a large meat-eating dinosaur from 198-million-year-old rocks in Utah.

Music:
The Six Million Dollar Man Theme

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