This week: Big storms are brewing on the Sun, and they’re sending flares of plasma towards the Earth. There’s a new book out about the science of life in space. It’s called Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. We talk to the book’s author, science journalist Mary Roach. Then, Elsa brings news about oceans, malaria and high-heeled shoes.

Packing for Mars: A trip to space isn’t as exciting as you may think. So says Mary Roach, science journalist and author of the new book, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. The book paints an unromantic picture of life in space. Roach spoke with The World’s David Baron. This is a longer, podcast-exclusive version of the interview that aired on the radio program.
Guest: Mary Roach
Watch a video about space hygiene and the people who stopped bathing for science.
Follow Diego Urbina’s twitter feed from the Mars500 experiment.
More about the Mars500 simulation on Podcast 70.
Robonaut2 is tweeting. You can follow it here.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• Bearded Gobies Save an Ocean Ecosystem: This is a story about a marine ecosystem that seemed to be doomed by overfishing. But an unsuspecting species – the bearded goby – revived it. The ecosystem hasn’t recovered to its original state, but is evolving in a new direction.
  The Study.
• Cases of Malaria Misdiagnosis: A new study has found that a large number of malaria diagnoses are inaccurate. Many countries don’t have the tests to determine when someone is infected with malaria parasites, leading to misdiagnoses of ordinary fevers as malaria.
  The Study.
• High Heeled Shoes Impact Your Calves: Ladies, beware! Those fashionable high-heeled shoes may be scrunching up your calf muscles permanently. That’s according to a new study that compared the leg muscles of people wearing high-heeled and flat shoes. The study was limited to 13 heel wearers. So the findings may need further confirmation from a bigger group of subjects.
  The Study.

Solar Flares & Northern Lights: The Sun is experiencing some stormy weather, and scientists say the solar storms may affect us on Earth. The World’s David Baron spoke with the U.S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Doug Biesecker. He says the solar flares may cause a brilliant display of northern lights. The storms are expected to continue through August 5th.
Guest: Doug Biesecker.
See video and pictures of the sun on the shownotes for Podcast 64.
Check out the the location, intensity and extent of the northern lights here.

Language Influences How We Perceive People: We may think differently of people depending on our own and their linguistic background. That’s according to a recently published study by researchers in the U.K and Israel. I spoke about the study in this week’s Language Podcast. Don’t miss it – it’s a really fun listen!
Learn more about Patrick Cox’s language podcast.

This week: In last week’s podcast, you heard about the possibilities of world leaders agreeing on a new climate treaty at next month’s climate summit in Copenhagen. You’ll hear from Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister for Climate and Energy who will be chairing the summit in Copenhagen next month. You’ll also hear a story on efforts to get wildlife off restaurant menus in Vietnam. Then, a story on how Israel is trying to come up with Hebrew names for Uranus and Neptune. Some disturbing news about plastics in our oceans and new clues to the day-to-day existence of the ordinary Mayan.

Oh! And a big thanks to all our listeners who participated in our last week’s Science Forum. Your thoughtful comments and questions made the Forum a big success!

Danish Climate Minister: The climate summit in Copenhagen is barely a few weeks away. And scientists, environmental activists and law makers from around the world are preparing for that upcoming meeting. Connie Hedegaard is the Danish minister for Climate and Energy and she will chair the climate summit in December. She says that leaders must remain committed to forging a strong, new international treaty to reduce carbon emissions.
Guest: Connie Hedegaard.
Links:
Collection of BBC stories on the Copenhagen summit.
Denmark’s Ministry of Climate and Energy.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• More Plastic in Our Oceans: Scientists now think that the Pacific Garbage patch may not be the only collection of plastic waste in our oceans. There are similar plastic dumps in other oceans, like the Atlantic and Indian. It is only a matter of time before they find those too.
  New York Times article (including a slide show).
  The Plastic Ocean, the blog of researcher Bonnie Monteleone
  More on ocean garbage from the Algalita Foundation.
• Why Do Humans Talk and Chimps Don’t? Part of the answer may lie in our genes. A new study published this week shows that a genetic player in brain development does completely different things in humans and chimps. The results suggest that some of the answers to the mysteries behind humans’ highly developed language skills may lie in the gene called FoxP2.
  The study.
  BBC coverage.
  More on language evolution from NOVA ScienceNOW.
• The Musty Smell of Old Books: Scientists have identified the cocktail of volatile chemicals emitted by old books. The chemicals are released when the compounds in paper start to degrade. Different kinds of papers decay at different rates and emit different chemicals. The researchers want to use the findings to develop a non-destructive sniff-test to identify books and papers in need of better preservation and storage.
  The study.
  BBC coverage.
  All about preserving old papers, from the Cornell University Library.
• Picture of the Ordinary Mayan Life: Archaelogists exploring a “painted pyramid” in Mexico have uncovered murals depicting rare images of the daily life of ordinary Mayans. The pictures show what ordinary people in the Mayan civilzation wore, cooked and traded.
  The study.
  Information on Maya culture from the National Gallery of Art. (Note from Elsa: Find out some of the things I did not know about the Mayan elite!)

Naming Uranus and Neptune, in Hebrew: Did you know that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy? Well, the Israelis did. And they decided to commemorate the occasion by coming up with Hebrew names for Uranus and Neptune. These planets were discovered after the ancient Hebrews named the other six planets in our solar system.
Report: By Daniel Estrin.
Links:
Jerusalem Post coverage.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language.

Getting Wildlife off the Menu: Wildlife delicacies such as snakes and monkeys have become increasingly popular in Vietnamese restaurants. But its hurting the country’s wildlife population. And that’s why two environmental groups are now trying to change attitudes and discourage the Vietnamese from indulging in wildlife cuisine.
Report: By The World’s Mary Kay Magistad.
Links:
Read a transcript of this story.
More about the WWF restaurant campaign in Hanoi.
Wildlife consumption is a problem in other parts of the world, too. Learn more from the Bushmeat Crisis Taskforce.

[player] Download MP3

This week: The World’s Technology Correspondent Clark Boyd is in the host chair. He brings you science news from four continents: In Africa, medical workers battle a common cause of blindness. In Asia, a small nation provides scholarships to attract science talent. In Europe, scientists study what happens when we get lost in the woods. And in Australia, a biologist tries a new strategy for battling malaria. Also: astronomers find an unlikely planet, and researchers gain insights into the brains of bilinguals.

Elsa is back with her favorite science stories. Her picks this week:

• Bilingualism: Learning a second language can influence how the brain processes a native language. That’s the finding of a Belgian study of people who speak both Dutch and English. (The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (volume 20, number 8,) but since you need a subscription to even see the abstract, here’s a press release too.)

• Odd Planet: An international team of scientists has detected a planet that shouldn’t exist. This “hot Jupiter” is so close to its sun that it completes each orbit in less than a single Earth day. (The study.)

• Malaria Vaccine: An international team of scientists has genetically modified the parasite that causes malaria. Could this lab-created organism be the basis for an effective vaccine? (The study.)

Fighting Blindness: Trachoma is a bacterial infection of the eye and a leading cause of blindness. Though largely eradicated from the industrialized world, trachoma remains a common affliction in developing countries. We visit the nation with the highest burden of disease and see how one American organization is trying to preserve sight for millions.
Report: By Odette Yousef in Ethiopia. (See photographs here.)

Singapore Science: Singapore considers science the key to its future economic growth. The Asian city-state  is building world-class laboratories, but it lacks trained personnel to staff those labs. So Singapore is reaching out to other countries for the science talent and science education it needs.
Report: By Ari Daniel Shapiro in Singapore.

Lost in the Woods: A new study by scientists in Germany has confirmed that when people get disoriented in the woods or other natural environments, they really do tend to walk in circles. The researchers sent volunteers into a German forest and the Sahara Desert and tracked their movements by GPS. (Click here to see a Google Earth image of the paths taken by some volunteers in the German forest.)
Report: By The World’s David Baron.

Music:

Walkin’ in Circles, by Charles Brown with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers

A Masai Mara giraffe.

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This week: We psychoanalyze a world leader from afar. We hear about big problems in a famed African wildlife reserve. And we talk to a linguist with a daring scientific vision.

The Dream: Linguist Derek Bickerton studies creole languages, which are hybrids of two or more languages.  For years, he dreamed of putting a bunch of people who spoke different tongues on an island to see what kind of language they would create. What happened?
Report: By The World’s Patrick Cox.

Wildlife Decline: In Kenya, the Masai Mara Reserve is famous for its charismatic megafauna, including wildebeest, zebras, impalas, giraffes, and lions. A new study says many of the animals are in trouble.
Guest: Robin Reid, Colorado State University.

The Head Case: Over his two years in office, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has made an impression on the public. “Sarko,” as he’s called, likes attention. We offer a psychological profile.
Report: By The BBC’s Emma Jane Kirby

Next week: We talk to Jonah Lehrer, author of “How We Decide,” a new book on the neuroscience behind decision-making.

Also next week: We roll out our interactive forum. You can talk about Jonah’s book and your own take on decisions. And best of all, Jonah will check in, comment, and respond to what you say.

Send us your questions for Jonah Lehrer.  And check back next week to join the forum.

Useful links:

Derek Bickerton’s site

The Center for Collaborative Conservation, where Robin Reid works.

Jonah Lehrer’s site

Songs:
Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band, Creole Two Step

Victor Green, Creole Girl