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Past Shows
December 1, 2007
 Download an MP3 of the entire program (22MB).
Earth's Evil Twin
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Artist's impression of Venus Express in orbit
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4.5 billion years ago, the Earth and Venus formed as virtual twins. Unfortunately, while Earth went on to life and glory, Venus went wrong. So it's now a world of crushing pressure, a runaway greenhouse effect, and sulfuric acid clouds. This week, results from the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission were released and they go some way toward explaining how Venus ended up as it did. Scientists have worked out some of the mechanisms that caused Venus to lose its water, and they've observed its remarkable and terrifying climate. Dr. Fred Taylor, Halley Professor of Physics at Oxford University and Venus Express Interdisciplinary Scientist, brings us up to date on the results.
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Paris Hilton and Pain
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Paris Hilton is famous for, well, being famous. Her life is usually full of fun and partying but somehow this hotel heiress managed to find some time to make a contribution to scientific research. Dr. Jeffery Mogil, a psychology professor and Canada Research Chair in the Genetics of Pain at McGill University, was conducting experiments on how the presence of the experimenter can affect the animals in his lab. If a human was in the same room as his mice, the mice experienced more stress, and less pain. But even when he placed a cardboard cut-out of Paris Hilton in the room, the results were the same. And perhaps not surprisingly, the effect was far more pronounced in the male mice. It turns out beauty really does sooth the savage lab animal.
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Squirrel Personalities
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Yukon Squirrel, courtesy Tim Karels |
Anyone who owns a pet would agree that animals have distinct personalities. But this trait can be extended beyond just companion animals, and may include many wild species as well. Adrienne Boon, a graduate student at both the University of Alberta and the Université du Quebéc à Montréal, has studied the personalities of squirrels in the Yukon. She's found two basic personality types, the highly active and aggressive, versus the laid-back and relaxed. Discovering this led to an interesting question. If some squirrels are so different from others, how do both personalities survive in the population? Why doesn't one emerge over time as the best for survival? It turns out that, in this squirrel group, environmental conditions change dramatically from year to year. And these different personalities are best suited for opposite times. The aggressive squirrels do well when there's lots of food around, the passive squirrels in lean years. Overall, it may be that the differing personality types are what's keeping the population alive.
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Hydrogen and Bacteria
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Microbial electrolysis cell, Photograph by Shaoan Cheng, Penn State University |
Hydrogen has been seen by many as the fuel of the future, if only we had a source for it. Dr. Bruce Logan, an Environmental Engineer at Penn State University, has developed a way to generate hydrogen by giving microbes a little electrical boost. The microbes generate electrons and protons for hydrogen production by digesting almost any kind of biomass, and with a little extra voltage, the electron and proton combine to form hydrogen.
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Monkeys on Strike
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Capuchin Monkeys, courtesy Dr. Frans de Waal |
One ability that most humans share is a sense of fair play. The concept of equal pay for equal work is one that almost everyone can agree with. It turns out we're not the only species that feels that way. Dr. Sarah Brosnan, from Georgia State University, studies capuchin monkeys, and in a recent experiment, she found they, too, know when they're being treated unfairly. When offered rewards that were inferior to those given to the other monkeys around then, capuchin monkeys will turn down the treats or, in extreme cases, throw the treats back at the researchers, showing they understand the concept of fair play.
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Listener Letters
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Producer Pat Senson joins Bob to read feedback to the interview with Gary Taubes about his book, Good Calories, Bad Calories
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Theme music copyright Raphaël Gluckstein. Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0
Musical stings courtesy of Beatsuite.com Music Library.
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