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Past Shows
October 17, 2009
 Download an MP3 of the entire program (22MB).
Holey Jawbone, Tyrannosaur!
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modified from copyright 1999 The Field Museum, Photographer John Weinstein.
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There was no other dinosaur that could have challenged the mighty Tyrannosaurs back in the late Cretaceous. However, Dr. Ewan Wolff, a paleontologist currently training in veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, may have found a creature that could have made T.Rex miserable. Dr. Wolff studied more than 60 Tyrannosaur skulls and found that many of them had tell-tale holes in their lower jaws. These holes were likely a result of an infection by a tiny parasite, possibly one very closely related to a modern parasite that can cause similar problems in birds. Dr. Wolff thinks that, given the number of dinosaurs he found with jaw damage, this could have been endemic in Tyrannosaurs, and may, in fact, have ultimately killed many of them.
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Toads Dress for Mating Success
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Bufo Leutkenii, ready for love - coutesy S. Doucet
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The male Bufo leutkenii toad of Costa Rica has an unusual mating practice: it changes colour, from green to bright lemony-yellow, for the purpose of attracting a mate. Then it changes back to its regular colour when the mating process is complete. This was observed by Dr. Stephanie Doucet, from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Windsor. To her knowledge, this behaviour has not been documented in any toads or frogs before. It also indicates that visualization is more important to the mating process than previously thought. Colour change is usually associated with camouflage or a form or warning, not for attracting a mate.
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Vegetarian Spider
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Bagheera kiplingi gettings it's fibre, courtesy R. Curry
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There are approximately 40,000 species of spider in the world, and until a recent discovery, all were thought to be predators. Now Dr. Robert Curry, and his team of biologists from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, have found what they believe is the first primarily vegetarian spider. It is called Bagheera kiplingi and it was found in Mexico. This spider lives on the acacia plant, which is guarded by biting, stinging ants. But Bagheera kiplingi is also a very clever spider. It engages in a game of 'hide and seek' to avoid the ant, in order to get at the nutritious bud-like growth at the tip of the acacia leaf. It also mimics the ant and may even borrow its chemical scent to further avoid detection.
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Connected - the Science of Social Networking
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You might think Social Networks are those things we play with on the Internet, but in fact, they're just a pale electronic imitation of the social networks that really affect our lives. In a new book, Connected: The Surprising Power of our Social Networks and How They Shape our Lives, Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a physician and professor at Harvard University, and his co-author Dr. James Fowler, explore the ties that bind us to our friends and our communities, and how they affect our health, our wealth and our welfare. Among the surprising revelations is the fact that it's not just your friends that influence you, but the indirect influence of their friends, and their friends' friends. These influences have a significant effect on your tendency to obesity, to whether you smoke or not, and on your politics and your prosperity. In fact, Christakis and Fowler suggest that we have a genetic predisposition to be part of these webs of influence, acting in some ways like herd animals or social insects, as our behaviour is regulated by the actions of all those around us.
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Science Fact or Science Fiction: Growth After Death
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From time to time, we'll present a commonly held idea or popular saying - and ask a Canadian scientist to set us straight on whether we should believe it or not. And today's saying is the stuff of campfire stories for kids, and chilling scenes in scary movies. "Your hair and fingernails continue to grow after you die." To help us pry the lid off that statement, we contacted Dr. Laurie Doering at McMaster University in Hamilton. He says it is science fiction.
Theme music bed copyright Raphaël Gluckstein.
Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0
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