The iKnife knows when it's cutting through healthy tissue or cancerous tissue during surgery. In 91 tests, it correctly identified the tissue every time, and in less than a second. Chimpanzees and orangutans can use 'autobiographical memory' - previously thought to be unique to humans. In a series of tests, the apes were able to accurately recall an event that happened three years prior. Genetecists may have found a way to switch off the rogue chromosome that causes Down's syndrome. The discover...
Jul 31, 2013•39 min
The Kepler spacecraft has found 134 confirmed planets outside our solar system and another 3,277 unconfirmed candidates. But has its time run out? NASA scientists are planning one last ditch effort to rescue the space telescope. Meanwhile Hubble has analysed a planet 63 light years away and found it's a deep blue colour! Also, it's big and moving really really fast. Lucas has found a gravity simulator that lets you build solar systems and watch as objects of different mass interact. It's mesmeri...
Jul 23, 2013•30 min
Human head transplants - technically maybe, but not really. Did scientists create a human liver from stem cells ? Sort of, but not really. A bone marrow transplant cures two men of HIV - actually yes, but don't get your hopes up. Beware the toad with the weaponised moustache ! Guillemot eggs clean themselves . Pluto's moons get official names , snubbing Stephen Colbert....
Jul 16, 2013•35 min
Shockwave from Russian meteor circled the globe twice Russian rocket crashes shortly after launch Global warming could be helping the spread of brain-eating amoebas Why routine autopsies should be the norm , not the exception A corn-eating pest thwarts farmers, but the bacteria makes them do it Scientists have sequenced the genome of an ancient horse Dopamine: why chocolate brownies are like cocaine Torch that runs on body heat invented by 15-year-old...
Jul 10, 2013•44 min
Why naked mole rats don’t get cancer Thinking of home makes it harder to learn a foreign language Your vegetables are 'alive' up to a week after harvest Being bitten by a komodo dragon: not as bad as you thought , but still pretty bad Unlocking the parasitic secrets of 822 year old poo Unsurprisingly, 1 billion-year-old water tastes "terrible"...
Jul 01, 2013•38 min
Temperatures on Mars rise and fall twice a day New phylum of bacteria discovered Ancient armoured fish had abs Leprosy from medieval knights is much the same as modern-day leprosy Supreme Court rules on human-gene patents...
Jun 26, 2013•46 min
Australian Bird Moves Like Jagger and Sounds Like Space Invaders Comet Lovejoy flies into Sun to reveal solar secrets Australian squid eat sperm for better bodies and babies Growing Left, Growing Right- why your left is different to your right...
Jun 17, 2013•34 min
400 Year old frozen plants get thawed out and revived . A Russian scientist claims to have found liquid blood in a 10,000 year old woolly mammoth carcass . The iron in beads worn by pre-Iron Age Egyptians came from meteorites . 1 in 13 museum visitors have 'ape-like' feet . An old theory about the evolution of the turtle's shell gets some supporting evidence. And a new therapy for schizophrenics shows promise....
Jun 09, 2013•53 min
Vitamin C kills tuberculosis in an accidental discovery. Why penguins can swim but not fly . A Neanderthal tooth gives a clue about the history of breastfeeding . The pathogen that caused the Irish Famine gets its genome sequenced . Our guts are full of bacteria, and even more viruses . The 'top ten' new species discovered in 2012 . Cockroaches are evolving to avoid our traps . More show notes at http://scienceontop.com/104...
Jun 04, 2013•46 min
UN says insects are the food of the future . Underground water reservoir untouched for over a billion years . Stem cells created with cloning technique . Plan to monitor endangered ecosystems , not just animals. Egyptians got it on more in Summer, and the co-evolution of humans and dogs . More show notes at http://scienceontop.com/103...
May 28, 2013•42 min
One third of all US honeybee colonies died last Winter. A protein in breast milk can help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria . Plants talk to each other through a fungus. Some words may have survived with little changes for 15,000 years. More show notes at http://scienceontop.com/102...
May 20, 2013•41 min
Solar powered plane completes the first leg of its trans-American trip. A Russian scientist claims to have found meterorites from the Tunguska event of 1908. A blood test could determine if you're going to get Alzheimer's disease - but would you want to know? Newly developed nanosheets soak up oil spills . And the 6" skeleton named Ata isn't as alien as it looks ....
May 14, 2013•38 min
The unborn sharks that eat their brothers and sisters . A fish that uses gestures . The ambiguity of language and the seven misused science words . AquAdvantage salmon, the first transgenic animal created for consumption , being tested by the FDA. Traces of supernovae found in ocean bacteria....
May 06, 2013•45 min
Can we innoculate babies with 'good' bacteria to ward of bad bacteria? An ugly, unpalatable living fossil fish gives clues about the origins of limbs . A 'nano-suit' could protect living specimens in scanning electron microscopes. At what point does a baby become conscious ? And more evidence suggests island dwarfism is behind the 'hobbit' remains discovered on the island of Flores in Indonesia....
May 04, 2013•45 min
Data collected on the ISS gives clues about dark matter . New analysis fo data from a soviet balloon probe suggests it encountered a rain shower on Venus . Iceman Otzi had bad teeth . How eating red meat could lead to heart attacks . And can a new take on an Old Wive's Tale be the answer to bed bug infestations ?...
Apr 25, 2013•43 min
Obama announces brain-mapping plan . Scientists decode dreams with brain scans. The active ingredient in magic mushrooms could treat severe depression, but conducting trials is a legal nightmare. A turtle believed extinct for decades never really existed . How nerve cells generate energy . Buzz Aldrin's toothbrush, and other space memorabillia, up for auction . And a new species of giant tarantula has been discovered and is "pretty", venomous, and the size of your face....
Apr 16, 2013•50 min
Henrietta Lacks's immortal cancer cells, and the ethical controversy surrounding them. An unusual virus could be the source of a mysterious form of hepatitis that causes liver failure in most horses. If you thought mating in humans was complicated, spare a thought for the protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila , with its seven sexes! Could the mysterious 'fairy circles' in Africa be the result of termites , rather than alien landing pads?...
Apr 08, 2013•33 min
Voyager 1 has left the solar system. Or has it? Yes. And No. Sort of. The Great Roller Derby Bacteria Swap Three-person IVF could prevent mitochondrial disorders The bacteria that kills itself to spare the rest of the colony from infection The most detailed map of the Universe shows it's a little older than we previously thought ....
Apr 02, 2013•41 min
Bizarre, extinct frog set to spawn again The Promise and Pitfalls of Resurrection Ecology Bringing Them Back to Life ‘We Have a Limited Window of Opportunity’: CDC Warns of Resistance ‘Nightmare’ 'Nightmare' superbug alarm at Dandenong Hospital The “Nightmare Bacteria”: An Explainer Windfarm sickness spreads by word of mouth, Australian study finds Devil cancer's evasive trick revealed Ancient Mars Had Conditions Suitable for Life...
Mar 26, 2013•45 min
Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space . A baby has been cured of HIV. Sub-glacial Lake Vostok has life! No wait, it doesn't . 60 Second Science - a video competition with $10,000 in prizes up for grabs! The next crop of telescopes are enormous. Diamonds may originate from life on the sea floor....
Mar 19, 2013•46 min
The winning names for two new moons of Pluto are "Vulcan" and "Cerberus" . Wiring the brain of Rat A to the brain of Rat B and watching them communicate . The genetic effect of lack of sleep . An old space tourist thinks sending old people to Mars is a good idea. And the deepest undersea vents are discovered, with some freaky life nearby....
Mar 11, 2013•34 min
Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall and Dr. Simon O'Toole. The discovery of the smallest planet ever found , and why we should care. Flowers use electric fields to communicate with bees. Could the flu virus have an Achilles' heel? And why are scientists dropping dead mice from helicopters in Guam? Mosquitoes could be developing a resistance to Deet , internet entrepreneurs announce Nobel-like prizes , and January 2013 was quite hot ....
Mar 05, 2013•42 min
Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall. The toilet habits of a small mammal gives climate scientists 55,000 years of data. The humble appendix might not be so useless. An experiment gives some clues about how to repel Earthquakes . The bacterial mechanism behind melamine contaminated milk is discovered. Brushing your teeth might be doing more harm than good. Why is the human body so poorly 'designed', and Captain Kirk weighs in on the name for a Plutonian moon ....
Feb 25, 2013•37 min
Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall. Huge meteor blazes across the sky in Russia. A computation of what the last common ancestor of placental mammals looked like. A robot with artificial but transplantable organs goes on display. Why insects constantly clean their antennae . The self-assembling molecules that give clues to the origins of life. France moves to curb light pollution . Thousands of spiders crawling across the Brazilian sky ....
Feb 18, 2013•41 min
Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Lucas Randall, Dr. Simon O’Toole. Topics covered: TW Hydrae is a star that should be too old to have a proto-planetary disc , but has one. The skeletal remains of King Richard III are found under a car park in Leicester, the secret to owls rotating their heads , and Iran launches a monkey into space . Plus the strange things taught as science in some schools , and lots more!...
Feb 11, 2013•37 min
Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday. Topics covered: A recap of what we talked about last week , in the episode that disappeared. Leprosy bacteria induces stem cells in the host body, dung beetles use the sky to navigate , and a Harvard Professor that doesn't plan to clone Neanderthals . Scientists watched naked babies falling over and we look at some of the best White House petitions ....
Feb 03, 2013•36 min
Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Steve Nerlich. Topics covered: Genetic expression differs between belly fat and thigh fat , and a breath test that could detect bacterial infections almost immediately. Why Mars colonists could get fat and lazy , and the selection criteria for the Mars One reality show . Plus the defensive mechanisms of shark fetuses , and millions cry out in terror as plans to build a Death Star are scrapped ....
Jan 21, 2013•43 min
Our end of year 'bloopers' episode is online! For all the funny, interesting and weird bits that didn't quite make the show in 2012, download the show from our website, at scienceontop.com/2012 . This show is NOT on our feed, to listen you will HAVE to download it manually from the website. It does contain swearing and content that might not be suitable for children. So go to scienceontop.com/2012 and click the download link!...
Jan 05, 2013•2 min
Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Dr. Mick Vagg, Upulie Divisekera, Lucas Randall. Ed, Shayne, Upulie, Mick and Lucas take a look back at the big stories in science from 2012. From feathered dinosaurs to robot hands, the Higgs boson to Mars colonies, the panel relives their favorite news items. For all the stories we mention, check out the website for this episode, at scienceontop.com/85
Dec 24, 2012•51 min
Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely, Lucas Randall. Topics covered: James Cameron releases results from his deep dive . How maggots heal wounds . NASA plans to send Curiosity twin to Mars in 2020 . Golden Spike plans to send people to the moon for $750 million . The data from the GRAIL probes mapping the gravity of the moon is released . A retrovirus marks an evolutionary point for Koalas . RIP Sir Patrick Moore, 1923-2012 ....
Dec 18, 2012•57 min
