SoT 306: Don't Call It A Wolphin

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Alayna Hansen.

00:00:58 We're hosting Dr. Pamela Gay for a talk, Q&A session and live show in Melbourne on Wednesday 10 October! Tickets $20 from scienceontop.com/live and all proceeds go to the non-profit Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

00:02:23 The government of Sierra Leone has announced the discovery of a new species of Ebola virus. Fortunately there's no indication that it's spread to humans yet, but that could be just a matter of time.

00:10:23 Hurricanes Irma and Maria wreaked havoc on the Caribbean, causing extensive damage and hundreds of deaths. But it did provide a rare opportunity for a team to study how natural disasters affect the evolution of some small tree-dwelling lizards.

00:16:52 Researchers are insisting that the hybrid cross of a melon-headed whale and a rough-toothed dolphin that was discovered in Hawaii is not a "wolphin". So of course, everyone's calling it a "wolphin".

00:23:08 For the first time physicists at the Large Hadron Collider have accelerated atoms at near the speed of light. Usually the LHC fires sub-atomic protons and atomic nuclei, so this is a big step up and could herald a new branch of particle physics exploration.

This episode contains traces of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talking with Melissa Francis about the newly announced Space Force on Fox Business.

Alayna Hansen is a journalism student and freelance science writer. Check out her application for BBC Presenter Search on her YouTube Channel.