A Week in Science with RiAus- 26 April 2013
Week in Science is the science news brought to you by RiAus.
This week:
Australia’s Aboriginal population descended from just 1000-2000 original inhabitants
Asthma worsened by low fibre and high fat diets
Genital Warts diagnoses drop by 59%
Marijuana pills more effective for pain relief than smoking
Genetically engineered bacteria produce petrol
1970 to 2000 was the hottest period for over 1400 years
20% of all land will change climate zones
Tropical rainfall directly affected by CO2 in the atmosphereYou can follow A Week in Science throughout the week on Twitter, and join the discussion, by following the hashtag #weekinsci
For more information visit riaus.org.au/articles/a-week-in-science-26-April-2013/
via RiAus Vid.
Ferrofluid - The Magnetic Liquid!
Materials scientist and Christmas Lecturer Mark Miodownik demonstrates some of the weird properties of ferrofluid. This liquid is literally ‘dripping with magnetism’, containing a suspension of ferromagnetic nanoparticles that make the liquid responsive to external magnetic fields, generating unusual patterns, shapes and motion.
Using a strong neodymium magnet and a large steel bolt, Mark demonstrates the strange and beautiful patterns the fluid forms in response to the magnetic field. Ferrofluids do not tend to maintain their behaviour in the absence of an external magnetic field and are therefore known as superparamagnets.
Alok Jha: Consciousness: the hard problem? - Discussion
Will consciousness ever be explained by neuroscientists?
Duration: 01:03:11
Strange Materials with Mark Miodownik
Materials are a defining characteristic of society. The ages of civilization are named after materials and the development of new materials do more than simple transform technology: they change behaviour and shape the urban landscape, from our cities and our hospitals, to our homes and our art.
In this Ri Discourse, Professor Mark Miodownik introduces us to the innovations that are shaping a new materials age, one that blurs the fundamental distinction between living and non-living things and challenges the very notion of material itself.
From ferrofluid to the revolution that is 3D printing, Mark points to the materials and innovations that will shape our future. Just as bionic limbs and synthetic organs are becoming the norm so our man-made environment is also changing to become more lifelike. Are living buildings and objects that heal-themselves are on the horizon?
Duration: 59:24
Michael Faraday’s Failure with Fluorine
Prof Frank James, a world-leading expert on all things Faraday, delves into the Royal Institution Archives to reveal one of the very few failures of the great scientist.
From 1834 to 1835 Faraday was seeking to isolate the element Fluorine through the electro-chemical techniques used by Humphry Davy to isolate Sodium and Potassium (also at the Ri) in 1807.
Faraday’s kept a meticulous set of laboratory notes and paragraph 1477 begins with the promising phrase “Worked for fluorine”. However, his attempt to disassociate fluorine from molten lead fluoride (PbF2) — itself a very dangerous substance — was never successful due to the extreme reactivity of Fluorine. On release it reacted almost immediately with the oxygen in the air and could not be isolated.
The problem was only solved around fifty years later by the French Chemist Henri Mossain in 1886, a feat for which he received the Nobel Prize.
Finding Tiktaalik: Neil Shubin on the Evolutionary Step from Sea to Land
Professor Neil Shubin talks about the discovery of Tiktaalik and one of the greatest evolutionary events in Earth’s history: when the very first fish ventured out onto land.
Widely known as the “fishapod”, Tiktaalik roseae is a 375 million year old fossil fish discovered by a team of six palaeontologists in the Canadian Arctic in 2004.
Tiktaalik looks like a cross between the primitive fish it lived amongst and the first four-legged animals, a group called “tetrapods”. Derived from “tetra-“, meaning four, and “-pod”, meaning foot, all animals that descended from these pioneer amphibians, including us, can be called tetrapods.
Tiktaalik lived about 12 million years before the first tetrapods (which are approximately 363 million years old). With the earliest appearance in the fossil record of tetrapod features in a fish, the discovery has become a key piece of evidence in the transition from life in water to life on land.
Finding Tiktaalik (Additional Material)
Professor Neil Shubin talks about the discovery of Tiktaalik and one of the greatest evolutionary events in Earth’s history: when the very first fish ventured out onto land.
by The Royal Institution.
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Colour Mixing: The Mystery of Magenta
Why doesn’t magenta appear in the rainbow? The answer lies not in physics but in biology.
Science presenter Steve Mould demonstrates the strange phenomenon of colour mixing, in which not everything is as it seems. The cone cells within our eyes are responsible for the colours we see, but are only sensitive to Red, Green and Blue light. So how are we able to see so many colours when we can only directly detect three and how do our brains see the colour magenta which doesn’t have a wavelength?
Steve explains all with the help of his coloured torches and explores how everyday technology fools our brains into seeing more.
Watch more science videos on the amazing Ri Channel:
http://richannel.orgFind out more about Steve Mould on his nerdy blog
http://stevemould.com or @MouldSThe Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science
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Jim Al-Khalili - Quantum Life: How Physics Can Revolutionise Biology
In this Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution, Professor Jim Al-Khalili explores how the mysteries of quantum theory might be observable at the biological level.
Although many examples can be found in the scientific literature dating back half a century, there is still no widespread acceptance that quantum mechanics — that baffling yet powerful theory of the subatomic world — might play an important role in biological processes. Biology is, at its most basic, chemistry, and chemistry is built on the rules of quantum mechanics in the way atoms and molecules behave and fit together.
As Jim explains, biologists have until recently been dismissive of counter-intuitive aspects of the theory and feel it to be unnecessary, preferring their traditional ball-and-stick models of the molecular structures of life. Likewise, physicists have been reluctant to venture into the messy and complex world of the living cell - why should they when they can test their theories far more cleanly in the controlled environment of the physics lab?
But now, experimental techniques in biology have become so sophisticated that the time is ripe for testing ideas familiar to quantum physicists. Can quantum phenomena in the subatomic world impact the biological level and be present in living cells or processes - from the way proteins fold or genes mutate and the way plants harness light in photosynthesis to the way some birds navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field? All appear to utilise what Jim terms “the weirdness of the quantum world”.
The discourse explores multiple theories of quantum mechanics, from superposition to quantum tunnelling, and reveals why “the most powerful theory in the whole of science” remains incredibly mysterious. Plus, watch out for a fantastic explanation of the famous double slit experiment.
Play Time: 59:58
Sean Carroll - The Particle at the End of the Universe: Q&A
Following his talk at the Ri, theoretical physicist Sean Carroll takes questions from a packed audience in the famous Faraday Theatre. Chaired by science journalist, Alok Jha.
Play Time: 30:48
by The Royal Institution.
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Sean Carroll - The Particle at the End of the Universe
It was the universe’s most elusive particle, the linchpin for everything scientists dreamed up to explain how stuff works. It had to be found. But projects as big as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider don’t happen without dealing and conniving, incredible risks and occasional skullduggery.
Award-winning physicist and science popularizer Sean Carroll reveals the history-making forces of insight, rivalry, and wonder that fuelled the Higgs search and how its discovery opens a door into the mind-boggling domain of dark matter and other phenomena we never predicted.
Play Time: 58:07
by The Royal Institution.
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Double Slit Experiment explained! by Jim Al-Khalili
“If you can explain this using common sense and logic, do let me know, because there is a Nobel Prize for you..”
Professor Jim Al-Khalili explains the experiment that reveals the “central mystery of quantum mechanics” - the double slit experiment.
Watch the full lecture here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwgQVZju1ZMSometimes called the “two-slit” or “Young’s” experiment, it demonstrates that matter and energy can display the characteristics of both waves and particles, establishing the principle known as wave-particle duality. Furthermore, it questions the role of the observer in the outcome of events and demonstrates the fundamental limitation of an observer to predict experimental results.
For this reason, Richard Feynman called it “a phenomenon which is impossible … to explain in any classical way, and which has in it the heart of quantum mechanics. In reality, it contains the only mystery [of quantum mechanics],” (see more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment).
by The Royal Institution.
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Christmas Lectures 2012 - Worth your Weight in Gold
Dr Peter Wothers weighs a volunteer from the 2012 Christmas Lectures audience with 24 carat pure gold. Finding himself a little short of the right amount, he calls in help from famous chemist Sir Harry Kroto and his gold Nobel Prize medal (awarded in 1996 for his discovery of a new form of Carbon, C60).
2012 Christmas Lectures - Burning a Diamond
Watch The Modern Alchemist series in full on the Ri Channel: http://bit.ly/VJM09x
Christmas Lectures 2012 - Huge Tesla Coil
Dr Peter Wothers demonstrates the power of a huge Tesla coil as part of the 2012 Christmas Lectures.
Christmas Lectures 2012 - The Elements Song by the cast of Loserville
The cast of West-End musical, Loserville, perform The Elements Song as part of the 2012 Christmas Lectures.
