Snippets of Science


Episode 1: Daft Funk: Random Access Memories For the Aged
The loss of memory is the hallmarks of ageing but new research suggests that older brains may have a more tenacious grasp on earlier events than previously thought — and being unable to erase them is the key problem in elder memory loss.

Episode 2: Move over R2D2, C2D2 is here for the bridges
Turns out bridges have a shelf life, and now there’s a robot that can crawl into places that humans can’t reach to check out what’s going on so a quick fix can be made, before the structure starts to get shaky.

Episode 3: Boo to moo
Dairy can be hard to swallow! Some people can’t tolerate it, and suffer some indigestion, while some people are actually allergic to milk. Finally science tells us WHY some people are allergic to it, especially children (and Indians!)

Episode 4: The hub of the brain
How does your body know to use your forefinger to scratch that itch on your nose? Where do these decisions in the brain get made? New research has identified the hub.
Episode 5: The fluorescent fingerprint of plastic
In India, most dry waste is segregated by hand, but here’s a new process to accelerate and simplify the separation and identification of different polymers by their signature.

Episode 6: Smell feet are a mosquito magnet
It’s hard to argue the benefits of smelly feet – especially in a closed space.
But, as it turns out, the noxious odor that bacteria and damp lend to feet might be a new weapon to fight malaria.
Episode 7: Hero rats sniff out TB
You’ve heard the term ‘lab rat’, but in a unique Tanzanian laboratory, the rats are the testers, not the testees. They help human technicians identify sputum samples that could be positive for tuberculosis. And they do it well, and they do it fast.

Episode 8: Breathe into altered gene expression
So often, when you’re stressed or ill, well-meaning people will say, “Just relax.” A new study has shown that relaxation responses like pranayama in yoga an actually change gene expression in ways that battle stress, hypertension, anxiety and even diabetes not just immediately, but also long-term.

Episode 9: The dark side of the moon has … lumps
To know something is to understand it and with NASA’s help, geophysicists are finally figuring out a 45-year-old mystery about the dark sides of the moon.