Science subject and location tags
Articles, documents and multimedia from ABC Science
Thursday, 25 September 2003
Great Moments in Science Just recently, scientists have discovered that the coldest place in the natural Universe is the Boomerang Nebula. It's fairly close - only about 5,000 light years away.
Thursday, 28 August 2003
Great Moments in Science There are many different types of kisses - the soft fluttery kisses between a child and parent, the chaste closed-mouth kiss given to a grandparent or aunt, and of course, the wild rollicking hungry open-mouthed kisses between two people who love each other in a very special way. In an average lifetime, we spend about two weeks in kissing. So how come, if we do it so often, one third of us kiss the wrong way?
Friday, 8 August 2003
Great Moments in Science In his famous book, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams writes about a certain Mr. L. Prosser who had the job of making sure that Arthur Dent's house got cleared out of the way for a big expressway (or was it a Hyperspace Bypass?). Anyhow, Douglas Adams goes on to say that Mr. Prosser was, "a direct male-line descendant of Genghis Khan, though intervening generations and racial mixing had so juggled his genes that he had no discernible Mongoloid characteristics, and the only vestiges left in Mr. L. Prosser of his mighty ancestry were a pronounced stoutness about the tum and a predilection for little fur hats." Well, Douglas Adams was closer to the truth than he may have thought. Some recent research tells us that in the lands conquered by Genghis Khan, 8% of the people are his direct descendants. In fact, world-wide, one in every 200 men is related to the mighty Khan - which works out to about 16 million men.
Friday, 8 August 2003
Great Moments in Science Last time I spoke about how 8% of the men in Asia are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan was the infamous and terrible Mongol overlord of the 13th Century, who set up the largest land empire ever known. It reached from the Pacific Ocean, right across Asia to Persia (or modern-day Iran). We know this because some geneticists found a rather special mutation on the Y chromosome (which only men have) in 8% of the men in Asia.
Thursday, 17 July 2003
Feature Throughout human history societies have prospered and collapsed leaving behind tantalizing glimpses of their magnificence in crumbling temples, ruins and statues. Why did these ancient civilisations fall apart? Why did some collapse and not others? And what lessons do they have for our civilisation?
Thursday, 8 May 2003
Great Moments in Science Last time I talked about Terry Wallace, a geologist turned "forensic seismologist", who has used computers to analyse the records of hundreds of seismic monitoring stations around our planet. These seismic monitoring stations measure the microscopic shivers and shakes in the ground, and if something happens near a few of these stations, he can work out the timing and the power of what made the Earth rumble and groan. Among other events, he worked out what happened when the giant nuclear-powered submarine, the Kursk, exploded under the Barents Sea.
Thursday, 1 May 2003
Great Moments in Science Last time I talked about how the enormous cruise-missile submarine, the Kursk, exploded underwater in the Barents Sea, on the 12th of August, 2000. This submarine was absolutely enormous. It weighed about 24,000 tonnes, was 155 metres long, had two nuclear reactors generating 98,000 shaft horsepower powering two propellers, was armed with 28 torpedoes and 32 mines in addition to the cruise missiles, and had all sorts of active and passive, electronic and sonar, searching and countermeasures equipment. And thousands of kilometres away, in Tucson in Arizona, Terry Wallace, using computers to analyse seismic records, had picked up not one, but two, separate explosions as the Kursk died.
Thursday, 24 April 2003
Great Moments in Science If you want to travel all the way around the Earth at the Equator, you'll have to travel 40,000 kilometres or so. That's a huge distance. But as far as the seismologists are concerned, our Earth is a very small world - and these scientists are making it harder to keep any secrets.
Wednesday, 12 March 2003
Great Moments in Science Madame Lily Bollinger, as in Bollinger Champagne, was one of the Grand Women of Champagne. These "Champagne Widows" took over the family company after their husbands died, and indeed, made the company prosper. They included Madame Veuve Pommery and Madem Laurent-Perrier, as well as Madame Bollinger, who famously once said, "I drink Champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry, and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it - unless I'm thirsty."
Thursday, 27 February 2003
Great Moments in Science We humans have domesticated and tamed many different species (such as the dog, cattle, wheat and corn), but probably the most loved domesticated species is a fungus called Saccharomyces cerevisiae - otherwise known as brewer's yeast. It gives us both beer and champagne - and only now are we beginning to understand how the bubbles form in beer and champagne.
Thursday, 27 February 2003
Great Moments in Science Last time, I talked about one of the highest forms of alcohol - champagne - and how champagne really does make you tipsy more quickly than regular non-sparkling wine. Alcohol is tricky stuff, and Shakespeare had it right when he got the porter in Macbeth to say "it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance..."
Wednesday, 19 February 2003
Great Moments in Science If you've ever gone looking for gifts in an expensive gift shop, you might've seen some incredibly fine china called "bone china". The bone in bone china comes from animals. We humans have been recycling animals for thousands of years. And today, the cow is more universally recycled than any other animal - and this could be a problem, because there are a few diseases associated with various bits of the cow.
Wednesday, 6 November 2002
Great Moments in Science The traditional belief among the microbiologists is that the Black Death was caused by a bacterium. But two epidemiologists make some astonishing claims. Firstly, they claim that the Black Death was caused by a virus not a bacterium, and secondly, that past contact with the virus made some of today's Europeans virtually immune to AIDS.
Thursday, 1 August 2002
Great Moments in Science Move over Celestine Prophecies! Stand aside Kirlian Photo Albums! There REALLY Is a light of life, and it's got the Science stamp of approval. It shines from all living cells - it positively beams from ones that are traumatised. In fact, cells could well use it to communicate with one another.
Friday, 19 July 2002
Great Moments in Science It all started after midnight, following an evening at a local bar. A 23-year-old University student - a male - joined three of his friends in what was an apparently fairly common late-night activity, riding on top of the dormitory elevator cars.