Einstein a Go Go

In science news this week, I was taken by the analogy of how a dinosaur is like a vacuum cleaner. Some of the largest dinosaurs ever to walk the earth, such as the Brachiosarus and the dinosaur-formly-known-as the Brontosaurus (the Apatosaurus) also had the longest necks. Up to nine metres long, it has been assumed that long necks allowed these herbivore dinosaur to reach food high up. However mathematical modelling looking at metabolic rate, blood flow and blood pressure calculated that the dinosaurs would have needed 49% of their total energy requirements to be able circulate their blood up that high. An alternative model is that long necks facilitated a wide radius of low level grazing along the ground – an idea championed by Roger Seymour at the University of Adelaide. From an energy expenditure perspective, dinosaurs with long necks may have looked more like vacuum cleaners, hoovering up all the foliage at ground level.

Dr Melissa told us a fascinating story of a lost experiment, that was left in a cupboard for more than fifty years and the results were published only this month! In the 1950′s Professor Stanley Miller at the University of Chicago ran a series of famous experiments simulating the chemical origins of life on the primordial earth. He mixed various proportions of gases, such as water vapour, methane, hydrogen, and ammonia and fired electric sparks through the mix to simulate lightning strikes. He showed that these reactions produced amino acids, the organic compounds that are the building blocks for proteins, and thus of life itself. After Professor Miller died in 2007,  his colleagues were sorting through his lab archives, and found a series of experiments which were run in 1958, and for some reason never analysed. The sealed flasks were set up with a gas mix that had included hydrogen sulfide, and now, using modern analytical techniques, recent analysis shows that two amino acids that contain sulphur, methionine and cysteine, had formed. It just goes to show the benefits of keeping good lab records, and that experiments from the 1950′s can provide insight into the way in which organic molecules may have first formed on the early earth.

Dr Adam reported on the recent publication of a mouse cancer genome project, which uncovered a series of mutations that also cause cancer in humans. Human cancer cells often show a large number of mutations, the majority of which are harmless alterations, acquired over time, as people age. The challenge is to separate out the background mutations from the mutations which are actually causing the cancer. This is where the use of mouse models can be highly informative. The team from Washington University sequenced the genome of tumour cells from mice with a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow known as acute myeloid leukemia. They found genetic mutations in three genes, each involving a change to a single letter of the DNA sequence, which were identical to genetic changes seen in human patients. This study demonstrates the value of the mouse model for studying  human disease, and identifies new targets for cancer drugs.

Dr Shane told us about Australian scientists who analysed altimetry satellite data from 1985-2008 to examine changes in wave heights and wind speeds across the globe. The data show that extreme wind speeds have increased around 10% over the last 20 years and that wave heights are also increasing. Obviously winds and waves are subject to local and seasonal effects, but this study is the first to provide global coverage. The question has been raised as to whether of not changes to winds and waves are linked to changes to the climate. Whilst there is no clear answer at present, altimetry satellite data may provide crucial information on these and other environmental indicators of changes to our oceans.

We were joined in the studio by Shefton Parker and Johannah Shergis from the RMIT School of Health Science who are investigating the ways in which traditional Chinese medicine is being integrated into the health system. Shefton specialises in the use of acupuncture to treat pain relief and nausea. Acupuncture uses sterile stainless steel needles to stimulate “trigger points” in the body and induces an array of physiological responses, including nerve stimulation and hormone release. Shefton is currently involved in a major acupuncture trial for pain relief in patients with acute back pain, migraine and ankle sprain at the Alfred Hospital, Northern Hospital and Epworth Hospital Emergency Departments. These randomised controlled trials are directly comparing acupuncture alone, acupuncture in combination with pharmacotherapy (drugs) and pharmacotherapy alone.

Johannah’s research looks at the use of the traditional chinese herbal medicine ginseng for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This condition is an umbrella term for two diseases, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which involve inflammation and destruction of lung tissue. The use of ginseng as a therapy is based on herbal medicine traditions that are thousands of years old. The current clinical study will examine the therapeutic benefits and safety of a ginseng extract manufactured in tablet form, and assess changes to the quality of life and lung function in COPD patients treated with ginseng. Many current drug treatments, such as the best available drug to treat malaria, are based on traditional chinese medicine, so stay tuned for the results of these exciting studies.

Our next guest was Simon Finlay, the development manager at the Werribee Open Range Zoo to tell us about the new gorilla exhibit. The gorilla breeding program in Melbourne has been very successful over the last few decades and the gorillas are moving from their current home in Parkville to a new gorilla enclosure at Werribee, which will be the largest exhibit of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere (if not the world!). Gorillas are very intelligent animals and the new diverse environment will provide enrichment and stimulus including climbing structures, gorilla-style play equipment and a splash pool. One interesting effect of breeding gorillas at the zoo is that more male babies are born, with a gender ratio of around 70:30 for male to female babies. The new Werribee exhibit will be an important regional breeding facility for groups of male bachelor gorillas, and will provide space for “boys to be boys”. This will mimic social settings that naturally exists in the wild, where young males all hang out as a group, away from the dominant silver back male gorilla. The gorillas will move to their new home at Weribee in June and the grand opening of the new habitat will hopefully be in early July – can’t wait to visit!

Dr Shane gave us a brilliant tutorial in the way altimetry works. Altimetry satellites measure the distance from the air to the surface of the earth and provide a very accurate technique for mapping oceans. The satellites use light, in the form of radar pulses at specific wavelengths, and can also use multiple frequencies. The satellites orbiting the earth will send out a series of pulses, as many as 1700 per second, and measure the round trip time for each pulse. Once you know the time taken, you can calculate the distance travelled, though this relies on having precise knowledge of the satellite location. This powerful technique has a wide range of applications, particularly to studying the ocean, including the wave height and wind speed studies talked about today. Altimetry is also used in studies of the height of the sea surface. This measures effects such as the geoid, which is the height variation due to gravity, an effect which can account for tens of metres of variation in the sea surface. Altimetry also measures ocean circulation, which is linked to the earth’s rotation and also includes measurement of ocean currents and eddies.

This weeks tunes were:

“Mexican Mavis” by Boy and Bear

“Words that maketh murder” by PJ Harvey

“Beautiful Nights” by the Waifs

Is BMI a good indicator of health? If you’ve ever calculated your numbers and been uncertain about their relevance you’re not alone. Today Dr Jen told us about research done at the University of Southern California, that found your hip circumference relative to your height is a more relevant way to estimate body fat. The group developed a new tool called the body adiposity index:

Dr Ray ventured into the world of microbiology to tell us of an exciting new finding from researchers at the University of Washington. Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium, M. tuberculosis, which can develop resistence to antibiotics,  making it an extremely difficult disease to treat. The new research suggests that the tuberculosis bug synthesizes its own molecular pump to flush out the antibiotic drugs. Blocking this pump resulted in a reversal of antibiotic resistance,  providing a new direction for the development of new therapies for tuberculosis.

This week, I’ve been involved in a campaign to protect medical research funding in Australia. The government is committed to returning the budget to surplus and is in the process of making decisions about budget cuts. Medical research funding is under threat. A senior Government source was quoted saying “we have to find savings and medical research is a likely casualty”.  If you would like to add your voice to those in the community who value the contributions of medical research, you can like the “Discoveries need dollars” facebook page or check out their website to see how you can help protect research.

Dr Shane was buzzing with the news that the MESSENGER satellite was successfully placed in orbit around Mercury this week. This probe has been in space for almost seven years and had to perform an incredible breaking manoeuver to establish orbit around Mercury, which is the fastest moving planet in our solar system. The MESSENGER mission will send back hi-resolution images of Mercury, letting us see parts of the planet never seen before, andwill  also collect exciting data about the chemical makeup of Mercury and its fascinating magnetic field.

Are you sitting down? Should you be standing up? Today’s guest, Dr Alicia Thorp, studies sedentary behaviour and how inactivity may have negative effects on our health. Her work at the Baker IDI follows on from recent observations showing that sedentary behaviour, such long periods of time spent sitting, is linked to increased cardiovascular risk. When muscles are inactive for long periods of time the lack of muscle contraction affects the body’s metabolism, changing the uptake of lipids and sugars. The negative effects of long periods of inactivity are independent of the total amount of time spent doing physical activity during the day. Meaning that going for a run or the gym after work is good for you, but it cannot compensate for 8 hours of sitting down. Reducing sedentary time in the workplace could be an easy and economically viable way to improve cardiovascular health. Alicia’s research aims to improve heart health by alternating between sitting down and standing up in the workplace  The Baker IDI is currently recruiting volunteers for the “Sit or Stand” work study to test this hypothesis and build a body of evidence to inform work place policies.

After hearing about Alicia’s research, the Einstein-a-go-go team adjusted the height of their microphones and did the rest of the show standing up!

There has been a lot of somewhat confusing coverage about radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and today I reported on some of the biological effects of radiation. I was really interested in the way potassium iodide tablets can protect against radiation damage. If you fill your body up with the non-radioactive iodine from the pills, it reduces the amount of  radioactive iodine absorbed from the environment. However it should be noted that you can overdose on iodide, and cases of iodide poisoning in overly cautious individuals has been reported.

There are a lot of stereotypes in science, with one being that physics and engineering are “hard” science, whilst biology and psychology are considered somewhat “soft” disciplines. Dr Ray challenged this idea with his report on recent attempts to make robots from soft materials. Currently robots have very hard body parts but some tasks, such as handling fragile objects, require a softer touch. Robotics is taking inspiration from nature, examining the way tentacles of squids, trunks of elephants and other non-skeletal parts of animals move. Dr Ray’s conclusion was that sometimes the squishy stuff is the hardest!

Today’s tunes were:

“Harder you get” by the Scissor Sisters

“Step into my office, baby” by Belle and Sebastian

“Belleville Rendez-Vous” from the Triplets of Belleville soundtrack

Did you know that the US National Football League has a brain bank? This week Dangermouse told us about a research project, funded by the NFL at Boston University, that is examining footballer’s brains post-mortem for signs of damage associated with repeated trauma to the head. Of the twelve players who have donated their brains to research to date, signs of the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), was found in all twelve. This may have serious implications for player’s health and the way concussion injuries are managed.

It was a sad week in science for climate scientists hoping to gain data from new Earth-observing satellites. Dr Shane told us about the Glory spacecraft which was designed to look at small particulate matter in the atmosphere called aerosol particles and determine their effect on the Earth’s climate. However the launch was far from glorious, as a section of the craft failed to detach and the satellite did not reach orbit. This is the second time a spacecraft designed to collect climate information has crashed and burned. In 2009 the Orbiting Carbon Observatory which planned to accurately determine where carbon dioxide is emitted and absorbed across the Earth also plummeted into the ocean soon after launch. Not that we want to inspire conspiracy theorists, but the amount of data generated from these probes would have been incredible and now these opportunities have been lost.

I was intrigued by a curious case of the plague, where a US laboratory scientist was killed by his own research bug. The plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis, which was routinely used in the lab had been genetically weakened so that it could not efficiently acquire iron. As iron is essential for the bacteria to survive, the lab strain of plague was thought to be harmless. So how did it kill the researcher? Unfortunately the scientist had an undiagnosed genetic condition called hemochromatosis, where the body has an increased uptake and storage of iron, which was probably enough for the bacteria to regain its virulence.

“Science isn’t perfect, but rather like democracy, the cure for it is usually more of it, not less”. This brilliant quote is taken from our guest, Stephen Luntz’s recently published book “Forensics, Fossils and Fruitbats: A Fieldguide to Australian Scientists“. This eclectic collection of science stories grew out of Stephen’s “Cool Science” column and attracted the interest of CSIRO publishing. With intriguing titles such as “Do kangaroo’s have friends?”, ” There’s a moth in my chocolate” and “The stunt physicist”, each short section gives a unique insight into one scientist’s research and also their personal story. I would highly recommend this accessible and interesting book to anyone with an interest in science, particularly students who want to know more about what life as a scientist is really all about. Available for purchase online, as an ebook or from Readings and Dymocks bookstores.

I was really excited to be in the studio with Dr. Xavier Conlan to talk about the intersection of two of my favourite things – Science and Wine. According to Dr. Conlan “Wine is an excellent sample to deal with” and he is part of a team of scientists at Deakin University, who are studying the chemical fingerprints of wine. Using advanced chromatography techniques, the group are able to separate out and identify the complex mixture of chemicals present in a wine that are unique to its origin. The scientists then challenged a group of wine buffs to a tasting duel; Who could most accurately identify wines from two distinct wine regions – the Coonawarra versus the Bellarine Peninsula. Surprisingly only 6/10 wine experts could accurately diagnose the origin of wines based on tastings  as compared to a greater than 90% accuracy for the scientific analysis. This technology has a wide range of applications, such verifying the origin of high-end wine for investment purposes, or detecting cork taint. Another intriguing discovery was the way in which the molecular profile of wine changes over time. In a vertical tasting of wines over a range of vintages, Dr Conlan’s research has shown that while the complexity of the taste may increase as a wine ages, chemically it gets simpler. This may enable producers to chemically define the exact moment when a cellared wine is at it’s best for drinking. Here’s to science – cheers!

This year marks the ten year anniversary of the publication of the first full draft of the human genome. This project was the culmination of over fifteen years of work, involving twenty sequencing centres in six countries, and costing almost $US3 billion. I am amazed by the rapid acceleration of sequencing technology over the last ten years, now an entire genome can be sequenced in less than a week, at a cost just under $US10,000. These amazing advances have facilitated large collaborative international programs such as the 1,000 genomes project, and the International HapMap project to study human genetic diversity. The advances promised by the publication of the human genome may not have been completely realised within one decade, but as the human genome enters its teenage years, I am excited to see where it will take science next.

On Wednesday the 9th of March – that’s this week – Professor Terrence Sejnowski will deliver the 2011 Graeme Clark Oration: “The Computational Brain” at Melbourne Convention Centre. Registration is free, so get along to learn about the workings of the brain and what the future holds in terms of building artificial brains.

This week our music tracks were:

“In the battle of sun vs curtains, sun loses and we sleep till noon for free” by woodpigeon

“Tree by the river” by Iron and Wine

“Take it all in” by The Waifs

Today’s show marked the return of an Einstein-a-go-go alumni to the microphone – Dr Melissa is back. The last time Dr Adam, Dr Melissa and I broadcast together was from the old 3RRR studios in Fitzroy, and Melissa and I were sans doctorate. Ah… good times!

Also today was a landmark day in Einstein A Go Go history – we went live on twitter. Liv, our wonderful volunteer, was live tweeting during today’s broadcast. To follow us on Twitter search for @einstein_agogo and join in the conversation. Also, we’ve just hit triple figures for our “likes” on Facebook. We’ve truly entered the 21st century now!

Speaking of moving into the new century, Dr Adam and Dr Shane were buzzing about the launch of the space shuttle Discovery this week, off on its 39th and final mission. Many of us have grown up with the Discovery space programme, since the shuttle’s first launch in 1984. In total, the shuttle has orbited the earth 5,600 times, travelled over 230 million kilometres and spent 352 days in space. Discovery, the space shuttle that delivered the Hubble telescope into space, will spend its final journey delivering supplies, including a humaniod robot, to the international space station.

Dr Melissa confessed to sourcing her science news from the mX, which contained a story about people who are bilingual being protected from the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr Melissa followed up on this lead and told us about the research done in Toronto, Canada which showed that patients who consistently spoke two different languages had a 4-5 year delay in the beginning of Alzheimer’s symptoms. This research adds to the growing body of evidence which suggests that the more active your brain is the more able you are to compensate for the initial limitations of dementia.

One area that fascinates me is personalised patient therapy, where medical treatment is tailored to both the illness and the individual. This approach is being used to treat hepatitis C, a virus which causes chronic infection and liver disease.  Currently the treatment for hepatitis C is a long and expensive course of interferon therapy which has a 40% failure rate in patients. Dr Alex Thompson, from St Vincents Hospital, was part of the team of scientists who undertook a genome wide association study looking for the genetic differences between patients who did or did not respond well to interferon therapy. They discovered an association between treatment responsiveness and a genetic variation in patient’s IL28B gene. This discovery has lead to the development of a diagnostic test to determine which hepatitis C patients will best respond to interferon therapy.

With his finger on the political pulse, Dr Shane told us of this week’s surprise resignation of Australian Chief Scientist Professor Penny Sackett. It’s been reported that Professor Sackett had only one personal briefing with a prime minister in her two-and-half years of service. It raises the question of why an office, with a staff of 16 people and a cost of $2.4 million a year, exists if the government is not going to make use of this resource and seek the advice of scientists. Professor Sackett was not consulted for advice on the government’s climate change position, and PMs Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard both cancelled meetings with the Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. Isn’t it time our government started listening to scientists? I think I might write to my MP!

Also I should mention that Dr Shane was very impressed that Melbourne Museum has finally got its rocks out.

The studio was filled with mesmorising ukulele music today. Bosko and Honey are a duo from Far North Queensland, in town for the Melbourne Ukulele Festival. They played two songs for us, live in the studio, the dreamy “Boskonova” and the enchanting “Rain in the Summertime”.

This week is Pathology Week and our guests Ray Dauer and Anne Johnston joined us in the studio to discuss the role of scientists in the area of pathology. Ray described medical laboratory scientists working in pathology as the “engine room” of the health care system. These are the people who examine blood and tissue samples and conduct diagnostic tests, to investigate a wide range of conditions including anaemia, diabetes and leukemia. In fact, 70% of all medical decisions involve pathology testing, demonstrating the crucial role that medical laboratory scientists play in supporting diagnosis 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Anne spoke about the important contribution of medical pathology professionals to screening programmes such as the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme and the National Cervical Cancer Screening Programme. There is a need to encourage people in the community to engage with these programmes, as early detection of cancer gives the best chance for curing disease. Anne also mentioned her work with Medecins Sans Fontieres, doing simplifed but valuable diagnostics such as finding malaria under the microscope.

Pathology is not just about hospital based diagnostics, it is also about the provision of products. During emergencies and natural disasters, such as the recent earthquake in Christchurch, pathology professionals play a crucial role in providing blood and blood products. This involves supplying blood for transfusion, but also managing blood stocks and prioritising resources to ensure blood is used in the best way possible way to ensure the best possible patient outcomes. On this note, I would encourage everyone to consider becoming a blood donor – do something truly valuable and donate blood!

We continued our discussion about the terrible disaster in Christchurch, with Dr Adam giving an insight into the science behind earthquakes. Christchurch was not previously thought to be at risk of major earthquake activity as it does not lie directly on a plate boundary. However it seems that a newly discovered fault line, which may have lain dormant for thousands of years, is responsible for the recent earthquakes.  I didn’t know that the two major islands of New Zealand actually sit on two different tectonic plates, with the North Island on the Australian Plate and the South Island on the Pacific Plate. The sourthern tip of the South Island has moved around 480km away from the North Island over the last 25 million years, as fast as California’s San Andreas fault, meaning sometime in the geological future New Zealand may be made of three islands. After the earthquake that occurred in Christchurch in September last year, many recording devices and detection systems were put in place, making this recent quake the most measured earthquake ever. Hopefully when the recorded data is analysed it will provide detailed information for more accurate modelling and prediction of earthquake activity across the globe.

Our tunes today were:

“Boskonova” and “Rain in the Summertime” by Bosko and Honey

“Mayhem” by Imelda May