22 July, 2015 – Episode 524 – This Week in Science (TWIS)

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New Horizons w/ Emily Lakdawalla, Listening For Aliens, Solar Heartbeat, Old Americans, Aged Damselfly Doings, Spotted! Black Leopard, Print Your Horn, Undersea Farmers, Space Skin, Space Foam, Boa Deaths, Losers Harass Ladies, And Much More…

Disclaimer Disclaimer Disclaimer
The following hour of programming contains scientifically
addictive information that may become habit forming to all audiences…
In a highly concentrated form, Science news has been known
to cause hypnotic waking states.
“The Listeners” or “Minions”
as the junkies sometimes refer to themselves…
Often report euphoric sensations of awe, bewildered awakenings
of wonder, and delightful dalliances of discovering new things…
They also report experiencing terrifying trips, of creatures
too terrible to be true… only to find they really do exist…
This the junkie calls “Cornering”
The most extreme cases are referred to as being “Baz-wacked”,
where the “The Listener” can’t un-learn a disturbing fact of the animal world…
It is almost always administered in the presence of a
Doctor, who may or may not approve of the dose you receive…
If at any point during the trip you begin to feel like the
world you know if vanishing before your eyes…
Try to picture yourself as a river flowing, cutting through
mountains, winding through valleys until at some point you reach a lake and can
go no further… it’s nice here, it’s calm… but you know that if you stay too
long you will stagnate… you can stay if you like, or allow yourself to
evaporate into the winds of new knowledge and rise and fall until you once
again become a river of
This week in science…
Coming up next

New views from New Horizons
Emily Lakdawalla, Senior Editor and Planetary Evangelist for The Planetary Society joined us to discuss science findings from NASA’s New Horizon’s mission.
Pictures at the Planetary Society website
More pictures of Pluto from NASA

Listening For Aliens
The new Breakthrough Listen project to expand operations listening for signs of alien life in space might also lead to other space findings.

Solar Heartbeat
Will we see solar activity reduced to ‘Little Ice Age’ levels in 2030?

fourscore and 23,000 years ago…
People were in America 11,000 years earlier than previously thought.

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Elderly damselflies still get it on
Damselflies are able to copulate with the same exuberance and sequence for their entire lives. What’s more, their promiscuous past has no relation to their life span.

That black leopard has spots!!
A new technique for camera traps has discovered black leopards’ spots for the first time, which means we can now identify individuals – so the science can begin!!

3D printed rhino horn
Will this curb rhino poaching? Or will it make it all worse??

23,000 year old undersea farming community
A receding lakeshore unearthed evidence that farming began much earlier than we thought.

Space Skin
According to a report, the epidermal layer of astronauts’ skin was found to thin by 20% during 6 months in space, while the lower collagen-producing tissue experienced expansion.

Metal Space Foam?
A metal foam blocks gamma radiation. Perhaps it could be used to shield astronauts while travelling in space.

White nose syndrome licked in the lab
The yeast with the potential to cure white nose syndrome is looking good – next step is to try and innoculate wild bats!

Carbon emissions are mucking up carbon dating
“At the rate fossil fuel emissions are currently increasing, by 2050 a new T-shirt would have the same radiocarbon date as a robe worn by William the Conqueror a thousand years earlier.”

Alzheimer’s Drug?
A drug developed by Eli Lilly, solanezumab, has been shown to reduced cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients with mild dementia by about 30% over several years, not enough to be noticeable behaviorally, but potentially significant in the long-term.

Bionic Eye Implants!
An implant currently approved for treating retinosis pigmentosa is undergoing trials for macular degeneration, and was successfully implanted in an 80-year old British man.

Is Philae Silent?

Diamond Star
Really, it’s probably a diamond.

How to die from a Boa
You’re going to pass out.

Losers Harass Ladies
In a study observing Halo 3 online game-players published in PLoS this week, scientists confirmed that less successful males are more likely to harass female players than males who win at the game.

Dark Matter discovery tool…
Maybe?

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I'm the host of this little science show.