Science On Top
The Australian Podcast putting Science on Top of the agenda

A thorough investigation of the 'jelly doughnut shaped rock', known by NASA as Pinnacle Island, confirms it isn't an alien fungus, it isn't a meteorite fragment, it's just a chipped bit of rock.

Doubts have emerged about the radical stem cell breakthrough that suggested acid or other stress could turn mature cells into stem cells. The jury's still out on this.

Scientists have developed a detailed model of curly hair, which could give insights into the behaviours of all curved rods. Most importantly, headphone cables.

An artificial hand wired directly into the nerves of an amputee gives the sensation of touch. The recipient could tell if objects were hard or soft, and even their shapes.

A trace fossil gives clues how dinosaurs peed. We don't know which dinosaur, but we do know it was a lot of pee.

The Burgess Shale is famous for its large collection of varied soft-tissue fossils, and another similar site has been found nearby.

A 248 million year old fossil of a dinosaur giving birth has been found and raises questions about whether ancient sea monsters gave birth on land.

Direct download: SoT_0136.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:44pm AEDT

Stephen Hawking has some new thoughts on black holes, but he's not saying they don't exist.

For a few weeks, weather uncovered the footprints of five prehistoric humans. And then washed them away again.

There's a leech that can survive being submerged in liquid nitrogen for 24 hours.

Astronomers have discovered what could be one of the oldest stars, formed from the exploded remains of one of the first stars.

The crippled Kepler Space Telescope has been resurrected, with an ingenious solution that restores part of its function.

Direct download: SoT_0135.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:50am AEDT

A new method of turning adult cells into pluripotent stem cells is discovered. According to the paper, simply bathing cells in acid could be cause mature cells to revert to stem cells that could become any cell in the body.

Heart researchers in the UK have managed to turn stem cells into heart cells, that actually beat in petri dishes.

NASA plans to create the coldest spot in the universe on board the International Space Station. They're talking 100 pico-Kelvin, which is one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero.

Antioxidants may worsen lung cancer. Swedish scientists have determined why two antioxidants speed up the development of tumours.

By training wallabies to 'play the pokies', an Australian team has discovered that wallabies see colours more like dogs than fellow marsupials.

Direct download: SoT_0134.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:07pm AEDT

Jelly donut shaped rock surprises NASA, then gets them sued.

Tracking dogs by GPS may give clues to pack structure, but probably not.

West Australia's shark cull begins, the same week that a report finds 1/4 of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction.

Men supposedly forget more than women do, but the study has big issues.

Direct download: SoT_0133.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:36pm AEDT

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