Aliyah Kovner reports on a charity that has been training medical alert dogs to assist individuals suffering from Type I Diabetics. But is this new trend based on credible science?
As well as keeping us company, dogs have been working by our sides for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Herding dogs, guide dogs, and bomb sniffing dogs are all familiar sources of aid, but have we tapped the full potential inherent within these creatures?
âEarly to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.â There is increasing evidence that a lack of sleep has negative health effects. New research looks at the link between sleep and gene expression, could this be the reason why? A piece by Matilda Hay.
Matilda Hay explores the effects of sleep deprivation in our modern 24-7 society, and looks at recent work from the Surrey Sleep Research Centre into the underlying molecular mechanisms that might be causing those negative health effects.
What might science sound like? Mark Atwill's piece explores sonification, the process of turning scientific data into sound.
Much like his work, this piece explores the intrinsic meaning of sound and musicality; it asks us to question the dogma of visual data interpretation and to reassess our complex sensory relationship with the world around us.
Just like the composition from which it is inspired, this piece is exactly four minutes and forty-four seconds long
Geek Salad Croutons: #2 - Laughter is the Best Medicine
In our second short guest piece, Letizia Diamante takes a serious look at laughter. Why do we laugh? And is it good for us?
Chuckle, titter, giggle, chortle, cackle, snicker, guffaw: there are plenty of ways to describe laughter. But why do we feel so good after laughing? Why do human beings laugh in the first place? And is it really universal?Â
Letizia Diamante poses these questions to Professor Sophie Scott, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London who specialises in research on laughter. We also hear from Mark Bull, a clinical hypnotherapist who used laughter yoga to cope with stress, and John Morris, a volunteer at the London Cartoon Museum which is now hosting the exhibition "Bring Me Laughter".
In the first of our short guest pieces for Geek Salad, Patrick Kennedy looks at failure, space exploration, and reality television.Â
Patrick Kennedy travels to Trinity College Dublin to interview Dr. Joseph Roche on how the process of failure can only ever aid in the scientific method. By day, Dr. Roche is Resident Astrophysicist for the Science Gallery, a unique science-art collaboration in the city.
However, he has also recently been shortlisted for a unique new space exploration venture - a possible one way trip to Mars. Even if it fails to get off the ground, there is much to be learned in attempting the impossible.
Patrick then travels to Imperial College London to interview fellow Irishman and ex-pat Kyle McEnery. There we learn how his struggles and setbacks have only taught Kyle to persevere in the face of adversity.
Failure is a certainty in this life; it is how we accept it that defines us.
As part of our episode on Food, Lauren Hoskin explores the future of meat production, and asks where our supplies will come from in 20 years' time.
On 21st November 2013, I was just one of the thousands of people that gathered in Trafalgar Square to take part in The Pig Idea â an exquisite free lunch consisting of vegetables that would otherwise have been sent to landfill and pork from pigs reared solely on leftovers.
Not far in the distance, however, were lines of vegan and vegetarian protesters, crying âMeat is Murder!â and âShame on the Pig Idea!â. For the most part, their megaphones and placards went unnoticed as the crowds enjoyed a feast of waste â but the contrast seemed to sum up both sides of the argument over the future of meat production.
The Pig Idea strives to lift the EU ban on feeding swill to pigs, which was induced in 2001 as a result of foot and mouth. If lifted, the campaign hopes there would be many benefits, including lowering the amount of soya grown in the ever-depleting Amazon. It would also lead to lower pig-feed costs for farmers, lower waste disposal costs for caterers and the liberation of scarce food supplies for a fast-growing population.
Yet, as demonstrated at the event, not everyone believes that this is our answer to meat production. This solution still involves the rearing and killing of animals. Livestock produce vast amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas with a warming effect 21 times that of carbon dioxide. Additionally, current farming practices contribute to many other aspects of our changing environment such as land degradation, deforestation and a decline in wildlife.
Feedlots in America are a prime example of the meat industry destroying environments. These huge outdoor factory farms contain thousands of animals in pens surrounded by waste lagoons filled with manure and urine. The stagnant lagoons can contaminate ground water and emit hydrogen sulphide, a gas which is extremely toxic to the nervous system.
Other issues include growing antibiotic resistance, in part due to the quantity of antibiotics that are fed to our farm animals. Antibiotics are given to livestock for the prevention, treatment and control of diseases as well as to increase nutritional efficiency. Bacteria in these animals become resistant to various antibiotics. The resistant bacteria are then passed on to humans through poorly-cooked contaminated meat and through manure being spread on vegetables. Once our pathogens are resistant to all of the currently available antibiotics, we will have no solutions left.
So what are the alternatives? One answer comes from scientists at Maastricht University. Back in August last year, they unveiled the first ever test-tube burger here in London. The burger was created from bovine muscle-specific stem cells. All the cells require are the relevant nutrients and the energy to control their environment in terms of humidity, temperature, atmosphere and sterility. 20,000 sheets of cultured meat were combined with egg, breadcrumbs, salt, beetroot and saffron to make the final product â costing some ÂŁ250,000.
Of course, this was only the first attempt, but the technology to produce these burgers on an industrial scale could soon be available. These burgers could potentially hit our supermarkets within 20 years. Mark Post, the lead scientist behind the research wants to move onto thicker cuts of meat such as steaks, although this would require a higher level of tissue engineering. If all this was successful, large bioreactors could start to replace a huge proportion of farm animals.
Another solution to the problem of meat production (which is currently responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions) is the production of insect burgers. With lower environmental costs all round, insects could be an extremely promising alternative to meat. Caterpillars even contain higher protein and iron contents than minced beef.
The big question is how the general population will take to eating lab-cultured burgers or caterpillar patties. Will people consider it unnatural, or will the environmental and ethical benefits help to overcome these issues?
The most obvious resolution to the problem is to massively cut down on meat consumption or go vegetarian. However, many people simply âlike the taste of meatâ, which proves a big sticking point for meat substitutes such as tofu and quorn. So what is the most viable alternative to meat as we now know it? Probably a combination of all of the above. With meat consumption predicted to rise massively over the next 30 years, something will have to change soon, or the costs to the environment may be irreversible.
Image: The Pigs of Polyface, Brian Johnson & Dane Kantner
Lauren Hoskin is a Science Communication student at Imperial College London
It's a little late, but this week's delicious episode is on the science of food.
Plus, Matilda goes on a diet (about time), we have an interview with Dr Tim Peplow on the science behind the perfect pie, a chat with Peter Barham who wrote the science of cooking, and a whistlestop snapshot of GM foods from Catherine Ayres. Tuck in!
Ellie Pinney took part an experiment as part of our show on Lying where she couldn't tell the truth for a whole hour.Â
Attempt #1 was really a non-starter: As a fairly distractible person, itâs no great surprise that I totally forgot I was even supposed to be lying. Realising my error â an hour into an entirely honest conversation â I announced my failure to those around me in the pub, and so ruined any possibility of salvaging the attempt. I decided to postpone until the following night, but as it turns out, family dinners are no place for outrageous lies. Nor are boozy nights out with old friends who know far too much about you and your plans.
Learning from my mistakes, I changed direction for Attempt #4, deciding to lie to people who donât know me â and who, importantly, I never have to see again. In true âgo hard or go homeâ style, I also realised that this would be the perfect opportunity to work on my Australian accent. I recruited my boyfriend, Sam, and we headed off to one of Greenwichâs most average bars as Jonah - a sheep farmer from Perth, and Kylie (of course) - a âreptile technicianâ from Broome.
As I had hoped, the bar tender immediately took the âcrocodile hunterâ bait, sparking a lengthy conversation about Steve Irwin. Jonah was a little quiet, mainly because his accent was even less convincing than mine, but between us we managed to rack up a good half-hour of conversation. Thankfully, our new bar-tending friends had never actually been to Australia. We encountered a minor hitch when I revealed that the inspiration behind my chosen career-path was my half-sister being attacked by a shark (sharks, crocodiles, theyâre all the same right?), but I think we got away with itâŠ
My friend Mira is about as honest as they get. Sheâs an editor at a major American magazine, in a stable, long-term relationship, talks to her parents every day, and is that rare and annoying breed of person who feels guilty taking samples at farmersâ markets. In all cases I can wrack my brain for, Mira is almost uncannily honest. That isâunless youâre her hairdresser.
It all started around two years ago, when Mira had her first appointment at a new salon and her stylist casually asked whether she had any plans for the weekend. Whether because she was slightly hungover, made awkward by standard hairdresser levels of sass, or just slightly tickled to do so, Mira responded that she did indeed have plans: She was running a marathon. This was, however, completely untrue. Mira had never run a marathon in her life, had no plans to do so, and had never really even given marathons much thought until the moment the sentence spilled out of her mouth seemingly without her deciding to utter it in the first place.
But the lie, she said, was thrilling. Asked how long sheâd been training, Mira answered around eight months, though, âto be honest,â she really hadnât gotten too rigorous until the last three. Asked what her time goal was, Mira was humble: sheâd settle for anything less than 5:35. Sheâd been on the cross-country team in college, she added, but sheâd gotten a tad rusty over the years.
All of this was totally made up on the spot.
Mira left her hairdresser that afternoon and resumed her life as an honest, upstanding citizen of the world. The lies stopped thereâalmost. Every time sheâs visited her hairdresser since, sheâs felt the impulse to make things up. Because she only sees her every few months when she needs a trim, this is an impulse sheâs wholeheartedly committed herself toâand even relishes. But this begs the question: Could Mira be a pathological fibber?
Commonly referred to as pseudologia phantastica and, less often, mythomania, pathological lying was first described in 1891 by a German physician named Anton Delbruck. Itâs noted for the frequency of lying, but mostly theyâre lies told for very little reason at all: âThe lies are often fantastic in nature and may be extensive, elaborate, and complicated,â writes Charles Dike, a professor of Medicine at Yaleâs School of Medicine who studies the phenomenon. âThere often appears to be a blurring of the boundaries between fiction and reality.â
Though no large-scale epidemiological research has cracked down on its prevalence, one study of 1000 repeat juvenile offenders suggested pathological lying occurs in somewhere around one percent of the population. For this reason and more, itâs also a psychological anomaly surrounded by some degree of controversy: Itâs neither included in the Bible of mental disorders, the American Psychiatric Assocationâs Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or the World Health Organizationâs International Classification of Diseases. But why?
Hereâs Dike again:
âPathological liars can believe their lies to the extent that, at least to others, the belief may appear to be delusional; they generally have sound judgment in other mattersâŠAn external reason for lying (such as financial gain) often appears absent and the internal or psychological purpose for lying is often unclear; the lies in pathological lying are often unplanned and rather impulsiveâŠand, in pathological lying, telling lies may often seem to be an end in itself. However, it is evident that no single descriptive tableau of a pathological liar settles all the nosological and etiological questions raised by the phenomenon of pathological lying.â
This, for now, seems to be the sticking point with excessive fibbing: Itâs less of a specific condition than an umbrella behaviour implicated in all sorts of personality disorders. Though some studies are currently looking at specific cases using brain scans, an understanding of whatâs driving the lies at a neurological level looks to be a long ways off.
And what about Mira? Hers is a weird compulsion, to be sure, but considering the rest of her behaviour, itâs probably nothing to worry about. Just donât tell her hairdresser that.
Ellen Meek explores how children become better at lying as they grow older.
It also seems that politicians have a few things to learn when it comes to eye contact. Recent research has shown that eye contact is not a good way of convincing someone of your point of view, in fact it may even make them more resistant to persuasion.
A study by the University of British Columbia found that excessive use of eye contact actually made people appear less convincing, especially to those who disagreed with them. Study co-author Julia Minson said âWhether youâre a politician or a parent, it might be helpful to remember that trying to maintain eye contact may backfire if youâre trying to convince someone who has a different set of beliefs than you,âÂ
From these two studies we can all learn how to lie a little bit better â make sure you keep eye contact but at the end of the day donât expect your lies to be all that persuasive.
Geek Salad was thrilled to enlighten you about the ways M&Ms and Candy Floss have contributed to science, but here's one more delicious morsel for your mind from Aliyah Kovner.
Hallowe'en may be dismissed as a gastronomically (and perhaps morally) overindulgent party, but don't write off that orange bucket of sweets just yet. Researchers at the University of Birmingham have found a way to produce hydrogen gas using chocolate factory waste products and the ubiquitous experimental bacteria, Escherichia coli.
Hydrogen fuel cell technology is the ultimate in sustainable energy, but producing hydrogen gas efficiently, and on a large scale is a huge hurdle to its implementation.  Currently, the two most common methods are steam methane reformation and electrolysis.  Unfortunately, the former relies on fossil fuels for the reaction, which is sort of a thorn in the side for a 'clean energy' process. And the latter requires a good deal of electrical energy; which is expensive, and you guessed it, comes mostly from fossil fuels.Â
Luckily for us, environmental biotechnologist Lynne Mackaskie realized the powerful potential of candy, and decided to give some E. coli a sugar rush of epic proportions.  The team fed bacteria a caramel and nougat waste concoction donated by the Cadbury factory.  This overload of sweets initiated a fermentation pathway, which in turn created toxic organic acids.  Just like a kid after trick-or-treating, the E. coli were eating themselves sick.  To cope with the metabolic byproducts, the bacteria started to convert the acids into hydrogen gas.  The gas was collected and funneled into a fuel cell, which was able to run a small fan.Â
In the past several years, scientists have been looking for ways to scale up the process for real-world applications.  Perhaps someday we can recycle our food waste into our fuel, not unlike Doc Brown's DeLorean.  So when you're eyeing a stash of leftover holiday spoils this season, don't forget that great things can come out of eating way too many mars bars.
Image: Stefano Mortellaro
Aliyah Kovner is a Science Media Production student at Imperial College London
We also learn about the history of Hallowe'en, the psychology of costumes, and how Hallowe'en "candy" has helped to make some very important scientific discoveries. Â
Finally we visit the macabre museum of John Hunter and his gruesome collection of pickled body parts and horrific ancient medicine. Â
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