Blue Streak Science Podcast

This week the people of the United Kingdom will be making an enormously important choice. The result of the "Brexit" vote will profoundly affect the lives of Britons for decades. 

To leave or not to leave?

That is the question.

Last week in the closing I mentioned that "science is a team sport". Some of the most valuable and productive collaborations are the ones that cross borders. The UK now produce 62% of its scientific output as international collaborations, and that proportion is growing rapidly. The EU has facilitated those collaborations for decades making the European Union the science powerhouse of the world.

No, it's not the United States.

The EU has 34% more scientific output than the United States, and they're increasing that lead year after year.

So let's be clear, if the UK vote to leave there will be consequences. The UK will lose its currently prominent, even dominant role on forming science policy in the EU.  

Scientific discovery drives industry and health care. If the UK leaves then they'll not only lose their influence in shaping European Union science, but both academia and industry will be big losers.

The vast majority of scientists in the United Kingdom are dead-set against leaving the European Union.

So when you go to the polls this week, think about that.

And by all means, go to the polls this week.

What The Hell Was That?

Kevin O'Sullivan, a listener from Ithaca, New York, was the first to answer correctly last week's mystery sound. Congratulations. You have earned the undying admiration of the Blue Streak Science team.

Also, congratulations to host Ivy Shih for also getting the correct answer! Another stab in the dark finds its mark! And that answer is...what? You think I'm going to tell you here? Stop it. You're killin' me! No way! You have to listen to the podcast for that!

Well done, everyone!

Blue Streak Science News

A Second Gravitational Wave Signal Detected For the second time, scientists have directly detected the elusive ripples that vibrate the fabric of spacetime. A new observation of gravitational waves in the distant universe, announced by scientists with the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), follows their first detection, reported earlier this year. The incredibly faint ripple that eventually reached Earth was produced by two black holes colliding at half the speed of light, 1.4 billion light years away. 

Mystery meteorite found fossilised in quarry rocks A mysterious meteorite was found in Swedish quarry; a unique fossilized find from the early universe that lay hidden for 470 million years. The discovery is thought to be the remains of an asteroid in pulverized in an ancient collision. 

This episode of Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Santa Rosa, California; and Sydney, Australia.

Opening Word

After last weekend's horrible news - another mass murder perpetrated by one man with a legally purchased weapon of war - it makes this website and podcast seem a little silly. We have a wonderful time doing this, but I cannot help but think of the many funerals, the suffering, and the plight of the survivors.

For purely political reasons the Centers for Disease Control are forbidden from doing epidemiological research on gun violence in the United States. Science is a powerful weapon and those who favor unfettered trade in weapons of war have fought to keep one weapon, science, away from us all.

No amount of prayer, moments of silence, or hand wringing will bring back the dead or prevent future victims from being cut down. The only thing that can reduce the carnage is brave action.

Will they forgive us if we do nothing?

What The Hell Was That?

Camille Corra, a listener from Santiago, Chile, was the first to answer correctly last week's mystery sound. Congratulations. You have earned the undying admiration of the bonehead team of Blue Streak Science.

Also, congratulations to host Ivy Shih, a proud member of the aforementioned team of geeks, for also getting the correct answer! And that answer is...what? Listen to the podcast already!

Blue Streak Science News Homo floresiensis by Ryan Somma

Jawbone and teeth reveal hobbit's 700,000-year-old ancestors An international team of scientists have excavated the hominin fossils — attributed to a population ancestral to Homo floresiensis — from layers of sedimentary rock at the early Middle Pleistocene site of Mata Menge in the So'a Basin of central Flores, in Indonesia.

Experiment 'turns waste CO2 to stone' For the first time ever scientists and engineers in Iceland are pumping co2 gas into the earth and changing it chemically into solid rock. And they're doing this much faster than anyone had predicted, taking only months.

New discovery may improve future mosquito control A new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes a potential strategy by which to repel female mosquitoes.  

False Positive, the science game with the scary name!

Once again, our crack panel of experts were foiled! You think you can do any better? Give it a try! 

Shout-outs and Acknowledgments Science Club for Girls

There's an organization in the state of Massachusetts called science club for girls. They've been around since 1994.

Science club for girls connects girls from kindergarten through 12th grade, especially those from underrepresented groups, with female scientist-mentors. Those critically important role models that inspire children to believe in themselves, that they can be scientists and engineers, too.

They do this by providing free science, technology, engineering and math programs in a fun, nurturing and interactive environment. This is the kind of locally based organization that can often have the greatest and longest lasting positive effect on a child's life.

Science club for girls also has teen leadership programs to give girls the chance to be role models and to teach the younger children, to develop the kind of valuable skills they'll need when they go on to college and beyond.

I encourage everyone listening to check out science club for girls. It'll just make you feel go to know that such programs exist.

More importantly, if you like what they're doing then please send them a donation. These programs are free for the children, but science club for girls depends on the generosity of people like you who understand the value of a science education.

And if you have kids and you live in eastern Massachusetts then by all means contact them!

This episode of Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Sydney, Australia; Santa Rosa, California; and Cambridge, England.

Opening Word Amy!

It's election day here in California, but the Blue Streak Science Podcast isn't going to be stopped by such trivial matters. No, we are going to have our usual fun time of talking about the latest science stories and playing a few games for good measure.

During the recording a neighbor knocked on the door and my dog Amy went ballistic! So thankful for the editing capabilities of Adobe Audition. She's a good pup, but damn, it's just the neighbor. Relax.

It was another fun episode and we hope you enjoy it.

What The Hell Was That?

Karen Ha, a listener from Vancouver, British Columbia,  was the first to answer correctly last week's mystery sound. Congratulations. You have earned the undying admiration of the Blue Streak Science team.

Also, congratulations to host Ivy Shih for also getting the correct answer! And that answer is...what? You think I'm going to tell you here? Stop it. You're killin' me! No way! You have to listen to the podcast for that!

Blue Streak Science News

Universe expanding too fast - is it dark radiation? New research discovers that the universe is expanding significantly faster than earlier work suggested. Are the precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation are wrong? Perhaps it could be another as yet discovered particle such as the hypothesized fourth flavor of neutrino? Or is Einstein's Theory of General Relativity not up to the task? (gasp!) Maybe there's a new force or phenomenon at work here?

Listen to this episode and find out...or not!

Supercharged Blood? Cambridge researchers recently moved closer to mass-production of platelets – tiny blood cells with vital roles throughout the body. This 'forward programming' method was reported in the journal Nature Communications. This work could result in changes to many lives, enhancing current options in transfusion medicine.

Where did dogs come from? Asia or Europe?

For years, scientists have debated where dogs came from. Did wolves first forge their special relationship with humans in Europe, or in Asia? From the journal Science, researchers report that genetic analysis of hundreds of canines reveals that dogs may have been domesticated twice, once in Asia and once in Europe or the Near East, although European ancestry has mostly vanished from today's dogs. The findings could resolve a rift that has roiled the canine origins community—but the case isn't closed yet. 

False Positive, the science game with the scary name!

Once again, our crack panel of experts were foiled! You think you can do any better? Give it a try!

Shout-outs and Acknowledgments SciStarter

Last week I discovered a terrific organization. It's called SciStarter, and their website is located at SciStarter.com.

SciStarter is a way for people to connect to citizen science projects around the world. I'm not talking just a few citizen science projects. This is the real thing with over 1,600 citizen science research projects and activities for people, regular people, to join.

It's constructed as a database on their website so you can search by the category of the project, and by the location. Just scroll through and we are sure you'll find a great science project you can be an integral part of.

Also, if you're a scientist or a representative of a citizen science organization then make sure your project is listed on this website.

This episode of Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Santa Rosa, California; Cambridge, England; and Sydney, Australia.

Blue Streak Science News Cloud-seeding surprise could improve climate predictions

The cooling effect of pollution may have been exaggerated.

Fossil fuel burning spews sulfuric acid into the air, where it can form airborne particles that seed clouds and cool Earth's climate. But that's not the only way these airborne particles can form, three new studies suggest. Tree vapors can turn into cooling airborne particles, too.

The discovery means these particles were more abundant before the Industrial Revolution than previously thought. Climate scientists have therefore overestimated cooling caused by air pollution, says atmospheric chemist Urs Baltensperger, who coauthored the three studies.

Simulating unpolluted air in a cloud chamber, Baltensperger and colleagues created microscopic particles from vapors released by trees. In the real world, cosmic rays whizzing into the atmosphere foster the development of these particles, the researchers propose in the May 26 Nature. Once formed, the particles can grow large enough to form the heart of cloud droplets, the researchers show in a second paper in Nature. After sniffing the air over the Swiss Alps, some of the same researchers report in the May 27Science the discovery of the particles in the wild.

"These particles don't just form in the laboratory, but also by Mother Nature," says Baltensperger, of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland.

Airborne particles, called aerosols, are microscopic bundles of molecules. Some aerosols start fully formed, such as dust and salts from sea spray, while others assemble from molecules in the atmosphere.

Since the 1970s, scientists have suspected that sulfuric acid is a mandatory ingredient for aerosols assembled in the air. Sulfuric acid molecules react with other molecules to form clusters that, if they grow large enough, can become stable. Human activities such as coal burning have boosted sulfuric acid concentrations in the atmosphere, subsequently boosting the abundance of aerosols that seed clouds and reflect sunlight like miniature disco balls. That aerosol boost partially offsets warming from greenhouse gases.

A cloud chamber at the CERN laboratory near Geneva allowed Baltensperger and his collaborators to simulate the atmosphere when sulfuric acid was scarce. The researchers added alpha-pinene, the organic vapor that gives pine trees their characteristic smell, to pristine air and watched for growing aerosols. Previous, though inconclusive, work suggested that the pine vapors might form aerosols.

Alpha-pinene molecules reacted with ozone in the air and formed molecules that reacted and bundled together to form aerosols, the researchers observed. The researchers added an extra layer of realism by using one of CERN's particle beams to mimic ions from the cosmic rays bombarding Earth's atmosphere. The "rays" led to the formation of as many as 100 times the number of aerosols. The added ions help stabilize the growing aerosols, the researchers propose.

Further testing showed that the newborn aerosols can rapidly grow from around 2 nanometers wide — roughly the diameter of a DNA helix — to 80 nanometers across, large enough to seed cloud droplets.

At a research station high in the Swiss Alps, researchers observed aerosol formation during atmospheric conditions with low sulfuric acid concentrations and abundant molecules akin to alpha-pinene. The researchers couldn't confirm the rapid growth seen in the lab, though.

Quantifying the overall climate influence of fossil fuel burning in light of the new discovery will be tricky, says Renyi Zhang, an atmospheric chemist at Texas A&M University in College Station. "Atmospheric processes are complex," he says. "They had a pure setup, but in reality the atmosphere is loaded with chemicals. It's hard to draw direct conclusions at this point."

Bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotic appears in U.S.

For the first time, a US patient has been infected with bacteria resistant to an antibiotic used as a last resort, scientists said Thursday.

The patient, a 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania, has recovered but health officials fear that if the resistance spreads to other bacteria, the country may soon see supergerms impervious to all known antibiotics.

"It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently," Dr Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in Washington.

Other countries have already seen multidrug-resistant superbugs that no antibiotic can fight. So far, the US has not. But this sets the stage for that development, CDC officials said.

The woman had gone to a military clinic in Pennsylvania in April and was treated for a urinary tract infection. Initial tests found she was infected with E coli bacteria, a common variety of germ seen in the gut that often makes its way to the bladder.

But the tests showed this E coli was resistant to antibiotics commonly used first for such infections. She was successfully treated with another kind of antibiotic.

But while she has recovered, further testing completed in the last week confirmed the E coli was carrying a gene for resistance against the drug colistin.

Colistin is an old antibiotic. By the 1970s, doctors had mostly stopped using it because of its harsh side effects. But it was brought back as other antibiotics began losing their effectiveness.

It is used against hard-to-treat bacteria that resist one of the last lines of defence, antibiotics called carbapenems. If those germs pick up the colistin-resistance gene, doctors may be out of treatment options, health officials say.

"This is another piece of a really nasty puzzle that we didn't want to see here," said Dr Beth Bell, who oversees CDC's emerging infectious diseases programs.

The CDC is working with Pennsylvania health officials to interview the woman and her family to try to figure out how she might have picked up the strain. The woman had not travelled outside the country recently, officials said.

The colistin-resistant gene has been seen in animals and people in China, Europe and Canada. Federal officials said on Thursday that colistin-resistant E coli has also been found in a pig in the US, but there was nothing to link the finding to the Pennsylvania case.

Researchers at Walter Reed national military medical center, who did the confirmatory tests, reported on the Pennsylvania case on Thursday in a journal of the American Society of Microbiology.

Rosetta finds ingredients for life in Comet 67P's halo

The theory of panspermia posits that life on Earth may have been seeded by meteorites and comets carrying hardy spores of microorganisms. This possibility is what makes studying comets such an exciting area of research for scientists seeking to understand the origin of life on our planet and the evolution of the solar system.

Now, a new study, based on data gathered by instruments on board the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft — which is currently following the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — further bolsters the possibility that the building blocks of life on Earth may have come from outer space.

Researchers have detected the amino acid glycine, commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes, in the coma of the comet.

"This is the first unambiguous detection of glycine at a comet," lead author Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator of the ROSINA instrument that made the measurements, said in a statement. "At the same time, we also detected certain other organic molecules that can be precursors to glycine, hinting at the possible ways in which it may have formed."

A coma is the fuzzy, nebulous envelope of dust and gas that usually surrounds a comet's nucleus. The shape and size of the coma vary depending on the comet's composition and its distance from the sun.

According to the study, "the presence of glycine, phosphorus, and a multitude of organic molecules, including hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide ... supports the idea that comets delivered key molecules for prebiotic chemistry throughout the solar system and, in particular, to the early Earth, drastically increasing the concentration of life-related chemicals by impact on a closed water body."

Scientists believe that life on Earth originated nearly 3.7 billion years ago, bubbling out of a "primordial soup" rich in organic compounds. While we now have a clear picture of the evolution of life from its most ancient single-celled form to the present-day complexity we see around us, what is less clear is how the seeds of life came to exist on Earth.

"There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the chemistry on early Earth and there is of course a huge evolutionary gap to fill between the delivery of these ingredients via cometary impacts and life taking hold," co-author Hervé Cottin said in the statement. "But the important point is that comets have not really changed in 4.5 billion years — they grant us direct access to some of the ingredients that likely ended up in the prebiotic soup that eventually resulted in the origin of life on Earth."

With the discovery of glycine — the simplest of all amino acids — and phosphorus, the theory of panspermia has been lent further credence.

"Demonstrating that comets are reservoirs of primitive material in the Solar System and vessels that could have transported these vital ingredients to Earth, is one of the key goals of the Rosetta mission, and we are delighted with this result," Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist, said in the statement.

Trump's popularity inexplicable and Brexit spells disaster, says Stephen Hawking Donald Trump. Small hands. Huuuge ego.

Stephen Hawking has said that he fails to understand the popularity of Donald Trump, the presumptive US Republican presidential candidate.

ITV's Good Morning Britain asked the man who has widened the world's understanding of time, space, stars, galaxies and black holes if he could explain the popular appeal of the billionaire tycoon.

Hawking, perhaps the world's most famous living scientist and the author of one of the world's best-selling books, replied: "I can't. He's a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator."

He also ventured once again into political issues, appealing to British voters to back the remain campaign in the EU referendum on 23 June – not just for economic and security reasons, but for the sake of science as well. In March, he pronounced the prospect of Brexit "a disaster" for science.

"Gone are the days when we could stand on our own, against the world," he said on the television breakfast show. "We need to be part of a larger group of nations, both for our security and our trade. The possibility of our leaving the EU has already led to a sharp fall in the pound, because the markets judge that it will damage our economy."

Hawking also addressed the biggest concern of many: immigration.

"There are two obvious reasons why we should stay in. The first is that it promotes the mobility of people. Students can come here from EU countries to study, and our students can go to other EU universities. More importantly, at the level of research, the exchange of people enables skills to transfer more quickly, and brings new people with different ideas, derived from their different backgrounds," he said.

"The other reason is financial. The European Research Council has given large grants to UK institutions, either to foster or promote exchanges."

The Cambridge scientist, like Isaac Newton 350 years ago, was once Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University. Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1963 and given two years to live. Instead he wrote A Brief History of Time and became one of the world's bestselling authors, and one of the world's most instantly recognised scientists: he has appeared in his wheelchair in both Star Trek and the Simpsons.

Because he communicates fairly slowly, using a computerised voice that pronounces words he must spell out using assistive technology, all his opinions must be counted as carefully considered.

And over the years, he has been unapologetically opinionated, not just on behalf of his fellow scientists, and on behalf of Britain's disabled, but on wider matters: he joined an academic boycott in protest against Israeli treatment of Palestinians; he backed a recent $100m project to accelerate a tiny spacecraft to a fifth of the speed of light and send it to the nearest star system; he has spoken in favour of assisted suicide for the terminally ill; he has spoken up for atheism; he has made ominous pronouncements about artificial intelligence research; and he has even invited the fans of One Direction to imagine an alternative universe in which Zayn Malik was still with the band.

His latest return to referendum politics is less of a surprise: many of Britain's most senior scientists have backed the remain campaign.

The exit enthusiasts however, are not swayed.

"The EU has been bad for science – increasing costs and bureaucracy. The clinical trials directive, for example, acted to double the cost of cancer research – as leading scientists and medical practitioners have acknowledged," said the Vote Leave chief executive, Matthew Elliott.

"In the internet age, it is patently ridiculous to suggest that the referendum will have an impact on the exchange of information between scientists. And with our world class universities, the calibre of scientists wanting to study here is unlikely to do anything except grow.

"We give more money to the EU than we get back – meaning we could spend more on science if we vote to leave."

 

This episode of the Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Sydney, Australia; and Santa Rosa, California.

What The Hell Was That?

Today's mystery sound, or rather, a "WHO the Hell Was That?" stumped the panel and the audience! However, word has it that Sophie knew it all along. What? You know who it is? Then you should have emailed us with your answer to have your name and website announced on the podcast.

Not to worry, you can try again with this week's mystery sound. And if you have any idea what the answer is, or even if you don't, email your answer/guess. Who knows…maybe you'll get it right! Oh, and it's not a cephalopod.

Cephalopods misbehaving

Blue Streak Science News

• U.S. reviews plan to infect mosquitos with bacteria to stop disease
• Strange sea-dwelling reptile fossil hints at rapid evolution after mass extinction
• Cephalopod opulations on the rise as our oceans change

False Positive, the science game with the scary name!

This weeks winner is Ivy. Does she know her cephalopods or what?!

This episode of Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Atlanta, Georgia; Santa Rosa, California; and Sydney, Australia.

Uh, that's a big spider! Golden Orb Weaver What The Hell Was That? (pssst...it's not a spider)

Reid Nicewonder, a listener from Blab live video streaming platform was the first to answer correctly last week's mystery sound. Congratulations. You have earned the undying admiration of the Blue Streak Science team.

Oh, but that is so last week. In today's episode we have a new mystery sound. Do you think you can figure out what it is? If you do then contact us at [email protected] or leave us a voice message on Speakpipe, the orange tab on the right side of this page (Send Voicemail).

Blue Streak Science News

• How spider webs stay tense
• A second Zika-spreading species of mosquito?
• Newly discovered microbe without mitochondria

 

 

 

 

  False Positive, the science game with the scary name!

This weeks winner is Sophie, proving that even a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day! Harsh?

This episode of Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Sydney, Australia;Cambridge, England; and Santa Rosa, California.

Announcements Diagonal banded sweetlip. Great barrier reef. Queensland

On Monday morning, 9 May we launched the Science Café on the Blab live streaming platform.

Three days per week I'm going to cam up on Blab with a cup of coffee and the most recent copies of science magazines and journals and talk about the latest news in the world of science.

Essentially, the Science Café has 3 parts:

• keep the audience up to date on what's going on with the Blue Streak Streak Science Podcast
• share science news and to decide which stories would be a good fit for the next episode
• play the What The Hell Was That game with a live audience

Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays at 7:00AM Pacific

What The Hell Was That?

BovineBob from Bristol, England got the answer correct! And he wasn't the only one, but he was the first one. Congratulations, BovineBob!

How did our crack team of science professionals do? Let's not talk about that, okay? :)

Great Barrier Reef, Whitsundays Australia Blue Streak Science News

• Rainwater can help trigger earthquakes
• Silk used as edible coating to preserve fruit!
• New route of TB transmission identified

Special News Item

• Great Barrier Reef in Peril
  • Only 7% of the Great Barrier Reef has avoided coral bleaching
  • Link between fossil fuels and Great Barrier Reef bleaching clear and incontrovertible

If you are interested in learning more about the Great Barrier Reef, or opposing the Carmichael mine, there is a petition led by the Wangan and Jagalingou people in Queensland's Galilee basin.

Petition: Stop Adani Destroying Our Land and Our Culture

Also check out Fight For The Reef  and Greenpeace, which is also leading a campaign against the mine.

Don't think petitions can work? 180,000 people in Germany signed a petition which stopped Deutschbank investing in the mine, so if you care about this issue, it doesn't matter where you are in the world! Of course, if you're in Australia, your voice may count for more.

False Positive, the science game with the scary name!

This weeks winner is Ivy! Way to go!

Shout-outs and Acknowledgments

• Pint of Science - Australia

New scientific discoveries are happening all the time - fascinating developments which will change the future of the human race. But how often are you given the chance to really understand how these discoveries are made and what they mean?

The Pint of Science Festival sees some of world's best scientific researchers and science communicators go to pubs in cities around the globe to discuss their latest findings with you. This is your chance to get face-to-face with the people involved in carrying out current research. You can listen to them talk, join in games and quizzes, or just enjoy a chat over a pint.

 The festival runs from the 23rd to the 25th May 2016 in 60 cities across 12 different countries - including Australia! Check out the Events pages to find out more about Pint of Science happenings across the country.

This episode of Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Santa Rosa, California; Sydney, Australia; Cambridge, England; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Sharon Stiteler is living the dream. She's getting paid to do what she loves. Birding. She travels the world as a birding field trip guide. She's also a birding consultant, keynote speaker, and a bird bander. She has written several books including "1,001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know".

Sharon is #32 on the "Geek-a-Week" trading card set!

In the birdbath with Sharon Stiteler

You'd think that Sharon wouldn't have time for anything else, but she is a full-time (!) ranger for the National Park Service at the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. She has been on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and the NBC Nightly News answering bird questions.

Sharon and her husband Non-birding Bill are hosts of the best birding podcast on the planet, the Birdchick Podcast. If you're a birder then you must check out this podcast. If you're not a birder I still recommend it because it's that good. And they don't limit themselves to the topic of birding. Birding news, great humor, witty repartee, and a tumbler of Scotch. Yeh, that's the ticket. 

Sharon and I discussed topics ranging from birding to citizen science. This was tons of fun and I hope you enjoy it, too.

For a full list of Sharon's publications you can visit her website at birdchick.com. 

What The Hell Was That?

Chris Cowans, a listener from Sydney, Australia was the first listener to get last week's What The Hell Was That correct. Congratulations, Chris!

Blue Streak Science News

• Australia to destroy alien carp by releasing herpes into rivers
• The teenager who can't help speaking in a French accent
• Three Earth-like Planets discovered

False Positive, the science game with the scary name!

JD stumps the Blue Streak brain trust once again! Do you have what it takes?

This episode of Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Santa Rosa, California; Sydney, Australia; and Atlanta, Georgia.

What The Hell Was That?

Nobody was able to guess what this week's sound was! Can you, smarty pants?

Blue Streak Science News

• Prions in Plants?
• Cassini's fiery plunge into oblivion
• Why super-gonorrhoea is spreading and may soon be untreatable

False Positive, the science game with the scary name!

None of our team of brilliant scientists were able to answer this correctly, either! Am I being too tough on them? Oh, you think YOU can do better?

This episode of Blue Streak Science Podcast comes to you from Cambridge, England; Santa Rosa, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.