Science On Top

The iKnife knows when it's cutting through healthy tissue or cancerous tissue during surgery. In 91 tests, it correctly identified the tissue every time, and in less than a second.

Chimpanzees and orangutans can use 'autobiographical memory' - previously thought to be unique to humans. In a series of tests, the apes were able to accurately recall an event that happened three years prior.

Genetecists may have found a way to switch off the rogue chromosome that causes Down's syndrome. 

The discovery of two giant viruses could mean an entirely new kingdom of life. More than 93% of their genes are unknown and not on any existing database.

Robert Hooke's Micrographia is available as a free e-book thanks to Project Gutenberg. Also check the Wikipedia page.

The 2013 NZ Skeptics Conference will be held in Wellington from the 6th to the 8th of September. Great speakers like astronomer Dr. Pamela Gay, climate scientist Professor Martin Manning, microbiologist Dr. Siouxsie Wiles and many more.

The Kepler spacecraft has found 134 confirmed planets outside our solar system and another 3,277 unconfirmed candidates. But has its time run out? NASA scientists are planning one last ditch effort to rescue the space telescope.

Meanwhile Hubble has analysed a planet 63 light years away and found it's a deep blue colour! Also, it's big and moving really really fast.

Lucas has found a gravity simulator that lets you build solar systems and watch as objects of different mass interact. It's mesmerising!

A look back at some old Hubble photographs led planetary astronomer Mike Showalter to discover a new moon orbiting Neptune.

The planarian is a simple flatworm, which can regrow its head after decapitation. But a recent experiment suggests they might be able to keep their memories from before the decapitation!

Human head transplants - technically maybe, but not really.

Did scientists create a human liver from stem cells? Sort of, but not really.

A bone marrow transplant cures two men of HIV - actually yes, but don't get your hopes up.

Beware the toad with the weaponised moustache!

Guillemot eggs clean themselves.

Pluto's moons get official names, snubbing Stephen Colbert.

Shockwave from Russian meteor circled the globe twice

Russian rocket crashes shortly after launch

Global warming could be helping the spread of brain-eating amoebas

Why routine autopsies should be the norm, not the exception

A corn-eating pest thwarts farmers, but the bacteria makes them do it

Scientists have sequenced the genome of an ancient horse

Dopamine: why chocolate brownies are like cocaine

Torch that runs on body heat invented by 15-year-old

Why naked mole rats don’t get cancer

Thinking of home makes it harder to learn a foreign language

Your vegetables are 'alive' up to a week after harvest

Being bitten by a komodo dragon: not as bad as you thought, but still pretty bad

Unlocking the parasitic secrets of 822 year old poo

Unsurprisingly, 1 billion-year-old water tastes "terrible"

Temperatures on Mars rise and fall twice a day

New phylum of bacteria discovered

Ancient armoured fish had abs

Leprosy from medieval knights is much the same as modern-day leprosy

Supreme Court rules on human-gene patents

Australian Bird Moves Like Jagger and Sounds Like Space Invaders

Comet Lovejoy flies into Sun to reveal solar secrets

Australian squid eat sperm for better bodies and babies

Growing Left, Growing Right- why your left is different to your right

400 Year old frozen plants get thawed out and revived. A Russian scientist claims to have found liquid blood in a 10,000 year old woolly mammoth carcass. The iron in beads worn by pre-Iron Age Egyptians came from meteorites. 1 in 13 museum visitors have 'ape-like' feet. An old theory about the evolution of the turtle's shell gets some supporting evidence. And a new therapy for schizophrenics shows promise.

Vitamin C kills tuberculosis in an accidental discovery. Why penguins can swim but not fly. A Neanderthal tooth gives a clue about the history of breastfeeding. The pathogen that caused the Irish Famine gets its genome sequenced. Our guts are full of bacteria, and even more viruses. The 'top ten' new species discovered in 2012. Cockroaches are evolving to avoid our traps.

More show notes at http://scienceontop.com/104

UN says insects are the food of the future. Underground water reservoir untouched for over a billion years. Stem cells created with cloning technique. Plan to monitor endangered ecosystems, not just animals. Egyptians got it on more in Summer, and the co-evolution of humans and dogs.

More show notes at http://scienceontop.com/103