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Leading Edge brings you the latest news from the world of science. Geoff Watts celebrates discoveries as soon as they're being talked about - on the internet, in coffee rooms and bars; often before they're published in journals. And he gets to grips with not just the science, but with the controversies and conversation that surround it.
radioscience@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN 30 min |
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PRESENTER |
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"If what interests you are new and exciting ideas, it's science you should be turning to. And whether it's the Human Genome Project or the origins of the Universe, Leading Edge is the place to hear about them."
Geoff Watts |
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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Communicating Elephants
New research from the USA and Africa suggests that elephants have a seismic sense - that they can detect the vibrations of other elephants - through the ground - from up to 20 miles away. The theory may also explain why elephants appear to know when it's raining 100 or more kms away. Are they feeling the rumble of heavy thunder of the storms through the ground? The animals appear to pick up foot stomping and possibly their infrasound calls transmitted through the earth - sensing through vibration detecting cells in the fatty pads in their feet. They may also be detecting the vibrations through their trunk tips, which are packed with sensitive nerve endings. Elephant trunk tips are 100 times more sensitive than human fingertips. The researchers are currently measuring the behaviour of captive elephants to seismic signals relayed through the ground experimentally. Leading Edge's Andrew Luck-Baker goes to Oakland Zoo in California to meet the researchers Lynette Hart and Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell who are studying this strange sense of elephants.
You can hear a full report on the elephant research in the 麻豆官网首页入口 World Service Radio's science programme Discovery on 17th July 2002.聽 It will be聽 on the 麻豆官网首页入口 World Service 聽website from 1005 (BST) that day.
Regenerating Damaged Nerves
Scientists have identified two substances on the surfaces of nerve cells that may provide new targets for treating nerve damage. Regeneration of damaged nerves is next to impossible in the nervous systems of adult mammals, partially due to certain inhibitory factors present on myelin--the insulation-like membrane that coats nerve fibers. One such factor, called myelin-associated glycoprotein or MAG, binds to some as yet unidentified factors on the nerve cell surface, preventing nerve regeneration after injury.聽Scientists at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Hamburg report the identification of two factors that might be involved in this inhibition. In experiments using cultured rat brain cells, the researchers identified two molecules, referred to as gangliosides, that bind MAG and appear to play a role in MAG-mediated inhibition of nerve growth. The scientists found that they could reverse MAG-mediated inhibition by altering ganglioside structure, synthesis, or function. In addition, the researchers found that the clustering of gangliosides at the nerve cell
surface also inhibited nerve growth, indicating their importance in MAG-mediated inhibition. Although the complete mechanism for MAG-mediated inhibition remains unresolved, the identification of gangliosides as important elements is a crucial first step toward the development of treatments for mending injured nerves.
Dino-Bird Fossils
Thirteen Dino-Bird fossils, never before seen in Europe,have been takendirect from China for vital conservation by the world-leading Palaeontology Conservation Unit (PCU) at The Natural History Museum. To clean and restore the fragile Dino-Bird fossils, some of which are the only examples of their particular species in existence, the PCU team will use modern contaminant removal methods involving chemicals and synthetic resins applied under microscope. Beautifully preserved, yet only paper-thin in places, the fossils distinctly display delicate feathers surrounding the skeletons of small meat-eating dinosaurs. Geoff Watts talks to Dr Angela Milner, who personally collected the Dino-Bird fossils from China and Lorraine Cornish, Acting Head of The Natural History Museum's Palaeontology Conservation Unit. |
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