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Past Shows
October 23, 2004
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Who’s to Blame for Global Warming?
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Boiling Point, by Ross Gelbspan
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As of last month, 125 nations of the world, including Canada, had ratified the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. Even Russia, one of the two major holdouts, indicated this month that it intends to hold ratification hearings as soon as possible. That just leaves the United States of America as the last remaining obstacle to the world’s only deal to reduce greenhouse gases.
So why is the US still in denial about climate change? According to American journalist Ross Gelbspan, the Bush White House, the oil and coal industries, journalists and environmental activists are all fuelling the climate crisis in the US - and if nothing changes, it could be too late to avert disaster. Ross Gelbspan is the author of a new book called, Boiling Point: Who’s to Blame for Global Warming?. It's published by The Perseus Book Group.
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Know when to Hold ‘Em: Blue Gourami
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Blue Gourami |
Sometimes it’s better to hold back, rather than jump into the action. In the animal kingdom, this is especially true when you’re competing with others for food. If you’re a small Blue Gourami, for example, you don’t want to rush for food if a bigger, stronger Gourami is around. So it pays to know when and where to find your food. Dr. Karen Hollis, a professor at Mount Holyoke College, studies the interactions of Blue Gouramis. She’s discovered they use cues from their environment, combined with awareness of what other fish are around, to decide when to go for the meal.
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Yawning Chimps
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Yawning chimp |
The "contagious" yawn, some scientists say, might actually be a sign of the ability to feel and show empathy. There's still no solid evidence to explain why we yawn in the first place, let alone why it's contagious, but while we tend to think of empathy as a human trait, new chimpanzee research by Dr. Jim Anderson, a Reader with the Psychology Department at the University of Stirling in Scotland, shows that they too get that yawning feeling from each other. If there is a connection between contagious yawning and empathy, this research could lend more evidence to the theory that chimpanzees are more emotionally advanced than we think.
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Canada's Synchrotron
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Synchrotron-generated image of ATP - Courtesy of Dr. Louis Delbaere, Department of Biochemistry, University of Saskatchewan |
This week, a new bright light in Canadian research was turned on. All the country’s scientific attention was focussed on Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where the Canadian Light Source, our first synchrotron, officially came into operation. A synchrotron acts like a gigantic microscope that generates intense beams of brilliant light - millions of times brighter than the sun - which are used to view the microstructure of materials.
Canada’s synchrotron has taken five years to build and cost more than one hundred and seventy-three million dollars. But already more than six hundred researchers are signed up to use this very large, very powerful microscope.
Bob McDonald was in Saskatoon this week and went on a tour of the Synchrotron with Matthew Dalzell, communications coordinator for the Canadian Light Source; and Tom Regier, Research Associate.
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Question of the Week: Earth's Core
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Barry Dickieson in Calgary, asks: The recent eruptions of Mt. St. Helen’s got us wondering about the centre of the Earth. Why is it that after all these millions of years, the centre of the Earth is still molten? Why isn’t the energy source exhausted?
For the answer, we go to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, where Dr. Mary Louise Hill is a professor of geology.
Last week
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