Podcast for 1 March 2013
SWEET SCIENCE - What tomatoes can tell us about cutting back on sugar and a diabetes cure for dogs. Also, behind the mechanics of beatboxing, the evolution of whales, and writing your way to a better relationship.
Dental Roundup
Ancient people had beneficial bacteria to fight dental plaque that is absent in modern populations.
Tricking the Sweet Tooth
Understanding the chemical composition of tomatoes could help manufacturers decrease the sugar content of processed foods.
Tree-Climbing People
The Twa people of Uganda climb trees with ease. A new study suggests that the trait may be the result of practical necessity.
Your Brain on Fructose
A brain imaging study supports growing evidence linking fructose to weight gain.
Microbe Roundup
Microbes in the human gut could be partially responsible for food cravings.
X-Ray Vision Carrots
Giving vegetables catchier names could get kids to eat more of them.
Spinach Solar Cell
A protein in spinach packs a punch when it comes to converting solar energy into electricity.
Podcast for 31 August 2012
WHALES, APES & BIRDS - Chimps don't share our sense of justice. What gibbons on helium can tell us about opera singers. Deciphering the peacock's hidden message. What an endangered whale has in common with songbirds. Also: Did a Central American rodent save a tree species from extinction?
Haste vs. Happiness
If you consume something too rapidly, you may enjoy it less than if you space out consumption.
Podcast for 17 August 2012
PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSUMPTION - Why planning a lifestyle change often backfires, why buying larger quantities doesn't always mean a better deal, and the relationship between speed of consumption and satisfaction, Also: did hunter-gatherers really use more calories than people living today? And an unmanned aircraft maps an archaeological site in Peru in record time.
Hunter-Gatherer Metabolism
People living as hunter-gatherers burn roughly as many calories per day as those in industrialized countries.
Eating Roundup
Cutting up a snack into smaller parts may help people eat less at mealtimes.
Food Roundup
Eating a bit of dessert for breakfast helped obese people lose weight and keep it off.
Dairy Detectives
Traces of milk fat in pottery confirm that prehistoric North Africans practiced dairy farming.
Tasteless Tomatoes
Scientists discover the biochemistry behind tasteless supermarket tomatoes.
Lizard Spit Roundup
A chemical in Gila monster venom suppresses appetite in rats.
Spoiled Milk
A listener asks why milk goes bad more quickly than other beverages.
Sugar-Free Carnivores
Each group of carnivores has a different set of genetic mutations that has knocked out its sweet tooth.
Chemical Roundup
Though illegal, the drug LSD may be effective against alcoholism.
Podcast for 9 March 2012
NEW MEDICINE - A rare mutation that protects people from diabetes and cancer. How the pancreas "tastes" sugar. And a new implantable microchip that delivers an osteoporosis drug. Also: chimpanzees may yawn for the same reason humans do.
Health Chemistry Roundup
New research suggests that caffeine drinking by breastfeeding mothers may cause irritability in their babies.
Fructose-Tasting Pancreas
Taste receptors on the pancreas may enable fructose sweeteners to boost obesity.
Boosting Photosynthesis
Researchers are trying to boost the efficiency of photosynthesis in crops like soybeans, rice and potatoes to feed the world’s growing population.