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| | | | PROGRAMME INFO | | | |
| | | Quentin Cooper reports on developments across the sciences. Each week scientists describe their work, conveying the excitement they feel for their research projects.
material.world@bbc.co.uk | | | | | LISTEN AGAIN 30 min | | | |
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"For me science isn't a subject, it's a perspective. There are fascinating scientific aspects to everything from ancient history to the latest gadgets, outer space to interior decorating; and each week on The Material World we try to reflect the excitement, ideas, uncertainties, collisions and collaborations as science continues its never-ending voyage into the unknown".
Quentin Cooper |
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BIOGRAPHY
INTERVIEW |
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Parasites
Every living thing has at least one parasite that lives inside or on it, and many, including humans have far more. For example, we all have small mites that live in our hair follicles. Many human parasites are harmless – causing minor irritation, but others cause severe illness like Malaria, Schistosomiasis and River Blindness.
Often parasites have parasites themselves and some of these may have parasites of their own. Although there are no estimates to the number of parasites on planet earth, they make up the majority of living species. One estimate suggests that they may outnumber free living species four to one. In this weeks programme we look at this huge field and find out why they are so successful.
One reason is that they are incredibly clever at evading their host’s immune system. Dr Jeyaraney Kathirithamby has studied insect parasites and has discovered a particularly macabre way in which the Strepsiptera parasite evades detection by its host: it cloaks itself in a bag of its host’s skin. This bizarre behaviour reminiscent of a scene from Silence of the Lambs enables the parasite to live successfully inside its host, ultimately causing its untimely death.
Quentin speaks to Dr Jeyaraney Kathirithamby from Oxford University and to Richard Ashford who was Professor of parasite and vector biology at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Space Based Infra red Astronomy
20 years ago this year Europe, in collaboration with the United States, launched the first infrared observatory into space, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) which detected 500 000 infrared sources. In 1800, German-born British astronomer William Herschel discovered infrared radiation but it wasn’t until 1856 that infrared astronomy was invented by the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smythe, by detecting infrared radiation coming from the Moon. The next breakthrough was in 1965, when astronomers Gerry Neugebauer and Robert Leighton made the first infrared survey of the cosmos. They found ten objects that were only visible at infrared wavelengths, but four years later, the list had grown to thousands. Infrared astronomy could provide an entirely new insight of a hidden universe, one that is invisible at optical wavelengths.
The desire to see more triggered the 1983 Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) launch and in August this year NASA will continue the tradition by launching the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF). SIRTF is a space-borne, cryogenically-cooled infrared observatory capable of studying objects ranging from our Solar System to the distant reaches of the Universe. However, as with IRAS before, the European Space Agency (ESA) is already preparing to build a successor, Herschel. This new spacecraft will have the most sophisticated infrared telescope ever built, with a mirror 1.5 times larger than NASA-ESA's famous Hubble Space Telescope. Herschel will reveal the birth of stars and whole galaxies in details that would astonish early space infrared pioneers.
Quentin speaks to Dr Michael Werner from the Jet Propulasion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, who is project scientist on NASAs SIRTF mission and to Dr Bruce Swinyard from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxford who is working on the SPIRE instrument on ESA's Herschel mission. | | |
RELATED LINKS
BBC News - Bizzare Bugs Attack
Liverpool School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine
Oxford University - Zoology
SIRTF
Herschel Mission
SPIRE
BBCi Science
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