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LEADING EDGE
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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.
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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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AnÌýartist's concept shows what the very early universe might have looked like, just after its first stars burst onto the scene.
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This week on Leading Edge - light from the first stars detected, singing mice, the wobbling Millennium Bridge, how Grand Canyon formed and a special gym for astronauts.
Light of the First Stars
A team of astronomers claims to have detected the light from the Universe's very first stars.
At 13.5 billion years old, these giant stars were the first objects to condense out of the primordial cosmic cloud of hydrogen and helium.
Dr Alexander Kashlinksy of NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Centre explains how his team divined their presence.
Mice Sing
Birds do it, whales do it and now we know that mice do it.
Tim Holy of Washington University in St Louis has discovered that laboratory male mice serenade their mates with ultrasonic songs. A randy rodent's squeak has a structure that parallels the elaborations of bird song.Ìý
How Did the Grand Canyon Form?
Gabrielle Walker floats down the Colorado River in a raft with Karl Karlstrom of the University of New Mexico. His team of geologists is trying to unravel of the mysterious history of the greatest gash in the Earth.Ìý
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Space Gym for AstronautsÌý
Geoff Watts tests out a muscle-building exercise machine for astronauts in space.
In the absence of gravity, people's muscles weaken and begin to waste away. Terrestrial-style weightlifting is impossible for the same reason.
So engineers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have taken the yo-yo as the design inspiration for a muscle-strengthener for the International Space Station.Ìý
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Wobble of Millennium Bridge Solved
When crowds of people first crossed London 's Millennium Bridge, the structure swayed so violently it had to be closed.
Mathematician Steven Strogatz of Cornell University has now developed a mathematical description of the bridge's tendency to wobble as people walk across it.
It is based on the same 'chaos' mathematics used to understand synchronous behaviour in fireflies and brain cells. The equations should allow civil engineers to prevent the same thing happening to other bridges.
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