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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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LISTEN AGAIN Ìý30 min |
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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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| Pathological liars have less grey matter |
The relation between genes and addiction to smoking and cocaine
Geoff Watts discusses the reasons why scientists have not yet been able to identify particular genes linked with addiction to smoking. Kirk Wilhelmson from the University of North Carolina has a theory that previous studies have been fundamentally flawed by not appreciating the varied ways in which people smoke - from those who take onlyÌýthree puffs of a cigarette to others who try to suck every last essence of nicotine from the butt.
In a paper published this week, Gerome Breen and colleagues from the Medical Research Council have shown there is a genetic variation in some people's DNA that makes them more susceptible to becoming addicted to cocaine.
White Lies
Our reporter Molly Bentley checks in from San Francisco with the news that scientists at the University of Southern California have been studying the brains of pathological liars and found that they have more white matter - and less grey matter -Ìýin their brains than those of us who just tell the odd porkie. This helps us understand people with Autism, who are unable to lie.
Mario Livio
Mario Livio is a former head of the Science Division at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute. HisÌýlatest bookÌýis The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved. This takes a look at brilliant figures who changed the way we approach maths. These include the tragically short lived Evariste Galois and Niels Henrik Abel, the nineteenth century mathematicians who gave us Group Theory and the method to solving quintic equations. Geoff Watts talks to Mario about the stars of the book.Ìý |
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