This Way Up Podcasts

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This Way Up is a two-hour programme which explores the stories and issues around things we use and consume. Entertaining and informative, it includes global and local correspondents, mini features, product tests, studio discussions and a themed feature each week. Digital Life is also part of the show. Primary Format : News Language : Unknown Also Listed as: City : Unknown State/Province : Unknown Country : New Zealand Region : OC User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: View this Podcast on a Google Map. Podcast iTunes Link Text Only listing of This Way Up Podcasts Methings.com listings of This Way Up Podcasts If you like this podcast, you might also like:

Guerilla grafting Tara Hui is a guerilla grafter who's returning ornamental fruit trees to production one branch at a time! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Does a Strad sound better? Claudia Fritz studies instrument acoustics and is testing if antique violins (think Stradivarius and Guarneri) really sound any better than modern instruments. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Birds: Black-backed gull We chase the black-backed gull with Hugh Robertson. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pop-up gardens We go urban gardening with pop-up gardener Amanda Yates from Massey University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Facebook float Tech correspondent Peter Griffin goes inside the numbers of Facebook's planned flotation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Clean tech boom and bust Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post has been watching a cycle of boom and bust in the US renewable energy sector. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Storify Reporting major news stories using social media isn't an easy task. For starters, reliability and accuracy can be a problem. Storify's a way of keeping a news story moving forward by bundling together everything from tweets to photos to Facebook updates in one easy-to-follow web page. Burt Herman is the founder of Storify. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cellphone tracking Using shoppers' cellphone signals to track their movements inside shopping malls. Sharon Biggar is Path Intelligence's CEO. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Potatoes We mash up the potato; with more than 4,000 varieties it's the tuber that's conquered the world! Andrew Smith's written Potato: A Global History (Reaktion Books). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked Science The latest science research from around the planet with Dr Chris Smith. Today, will seaweed ignite a boom in the biofuel sector? Plus using stem cells to improve people's vision. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Coriander Alison Sandle on the spice that also lovely eaten green and fresh as a herb. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NYC taxi medallions The right to drive a yellow taxi cab in New York has proved to be one of the best performing investments on the planet. Forget Wall Street or oil or gold, New York taxi medallions are now selling for more than US$1 million! We ask taxi historian Graham Hodges why. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 3D Printing Charlotte Wicca-Smith has been looking a 3D printers. These are household devices for 'printing' out any object you want, from a new knob for the kettle to a chess piece. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website BodyWave Peter Freer's the inventor of the BodyWave, a device about the size of an MP3 player that sits on your skin and can measure your brain activity. He reckons it can help people reach peak performance in all sorts of ways and in all sorts of places...even in space! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Penny farthing David Wilson's trying to become the first person to cycle from Stewart Island to Cape Reinga....on a penny farthing and dressed from head to toe in Victorian costume! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website UK news: dummies vs models We're off to the UK where fashion models wearing a well-known brand of clothing have been found to be dummies! And plans to conquer London's pollution problems using a sticky road surface. Chris Parkin reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 2011 tech highlights and 2012 predictions Some of the technology highlights of last year and a gaze forward into 2012 with our regular tech head Peter Griffin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Birds: oystercatcher We're on the hunt for the Oystercatcher with bird expert Hugh Robertson. It's a cheeky shorebird that pretends to be injured just to lead you away from its nest! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Christmas cakes They're full of spice with loads of white ice. Helen Leach has studied the history and evolution of the Christmas cake in New Zealand. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked Science The latest science news with Dr Chris Smith of the Naked Scientists. This week, a computer program that detects when photos have been photoshopped, airbrushed or otherwise manipulated. Plus a new study on London taxi drivers shows how their brains change and grow while they're learning the layout of the city. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pippin Barr We're playing video games with Pippin Barr. Pippin's a New Zealander who lectures at the University of Copenhagen's Center for Computer Game Research. He's just written a book called 'How to Play a Video Game'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Homebrewing: taste test It's taste test time in our homebrewing series. Our two home brewed versions of an Australian Pale Ale go head-to-head with a store-bought version with a proper label! With Stu McKinlay of Yeastie Boys and Jessica Venning-Bryan of Beervana. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cognitive chewing Neuroscience writer Jonah Lehrer on the cognitive benefits of chewing gum. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website DNA barcoding The International Barcode of Life aims to create a massive DNA database, meaning consumers of the future will be able to tell exactly where their food and even their garden furniture comes from. We're speaking to Professor Andrew Lowe of the University of Adelaide, co-chair of last week's fourth International Barcode of Life conference. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Honey fraud A recent US study showed that three-quarters of the honeys sampled had been ultra-filtered. Andrew Schneider of Food Safety News reports on what this means for consumers. So is honey being ultra-filtered here in New Zealand? We test 10 honeys from the supermarket with Dr Ian Raine of GNS Science and discuss the findings with Linda Croudis of Oritain Global, and Russell Frew of the University of Otago. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Medical gadgets Aaron Rowe of Wired has been to the TEDMED conference to see the latest medical devices, many of them designed with the home consumer in mind. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Home brewing appliance If James Bond drank homebrew beer and not martinis he'd probably fancy a domestic brewing appliance. Ian Williams of Williams Warn has a hi-tech model costing about $6,000. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Moby Duck It's the true story of 28,800 bathtoys lost at sea nearly 20 years ago and of the beachcombers, oceanographers, environmentalists and fools (and author Donovan Hohn includes himself in that category), who went in search of them. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mouthwatering food? The science of saliva. Can food really be mouthwatering? Well, not so much, according to new research done by a team including Dr Guy Carpenter of King's College London's Dental Institute. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hearing questions We answer your questions about what to do with old hearing aids, hearing aid batteries and tinnitus with Janet Houghton, the President of the NZ Audiological Society, and Karen Allen who's an audiologist with Bay Audiology. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Flour power If a recipe needs self-raising flour can you just add standard flour with baking powder added instead? We look at flours with Julie Clark of Floriditas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked Science The latest science news from Dr Chris Smith of the Naked Scientists. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scallops Shucking scallops with Rachel Taulelei. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Insect eating and Yuck! San Francisco's positioning itself as the insect-eating capital of the US. Peter Jamison of the San Francisco Weekly reports. Also why do some of us find the idea of eating insects so disgusting? Daniel Kelly is the author of 'Yuck! The Nature and Moral Significance of Disgust' (MIT Press). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Homebrew 6: Bottling the brew The bubbling's stopped and we're bottling our fermented homebrew with Yeastie Boy Stu McKinlay. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Virtual Private Networks Some people are paying to get their hands on the latest TV and film using a virtual private network to make it look like they're living in the US or the UK. So how do VPNs work and is using one legal? With information lawyer John Edwards and our regular tech correspondent Peter Griffin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Medicated contact lenses Dr Mark Byrne of Auburn University is part of a team that reckons it's cracked the secret of a medicated contact lens. No more eyedrops running down your face; these lenses slowly release a controlled dose of medication while they're being worn. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Homebrew 5: the big mash up Yeastie Boy Stu McKinlay mashes up his all-grain Australian Pale Ale from scratch over 6 hours to compete with our 20L kitset in a bucket. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fake whisky detector A team from a Scottish university's developed a laser scanner to make sure your whisky is the real article and not counterfeit. With Kishan Dholakia from the University of St Andrews. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Digital death Stacey Pitsillides is one of the conference organisers for the Digital Death Day conference held in Amsterdam last week. It looked at some of the uneasy tensions between our digital lives and what happens to all this information after death. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Happy campers We join the 'campers'; they're a growing section of the workforce who move around the country in their campervans and mobile homes picking and packing fresh produce. With lots of campers…and Geoff Lewis of Tendertips asparagus farm near Levin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Living pesticides Fighting dengue fever by breeding mosquitos that kill their own children! Henry Nicholls has been writing about so-called 'living pesticides' for the New Scientist. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Clean beer Cleaning and sterilising your equipment properly is really important for brewing. Mike Neilson of the Tuatara Brewery oversees a commercial brewery producing one million litres of beer a year. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Airdrop irrigation Ed Linnacre from Swinburne University in Australia's just won the James Dyson Award for his Airdrop irrigation system. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China: Great Wall and underground rail The Great Wall is falling down, and there's plans to build the world's biggest metro system. Malcolm Moore of The Daily Telegraph lives and works in Shanghai. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Birds: Harriers Harriers with bird expert Hugh Robertson. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dark Market: cybercrime and you Misha Glenny, the author of 'Dark Market: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked Science More naked science with Dr Chris Smith. This week, the secrets of a good suntan, and why storms in Asia are getting stronger and more likely to hit land. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hearing Aid Funding The funding options available for hearing aids - from government subsidies to full funding. With Janet Houghton, President of the NZ Audiological Society and Sue Smith, the General Manager of accessable. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Japan: changing demographics Justin McCurry beams in from Japan where the country's flagging birthrate is forcing employers to get more creative, and changing demographics mean that making porn for seniors is becoming big business. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kitset brew day It's home brew day with Yeastie Boy, Stu McKinlay. We're making a classic pale ale from a starter kit. Then the plan's to make one from Stu's all-grain 'mash', and blind test both versions to see how they stack up. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: first infringement notices The first infringement notices have been fired off to the big internet service providers under the new Copyright Amendment Act. So what should you do if you get one? With Paul Brislen, the chief executive of TUANZ, and technology correspondent Peter Griffin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Africa's technology revolution How technology's transforming life in Africa with Jane Wakefield of the BBC. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eating insects With the world's population about to reach 7 billion, Professor Marcel Dicke is trying to persuade consumers to eat insects like locusts and beetles (and their larvae). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spices: Cloves Cloves, with Alison Sandle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website UK news: Singing bins and insurance jobs Expat kiwi Chris Parkin lives in the UK where it's better to be a birdwatcher than a professional footballer if you want to keep your car insurance down. Plus Liverpool launches the UK's first singing bin! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trout 2: Tongariro visit New Zealand's got a reputation as one of the world's best trout fishing destinations. We visit a spawning tributary stream, the Waipa, that feeds into the Tongariro River with ranger Mike Nicholson. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trout 1: Anders Halverson The rainbow trout's one of the world's most popular recreational fish. Anders Halverson is the author of 'An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tomatoes: Modern growing With the vast majority of New Zealand tomatoes grown under glass we visit commercial grower Shaun Brannigan, who grows his toms in a large scale greenhouse with constant temperatures and no soil; just coconut fibre and nutrient-laden irrigation systems. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tomatoes: Barry Estabrook How a flimsy, highly perishable bag of water, vitamins and flavour compounds has become a mainstay of the modern table. Author Barry Westabrook is the writer of 'Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit.' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Measurement Lab Measurement Lab is backed by Google and is meant to be an accurate and transparent tool to measure internet speeds and network performance in New Zealand. We check out the country's M-Lab servers with Professor John Hine and Andy Linton of Victoria University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Targeting new consumers The Swiss consumer product giant, Nestle, is using floating supermarkets and an army of 8,000 door-to-door saleswomen to target an emerging breed of Brazilian consumers. Andrew Jack of the Financial Times reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hearing aid test We take new hearing aids out for a test drive after a fitting by audiologist Karen Allen. So how does the world sound in digital quality, amplified stereo?! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked Science Dr Chris Smith of The Naked Scientists has 3 discoveries with a medical theme. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China: cooking oil scandal and million dollar sheep China correspondent Malcolm Moore on the latest food scandal. One in 10 restaurants in China are reportedly using cooking oil recycled from the sewers! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: iCloud and Blackberry crumble The latest from the world of technology with correspondent Peter Griffin. This week the launch of Apple's cloud computing service called iCloud. Plus Blackberry's crumble- why did the Blackberry system crash and what are the implications? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Homebrew 2: Kitting up Homebrewer turned commercial brewer Stu McKinlay of Yeastie Boys checks out our starter kit before we lay down a brew. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Perfect Kilo The official kilogram weight- a lump of metal carefully stored under a bell jar in a Parisian vault- is getting lighter. So scientists are working on new ways to define it. Jonathon Keats has travelled the world in search of the perfect kilogram for Wired magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crowd counting Accurately estimating the number of people in a crowd is a tricky but important task for all sorts of reasons; for safety, for policing, even for the media who want to report the numbers right. Curt Westergard of Digital Design & Imaging Service, Inc, counts crowds for a living. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Birds Pukeko Bird buff Hugh Robertson on the pukeko. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Luna Ring Patrick Tucker's visited Japan to speak to the people behind an ambitious plan to harvest solar power on the moon and beam this back down to earth. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Antibiotic issues Dr Martin Blaser from New York University reckons the friendly flora living in and on our bodies never recover fully from antibiotic treatments. He says this is creating all sorts of other health problems. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Litre of light Illac Diaz is working on a project to bring free light to 15,000 homes in the Philippines. It uses no electricity, and all you need is water, some bleach and an old soda bottle! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hearing aid choices In-ear, behind-the-ear, or open fitting? We're shopping for hearing aids with audiologist Karen Allen of Bay Audiology. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Smoking and appetite Professor Marina R. Picciotto of Yale University is leading research into how smoking affects appetite and why, on average, smokers weigh 2.5kg less than non-smokers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Container history (and container love!) A New Zealand history of the shipping container with Gavin McLean. Plus Christine Reitze of Container Love in Christchurch is trying to make the ugly metal boxes dotted round the city look more pretty. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Annoying The science of what bugs us. Joe Palca's just written a book called 'Annoying' with Flora Lichtmann. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Detecting fake reviews Rating and review websites are all over the internet these days. You can rate everything from your local cafe to a childcare centre but how can you tell if the review is real or just someone else's fake opinions? Myle Ott from Cornell University's developed software to tell if a review is genuine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked Science The latest science news with Dr Chris Smith of the Naked Scientists. This week, using Twitter to map the mood of the world, and the ultimate slippery surface that could be used to fight graffiti. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Homebrewing part 1 Can you make your own craft beer at home for a fraction of the cost of the stuff in shops and bars? That's the challenge, as we kick off a new homebrewing series with Stu McKinlay of Yeastie Boys. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LED internet Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh is developing an alternative to wifi that uses LED lights rather than radio waves to carry data. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Global history of whisky Kevin Kosar's written a global history of whisky drinking and its production. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Poisoned rhino horn Lorinda Hern's trialling a novel way to stop rhino poachers in South Africa. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Marae hearing clinic We drop into a mobile hearing clinic at Wainuiomata Marae. With hearing therapist Susan Lennie, Barney Ransfield and William Henare-Tekooti. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Copyright Act latest Tech correspondent Peter Griffin with the latest on the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act which came into force on 1st September. So what's the new act doing to international internet traffic, and has anyone got an infringement notice yet? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beehive fences Dr Lucy King is setting up a network of beehive fences to protect Kenyan farmers and their crops from hungry elephants. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website UK consumer news And before we go we're off to the UK with Chris Parkin where the mini skinless kiwifruit is hitting supermarket shelves, and used nappies are being used as roofing material. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked science: overconfidence and fatherhood Naked Science with Dr Chris Smith. This week, overconfidence and how fatherhood, and specifically caring for children, can make testosterone levels fall. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Air purifying jeans Sheffield University scientist Professor Tony Ryan is on a team making the world's first pair of air-purifying jeans. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lip balm support group Lip balm is the greasy stuff that stops our lips from cracking especially in cold weather. But some people are heavy users. With Kevin Crossman of Lip Balm Anonymous and consultant dermatologist Dr. Louise Reiche. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Recycling cigarette butts Curtis Baffico is offering US$6 a kilo for old cigarette butts. He's trying to kickstart a recycling industry for the trillions of them discarded around the world every year. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Oysters We're shucking oysters with Rachel Taulelei from Yellow Brick Road. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Shining cuckoo update A quick update on last week's story about sightings of the shining cuckoo. Listener Jen Calder may have made a startling discovery. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website MyMicrobes Lots of us have used social networks to find friends, jobs, and even love. Well now people with the same intestinal bacteria can hook up on a new social networking site! Mani Arumugam is a geneticist working for MyMicrobes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Birds: Shining cuckoo We're on the hunt for the rather devious shining cuckoo with birding expert Hugh Robertson. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Smartphone checking Tye Rattenbury works for Intel Labs in Portland, Oregon. He's studying the habit known as 'checking'; that's the repetitive and some would say obsessive checking of the device that smartphone addicts practice. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website LEDs and future of the lightbulb Dan Koeppel has been writing about the future of the lightbulb. With new LED technology predicted to account for nearly two-thirds of the market by 2020, we'll soon be buying bulbs that last for up to 20 years! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dance psychology How the way you dance can change the way you think, and why some dancers are so much more attractive to members of the opposite sex. Dr Peter Lovatt is the principal lecturer and reader in Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Captcha: Luis van Ahn Luis van Ahn is one of the inventors of the 'captcha'. They're that box of squiggly letters you have to decipher and type out. Now they're being used to digitise the world's books! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hearing challenge Audiologist Karen Allen of Bay Audiology reckons she can improve Simon's hearing with a hearing aid. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bargain Hunting Why pay retail? Todd Alexander shares his tips on how to save you thousands of dollars at the shops. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bacterial beginnings The Naked Scientist aka Dr Chris Smith beams in with the latest science news. This week, he looks at the origins of antibiotic resistance and the discovery of cooking. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barter Village John House is an American GP who got fed up with people not being able to pay their medical bills. So he's starting up a whole community called Barter Village based around the idea of producing things and swapping them for stuff you need. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Billsticking The Christchurch quakes have reduced the amount of display space on offer. This is making life tougher for Jamie Holloway of Phantom Billstickers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beer yeast Chris Todd Hittinger of the University of Wisconsin has made a discovery that solves a mystery that's been vexing brewers for ages. It's the secret of a special hybridised lager yeast that strangely appeared in Bavaria sometime in the 15th century allowing beer to be brewed at colder temperatures. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ballantynes bus We join Deb, Vincy and the rest of the Ballantynes crew on a coach trip south from Christchurch to its Timaru store. Its flagship store on City Mall has been shut since the February earthquake, so twice a week a convoy of coaches full of loyal customers does the 350km round trip. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Milk: Deborah Valenze Historian Deborah Valenze has written a history of milk. She looks at the way it's moved from being a luxury health product to become one of the world's first industrial foods. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Farmville demographics Naomi Alderman writes about the gaming industry and more in the Guardian. She looks at the hugely popular online farm game, Farmville, and how the profile of people playing these social games is changing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Online shopping with Trent Mankelow Trent Mankelow on the rise of online shopping and some of the challenges faced by bricks and mortar stores to survive. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trademark chat: Radler, vintage cheese and Bodum How can you trademark a word like 'vintage'? We speak to intellectual property lawyer Sally Peart of Mitchell Mackersy Lawyers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Molecular cooking: boiling vs frying First up this week we're cooking steak with Kent Kirshenbaum, who's an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at New York University. So what's going on at a molecular level when we fry and boil meat? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Belly button fluff Rob Dunn is running the Belly Button Biodiversity project. He's mapping the lifeforms residing in the world's belly buttons! Plus we get all cultured with microbiologist Mark Jones of Aotea Pathology. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Naked Scientists Dr Chris Smith beams in with the latest science news. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ears: Assistive technologies Joslyn Tjeerd looks at some of the assistive technologies on the market; basically gadgets that will amplify the sound that surrounds us. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: user's guide to new copyright law Peter Griffin with a user's guide to new copyright laws due to come into force on September 1st. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Self tracking Self tracking is a growing movement with people using modern technology to record and share personal health and medical data. Emily Singer of the Technology Review's been trying it out. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rugby shirts Blogger and journalist Hadyn Green on the controversy over the All Blacks World Cup jersey. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Birdwatching: Tui A spot of birdwatching with Hugh Robertson. The tui loves a spot of biffo and can sing just like a cellphone ringing! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Apps review: Books as apps Mark Cubey been playing with books as apps, including a multimedia version of T.S.Eliot's 'The Wasteland'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hormonal markets John Coates of Cambridge University reckons testosterone and investment decisions don't mix. He's calling for a bit more hormonal diversity in the financial sector. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Naked Scientist Chris Smith on garlic, making brains from skin and carbon dating humanity through sunshine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rubber John Tully is author of The Devils Milk - A Social History of Rubber, the substance that spurred on the industrial revolution and gave us the first superbrands. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Coffee Catcha Steve Guiness developed this system for saving valuable coffee when your barista is making your flat white. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website UK news We head to the UK to chat to ex-pat Kiwi Chris Parkin about pub jobs, selling your kidneys and technicolour cauliflowers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Saffron Alison Sandle on the yellowy orange spice that's worth more than gold but doesn't seem to taste of much. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Otolaryngologist Simon's hearing test is back and otolaryngologist Peter Blake will check if a hearing aid is needed. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Emerging tech Technology Review's top ten emerging technology picks. With editor-in chief Jason Pontin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chocolate nations Journalist Orla Ryan was based in Ghana for 2 years working as a journalist for Reuters. Her job was to report on the cocoa trade, a major industry with Ghana producing more than half the word's cocoa beans. We speak to her about her new book 'Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sushi chef David Gelb's the director of the documentary 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'. The Jiro in the title is Jiro Ono, the first sushi chef to win 3 Michelin stars. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news Bits and bytes from the hi tech world with Paul Brislen. This week, can you help transcribe Egyptian gossip? Plus the first retail pricing plans for the ultra-fast broadband network in Northland are announced. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Black Boxes The future of black boxes with Jerry Adler. The indestructible device that records nearly everything on a plane. After a crash the hunt's on to find them, but when we can easily get real time share prices and weather updates on a smartphone is the black box still the best way to capture plane crash data? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Balsamic Vinegar Balsamic vinegar; from the 100-year-old stuff that costs a grand a bottle to the cheapie 5 dollar bottle from the supermarket. We'll find out what's the difference and how it's made with Julie Clark of Floriditas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Towing icebergs Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University is working on a project to tow icebergs to the world's dry spots to solve the world's water woes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Secret History of Social Networking Part 3 The final part of The Secret History of Social Networking with Rory Cellan-Jones of the BBC. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Robot chugger A robotic charity collector called Don8r has been devised by design student Tim Pryde. Just imagine R2D2 shaking a charity tin in your neighbourhood! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Trends in banking/personal finance We're looking at new trends in banking and personal finance with Trent Mankelow the CEO and co-founder of Optimal Usability. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish: Gurnard Catching gurnard with Rachel Taulelei. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ears: Hearing test It's hearing test time with hearing therapist Verena Kibblewhite of the Hearing Association. And the results aren't quite what we were expecting. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scrabble words Two official bibles of the world of Scrabble- updated and definitive lists of each and every word you can play- have just come out. There's nearly 3000 new words- from Facebook to wagyu- but still no room for 'jandals'! Robert Groves is editor of 'Collins Official Scrabble Words' and 'Official Scrabble Lists'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Secret History of Social Networking (Part 2) BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones presents episode two of The Secret History of Social Networking. This week, the rise of Facebook; what made it so darn popular, and why did competitors like Bebo and My Space largely fall off the radar? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website TR-10 emerging technologies Jason Pontin, the editor-in-chief of the Technology Review, starts picking out 10 emerging technologies he thinks are most likely to shape the future and change our world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Angry Birds Angry Birds is the game that's had over 250 million downloads with 40 million active users every month. Mark Cubey's a fan and I'll ask him why such a seemingly obscure and trivial game has become such a massive success. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tracking drug users with GPS Helping recovering drug addicts in Baltimore with GPS units and electronic diaries. It's all part of an emerging discipline called behavioural geography, which looks at how physical places shape our behaviour. David H. Epstein of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tickling The world's first 'tickling spa' has opened in Madrid. Instead of getting a facial or a manicure, a massage therapist comes in and starts tickling you! Dr Chris Smith is a keen tickler and one of the Naked Scientists. We ask him some ticklish questions. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food additives: sweeteners We're back in the supermarket looking at more food additives with Matt Golding. This week, artificial sweeteners- things like saccharin and sucralose that are 200 or 300 times sweeter than sugar but with way fewer calories. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Secret History of Social Networking Part 1 BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones traces the story of social networking from the early days of computing and the 60s counterculture, through to today's mega-corporations worth billions of dollars. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wheat 'Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History' is a new book by author Bill Laws. This week, he singles out wheat from his list. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Soy Many food labels show the presence of soy in our food, often in unexpected places. So is there actually more soy in our food system or is something else going on? With food technologist Torben Sorensen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Disfluent fonts Connor Diemand-Yauman is the lead author of a study showing that making something harder to read helps you remember more information. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pigeon wars For the past 8 years, London's been waging war on the masses of pigeons that congregate around Trafalgar Square. The solution's not been a high tech one either as the city's gone all medieval on these winged critters! With London correspondent Chris Parkin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Digital Yellow River Jonathan Watts lives in China where the north is struggling with one of its worst droughts in decades. It's got so bad the authorities are trying to solve the problem using a hi-tech water rationing system that centralises control of China's second longest river. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Feedback Loops Feedback loops are powerful tools to change people's behaviour. The classic example is the sign that flashes up your speed or tells you to slow down when you're driving. Thomas Goetz, the executive editor of Wired Magazine, has been looking at how feedback loops work, and where they're showing up in a consumer context. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wicked Bugs We're on the hunt for the world's most wicked bugs with Amy Stewart. Amy's the writer of 'Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and other Diabolical Insects'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tour de France Ned Boulting been covering the world's biggest cycle race for years. It starts this weekend and he's become so infatuated with the Tour he's just written 'How I Won the Yellow Jumper'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Online trolls Claire Hardaker of Lancaster University studies online trolls and has been trawling through millions of words of their trolling. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ears: Earwax We find out what earwax is, why we secrete it, and some of the ways to get rid of it. With Libby Cossar of the Hearing Association. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Beer scene We're looking at the local beer scene with beer buff Martin Craig of nzbeerblog.com. The big mass-produced brands still dominate the landscape but the number of small, craft breweries and independent ale houses is growing fast. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chicken plucking Food technologist Torben Sorensen of Sorensen Laboratories on how chickens get plucked on a large scale, commercial production line. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Periodic Tales Hugh Aldersey-Williams is the author of 'Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements'. It's a compendium of stories about the elements that surround us. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pharmageddon In the US tens of thousands of people are dying from prescription drug overdoses every year. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian's been to Florida where some doctors have turned pill-pushers, work for drug gangs, and earn a cool US$25,000 a day! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Deal-a-day websites Rakesh 'Rocky' Agrawal is a product and marketing strategist who sees problems ahead for the deal-a-day website. We look at the economics of how these websites work, and find out who wins and who loses, and whether they can be sustainable. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cockroach healing The healing powers of cockroaches; yes, cockroaches! Scientists are making some amazing discoveries about powerful anti-bacterial molecules inside the cockroach's tiny brain. With Dr Naveed Khan of Aga Khan University in Pakistan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website World's hottest chilli Australian sauce-maker Alex de Wit claims to be growing the hottest chilli in the world, the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Question Box Bringing the power of the internet search engine to people without access to computers. We're speaking to Question Box's founder Rose Shuman. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Facebook, smartphones Paul Brislen, our tech correspondent, on: a decline in the number of Facebook users in the US and the UK; BBC's media player the iPlayer goes global and; Iceland's using a wiki to encourage its citizens to have an input in their new constitution. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website UK news London cabbies are worrying about the state of the traffic more than a year out from the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. Plus the Incredible Case of the Shrinking Shopping Trolley; loads of products from bars of chocolate to bars of soap are getting smaller. With Chris Parkin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Electric car sounds The electric car is on its way, but will you hear it coming? They're so quiet that for safety reasons the auto industry has to give them artificial noises. Professor Paul Jennings of Warwick University is trying to decide what the cars of the future will sound like. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cyber security Every week it seems there's another high profile organisation getting attacked by renegade groups with names like Anonymous or Lulzsec. So what's going on? Are there more hacker attacks or are they just getting more coverage? With global cyber security expert Rafal Rohozinski. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Salty shake-up It's an ingredient every kitchen has... we're shaking it down with salt. Julie Clark of Floriditas on the difference between rock, flaky and table salts. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vertical streets The hanging gardens of...Melbourne? A new 35-storey apartment block is about to go up with big gardens on every sixth floor with 10 metre tall trees, lawns and maybe even a few veggie plots! Robert Caulfield of CK Designworks is the architect of the project. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Digital remembrance David Quiring of Quiring Monuments in Seattle is a funeral director using QR codes to offer his clients a new way to remember their loved ones. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hackers One in four hackers in America is working for the FBI! That's according to an investigation by Ed Pilkington of the Guardian Newspaper. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: fuchsias We're foraging for fuchsias with Johanna Knox. The flowers are OK but the berries are really tasty! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sandwich- a global history Bee Wilson's a food historian who's just written 'Sandwich: A Global History'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish fraud Beth Lowell of Oceana. It's a not-for-profit ocean advocacy group that's just published a report suggesting that up to 70 percent of some fish species sold in US restaurants and supermarkets have been swapped for something else, often cheaper fillets. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China: Gold farming and smoking ban Malcolm Moore in China where there's a smoking ban but no real penalties. So as you can imagine it's not really working! Plus prisoners are being made to play computer games. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Video game ratings How video games get an age rating. You can play them for weeks without progressing through every level of the game. So how can the censors be sure they've seen all the potentially dodgy stuff? With Seth Schiesel of the New York Times and Nic McCully and Danny Wolters from the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food questions: Chocolate Two chocolate-related questions; why adding water to melted chocolate makes it seize up. And what's that whiteish residue that's on some chocolate when you open it? With food scientist Torben Sorensen. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: cellphone study and Google Wallet Peter Griffin on Google's plans to relieve you of your wallet. Plus a new study on the potential dangers of cellphone use comes out with some pretty ambiguous findings. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Speech analysis With US pro sports being a multi-billion dollar business, teams don't want to make a bad call and select the wrong young player. Now Roger Hall of Achievement Metrics says it can analyse a young player's speech to predict their athletic ability. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kaimoana: Surf clams There are lots of different surf clams here in New Zealand- trough clams, moonshell clams, diamond-shell clams and of course tuatuas, to name just a few. With Rachel Taulelei of Yellow Brick Road. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Train doctor Elsdon Arnold is a model train collector based in Manawatu. But he doesn't just collect Hornby trains. He also builds his own scale models and fixes other people's when they're broken. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website All-natural insect repellent Marc Dolan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Colorado is working on a new natural insect repellent that's meant to be just as effective as DEET. Even better, this stuff- nootkatone- is so safe you can eat and drink it! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Roasting chestnuts We're roasting chestnuts with street vendor William Beauchamp. But these sweet or edible chestnuts- not to be confused with conkers- can be a hard sell to New Zealanders. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website High alcohol wines The alcohol level of many wines is now up at 14 or even 15 percent. We're speaking to wine writer Mike Steinberger of Slate.com about what's going on, and getting a more local perspective from Kirsten Creasy, who's a senior tutor in Oenology at Lincoln University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website DIY cheese maturing Listener Robert wants to save cash by buying a block of mild cheese and maturing it in the plastic wrapper at home. So can he turn mild cheese into tasty himself? With Rod Bennett of Massey University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pests: Slugs On the slimy trail of some slugs with pest controller Paul Chapman. Plus Mike Wilson of Agresearch knows all about slugs' lifestyles and the best ways to kill them. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Small Homes Some folk are taking the idea of downsizing pretty seriously and choosing to live in tiny spaces of 10 square meters and less. Gregory Paul Johnson is the founder and director of the Small House Society. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spices: Chilli Alison Sandle spices things up with chilli. It's a huge and varied branch of the capsicum family and includes everything from the hottest habaneros and nagas to red and green peppers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: broadband plan and copyright Paul Brislen on important changes to the government's ultra fast broadband initiative. Plus libraries threaten to stop offering internet access because of changes to copyright law that come into force in September. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website All-wood bicycle Michael Thompson aims to break a world land speed record on his wooden bicycle. This weekend, at a secret location, Michael puts his Splinter Bike to its ultimate test. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cheesy questions Rod Bennett from Massey University on what the liquid is that collects in cottage cheese when you take a spoonful out and leave it overnight. Plus what is the real difference between mild and tasty cheese? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Peruvian anthem and Cuban coffee Peru's national anthem could be changed because it's too gloomy and depressing! Plus the Cuban government is adding peas to its coffee rations. Correspondent Rory Carroll of the Guardian explains why. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hunting Kiwis project Helen Leggatt's started photographing Canterbury's earthquake-damaged cemetery headstones. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Papermaking with harakeke Andrew Reilly of Tenax Papers in Bulls hand-makes paper from harakeke or flax, something New Zealanders have been doing since 1861. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cycling standing or sitting? We hop on a hi-tech racing bike in a human performance sports lab with lecturer Phil Fink of Massey University. So what's the difference between pedalling a bike sitting down in the saddle versus standing on the pedals? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bicycles: Robert Penn 'It's all about the bike' for Robert Penn. Robert's a lifelong bike nut who's been assembling his dream ride and explores the history, design and culture of the bicycle in the process. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food questions: Canning More food questions with Professor Julian Heyes of Massey University. What does the canning process do to the vitamin and nutritional content of tinned fruit and veg? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Green gyms Hudson Harr of ReRev is one of those behind the 'green gym' movement in the US. These gyms are generating power from their training equipment and spin classes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Perfume Francesca Brice and Kate Jason Smith of Pacific Perfumes try to make people smell good for a living. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish: Flounder The flounder has four fillets, eats crabs and lives in muddy estuaries. With Rachel Taulelei. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sneakers, trainers, sandshoes We're kicking it with sneaker pimp Lee Gibson. Lee designs sneakers, trainers, kicks (delete as applicable) and we're looking at how their design has evolved over the years and what the trainers of the future might look like. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Roadable aircraft- Terrafugia The Terrafugia Transition is a 'roadable aircraft'; a car that flies or to put it another way a plane that can be driven on the road. Its inventor is Carl Dietrich. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pasta: history and fresh vs dried The history of pasta with Professor John Dickie of University College London, and we taste test a selection of penne pasta with Julie Clark of Floriditas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Artificial sweeteners Carolyn De La Pena has written 'Empty Pleasures'; it's a history of artifical sweeteners from aspartame to saccharin (a byproduct of the coal industry by the way!). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food additives: humectants and anti-caking agents We're shopping for more food additives with food scientist Matt Golding. This week, what are anti-caking agents and humectants and what are they doing in the stuff we eat? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pro facemasks Jeremy Murray makes protective facemasks for injured pro sports people. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gocta Falls, Peru Imagine going for a walk in the bush and discovering the third tallest waterfall on the planet. Well this didn't happen hundreds of years ago, but in 2005 in Peru to a German economist. Journalist Joshua Foer reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gocta Falls, Peru Imagine going for a walk in the bush and discovering the third tallest waterfall on the planet. Well this didn't happen hundreds of years ago, but in 2005 in Peru to a German economist. Journalist Joshua Foer reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The real life of mannequins Glen Wilkin-Holland makes mannequins for a living at Purfex in Auckland. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Apps review: Food We review some apps - little bits of application software for your smartphone or PC- with a food-related flavour with apps designer Sam Jarman. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Freezing cream Why can't you whip cream after you've frozen it and is there anything you can do at home to solve the problem? Matt Golding of Massey with the answers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gaming news: Wii2? The big news from the world of computer gaming with Keith Stuart and rumours that the games giant Nintendo is launching a new version of its revolutionary Wii gaming console. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lost shipping containers Andrew DeVogelaere is studying what the thousands of shipping containers that fall overboard every year are doing to the environment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Madhur Jaffrey Actress and best-selling author Madhur Jaffrey has been one of the most influential people in taking Indian cookery to a global audience. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Musty smells The musty smell of old books is somehow strangely reassuring. But Dr Lorraine Gibson of Strathclyde University thinks it could be an early warning signal that something's up. She's aiming to stop the rot with her portable electronic sniffer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mayonnaise The creamy emulsion that's great with a cheese and tomato sandwich. We're making mayonnaise with Maggie Forest. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Biodegradeable golf balls Professor David Neivandt's working on a new type of biodegradeable golf ball made from lobster shells. It's never been so environmentally sound to have a rotten golf swing! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Elevator giving New research shows people are more likely to act kindly if they've just gone up some stairs or an escalator! Larry Sanna of the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina led the study. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pests: cockroaches We exterminate a German cockroach infestation with pest controller Paul Chapman, and entomologist Allen Heath dances la cucaracha. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Star anise Star anise has been loved by Chinese cooks for millenia, and these days it's infusing its way into global cuisine. Alison Sandle with more. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Honeybee highway Chris Parkin beams in from the UK where there are plans to get more pollination happening in the countryside with dedicated green highways for honeybees. Plus street party plans for the Royal Wedding heat up. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech: new copyright law Tech commentators Paul Brislen and Peter Griffin talk about recent changes to New Zealand's copyright law. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: purslane More free food with our friendly forager Johanna Knox. Purslane's a succulent that's one of the richest plant sources of omega-3. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Game butcher: deer Game butcher Darren Meates shows us some of the finer points of butchering a stag. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Self-chilling cans Professor Roland Clift from the University of Surrey is involved in developing a self-chilling can. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Watery chicken? Why is water seeping out of Martin's chicken when he cooks it? Food technologist Torben Sorensen on the chances that it could be being injected with water. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China: billboards and military pigeons Malcolm Moore on a Beijing ban on some billboards advertising luxury goods. Plus China's military turns to carrier pigeons as a backup communications system. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Carrotmob New Zealand's about to experience its first ever 'carrotmob' at a Wellington cafe. Connie Nisbet and Ben Gleisner are two of the people behind the event. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spices: Cumin The spice that's handy for treating horse flatulence. And it's also not too bad in a chilli either! With spice specialist Alison Sandle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Radiation in food Why was spinach one of the first foods on the banned list after the radiation leaks following the Japanese tsunami? With radiation expert Dr Peter Roberts. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bee allergies The Backyard Bee Team runs into some major problems. The head beekeper (aka Simon) is allergic to bees! With Frank and Mary Ann Lindsay and immunology consultant Richard Steele. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Quinoa crisis Demand for quinoa from consumers in the US and Europe means that regular Bolivians are struggling to afford this healthy grain. Adam Sherwin reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Freeview, Google Books and eBooks Peter Griffin on Freeview's expanded High Definition service and the Google Books settlement that isn't. Then an extended look at eBooks in New Zealand libraries with John Stears and Jason Murphy of Wellington City Libraries. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sherry Turkle: Alone Together Sherry Turkle is a psychologist and MIT professor who studies how people's personal relationships are being affected by digital technology in her book 'Alone Together'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Listener loopaper lament Some rather delicate questions about toilet paper from a listener. Does more money always equal greater softness? And what are the drawbacks of using scratchy sandpaper on your derriere? Professor Geoff Duffy from the University of Auckland knows his paper. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gaming: Nintendo 3DS, Homefront, Yoostar 2 The latest gaming news with Keith Stuart of the Guardian. Nintendo launches a handheld 3D gaming console called the 3DS (without the silly specs). Plus we're reviewing two new games- Homefront and Yoostar 2. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Uganda banana blight Uganda's trying to find a genetically-modified solution to a disease that's decimating its banana crop. Xan Rice reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Zero waste fashion A new exhibition is highlighting the work of 'zero waste' designers who try to avoid the traditional 15 percent of fabric wastage in their designs. We speak to designer Jennifer Whitty and curator Holly McQuillan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paua More fruits of the sea with Rachel Taulelei of Yellow Brick Road. This week we look at paua, the mollusc you're most likely to find on a rock or in a fritter. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Favela Express The Brazilian government's just invested in a network of cable cars to carry commuters and tourists high above Rio de Janeiro's slums or favelas. Nate Berg reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news - IE9 and telco legislation Tech commentator Paul Brislen beams in to chat about the launch of the latest version of Microsoft's Explorer web browser-called IE9. Plus Google rejigs the way it lists search results, and a proposed amendment to the Telecommunications Act. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wine and music Markus Bachmann plays music to his wine as it ferments as he reckons the soundwaves affect the yeast and make it taste better. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wrinkly fruit and eating the skins Professor Julian Heyes answers more listener food questions. This week, should we be eating the skins of our fruit and veggies? Also is the fruit we're buying nowadays less likely to rot? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sauces - Tomato Ketchup Maggie Forest is back with more sauces and condiments. This week, we're making tomato ketchup. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The inventor of the Ugg boot? In the 60s, Shane Stedman was an Aussie surfer with cold feet who decided to wrap his chilly toes in a sheepskin bootie. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Smallest engraving by hand Graham Short has managed to engrave the words 'Nothing Is Impossible' on the cutting edge of a razor blade. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spam Study Chris Kanich has been studying how many people respond to spam emails and end up buying something. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Seawater greenhouses Charlie Paton is using greenhouses cooled with seawater to grow food in some of the most inhospitable places on earth. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fairtrade gold Kate Carter of the Guardian on the jewellers in the UK who are teaming up to produce Fairtrade gold. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cat food conundrum How much food does a 4.5kg cicada-eating cat need?! Nick Cave of Massey University has the answer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website UK news: product placement and no logo ciggies Chris Parkin lives in the UK where product placement on TV gets the go-ahead and logos are coming off cigarette packets. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pests: Fleas We're on the hunt for fleas with pest controller Paul Chapman and bug man Allen Heath. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Global Denim At any moment it's estimated that about half the world's population is wearing jeans. But why? Daniel Miller's one of the editors of 'Global Denim' (Berg). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Broken River Days after the city of Christchurch was devastated by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, This Way Up's presenter Simon Morton traverses the city using the Avon River as his route. Travelling on a bicycle from the source of the Avon in the West to Heathcote Estuary in the East, where the Avon meets the Pacific, everyone has a story to tell. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China: Water and power Jonathan Watts beams in from China where the worst drought in 60 years is threatening wheat production. It's also encouraging huge desalination plants and water diversion schemes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pickle Juice Kevin Miller of North Dakota State University is onto a miracle cure for muscle cramp. Pickle juice! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Earthquake uses and iPad 2 Our tech/science correspondent Peter Griffin takes a look at technology use after the Christchurch earthquake. Plus version 2 of the iPad. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Broken River Days after the city of Christchurch was devastated by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, This Way Up's presenter Simon Morton traverses the city using the Avon River as his route. Travelling on a bicycle from the source of the Avon in the West to Heathcote Estuary in the East, where the Avon meets the Pacific, everyone has a story to tell. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Broken River extended version Days after the city of Christchurch was devastated by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, This Way Up's presenter Simon Morton traverses the city using the Avon River as his route. Travelling on a bicycle from the source of the Avon in the West to Heathcote Estuary in the East, where the Avon meets the Pacific, everyone has a story to tell. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Traffic lights We're looking at traffic lights with traffic engineer Wayne King (Hutt City Council) and Tim Kirby (Wellington City Council). So how do they work and why do they change when they do? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Crowdsourcing journalism Jim Giles is seeing if writing a good news article can be automated and crowdsourced. The only problem is it could put him out of business! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Limerick dictionary Chris Strolin is the Editor-in-Chief of the OEDILF. That's the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Meat eating clocks Jimmy Loizeau is designing a new breed of domestic appliances that 'eat' insects to power themselves. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Raw milk smuggling The shady world of raw milk smuggling. Amish and Mennonite farmers are illegally supplying the white unpasteurised stuff to New York foodies. Jordan Heller of the Daily has the story. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish: Trevally We're filleting trevally with Rachel Taulelei. Trevally's an affordable and versatile fish that's mostly exported to the Middle East. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Anti-virus phone calls Have you had a phone call from somebody saying that your computer has a virus and offering to fix it for you? So are these calls scams and what should you do if you get one? With Paul Brislen, Dr Mark Rees (Microsoft) and Richard Parlett (Ministry of Consumer Affairs). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Japan: manga and toilet games Justin McCurry lives in Japan where manga characters have inspired a wave of anonymous giving. Plus the computer game you play while you go to the toilet. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website High speed travel An ambitious plan to create a transport network of high-speed and ultra fuel-efficient vehicles using vacuum tubes. Peter Maskus of Acabion is the engineer behind the project. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pests: Wasps We're on the hunt for wasps with pest controller Paul Chapman and our regular bug man Allen Heath. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Recreational tree climbing Peter 'Treeman' Jenkins is a retired rock climber turned tree surgeon and in 1983 he founded Tree Climbers' International and opened the world's first tree climbing school in Atlanta, Georgia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fonts: Simon Garfield From Arial to Webdings, we're speaking to Simon Garfield who's written Just My Type: A Book About Fonts (Profile Books). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Weeds: Richard Mabey Richard Mabey talks about his book 'Weeds: How Vagabond Plants Gatecrashed Civilisation And Changed The Way We Think About Nature'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sahara Forest Project BIll Watts of the Sahara Forest Project, a plan to turn the Sahara Desert into productive agricultural land. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website London calling UK news with expat kiwi Chris Parkin. London gets a makeover before the big Royal Wedding and calls for a ban on Chinese lanterns. Plus a crematorium using the heat it produces to warm up the local swimming pool! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hangover cure Professor Michael Oshinsky of Thomas Jefferson University's been hunting for the perfect hangover cure. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food additives: Gasses Gas in our foods and not just in fizzy drinks either. There's gas in meat and ice cream too....yum! With Associate Professor Matt Golding of Massey University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Digital Beyond Evan Carroll is one of the co-founders of Digital Beyond, a website advising people what to do with digital identities after death. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Superbowl heart attacks Robert Kloner's a cardiologist who's found that deaths due to heart attacks can rise during major sporting events. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Soup: A Global History Janet Clarkson has just written a global history of soup. From Vietnamese pho to a hearty chowder she reckons soup is one of the world's truly universal dishes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fantasy doctor Stephania Bell of ESPN is doctor on call for millions of fantasy American football players. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Plumpy'nut The story of Plumpy'nut: a fortified peanut paste that's saving starving kids in the developing world. So who should profit? Andrew Rice of the New York Times reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Facebook and ACS:Law Bill Thompson on Facebook's plans to introduce its own currency for the millions of people who play games inside the social networking site. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: Harakeke Foraging for harakeke or New Zealand flax with Johanna Knox. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cuba broadband Cuba, one of the least connected coutries in the world, is about to get ultra-fast broadband via an undersea cable from Venezuela. Rory Carroll reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Health and Fitness Apps Richard MacManus with the latest applications for monitoring your health. Plus the new Radio New Zealand app. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Headaches: causes and cures Consultant neurologist Dr Paul Timmings on what causes headaches and migraines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Digital heirlooms Richard Banks of Microsoft on preserving our digital memories for future generations. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mental diet Carey Morewedge of Carnegie Mellon University on his study into how imagining eating food could make you eat less. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Chocolate wars Author Deborah Cadbury on the early British chocolate industry and the Quaker business model. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Festive Leftovers Roger Cook of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority on how long we should hang on to our Christmas turkey and ham. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rock Lobster: Crayfish We look at the crayfish with Rachel Taulelei, how it develops and how to prepare it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Indian micro-saving Meena Kadri in Mumbai on a savings scheme for the poorest people in Dharavi slum. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cyberwars and ultrafast NZ broadband Ben Gracewood with the latest on the cyberwar surrounding Wikileaks. Plus the plans for ultrafast broadband roll out in New Zealand. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Worcestershire sauce Our resident sauce queen Maggie Forrest on the origins and ingredients of worcestershire sauce. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website London calling We head to the UK to chat to expat journo Chris Parkin. The world's hottest chilli, cloned meat and dirty magazines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Smart Phones New Scientist writer Jim Giles on data problems when using smart phones in urban areas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Oldest Book Frances Wood of the British Library on the restoration of the Diamond Sutra, a book printed in 868 AD. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Snacks Hunger and snacking explained by Professor Roger Lentle of Massey University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: Elderflower We're foraging for free food with Johanna Knox. This week, we get cordial on the hunt for elderflower. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ghost nets Discarded fishing nets that remain fishing in the Pacific ocean and killing wildlife. Kris McElwee is the Pacific Islands Marine Debris Coordinator. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website India: Bollywood Italian job and wedding detectives Bollywood are remaking classic 60s film 'The Italian Job'. Plus parents are hiring detectives ahead of family marriages. Jason Burke reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Digital distractions Matt Richtel of the New York Times on how technology can challenge our ability to focus and learn, especially in regards to young people. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sweet cat food Vet Nick Cave of Massey University responds to a listener enquiry about levels of sugar in cat food. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nice lice The evolution of lice with David Reed of the Florida Museum of Natural History. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news Bill Thompson on an EU investigation into Google plus Rupert Murdoch plans to launch a daily newspaper for the iPad. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Coupons The humble coupon has evolved into consumer bargain hunting websites. Matt Schwartz of Wired magazine on retail hacking. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Learning through gaming The school in New York that's designed its curriculum around computer gaming principles. Katie Salen is behind the programme. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The fall of French cuisine? French cuisine has slid down the global league of gastronomic excellence according to author Mike Steinberger. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wine additives What's sulphur doing in our wine? Kirsten Creasy's a senior tutor of Oenology at Lincoln University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Collaborative consumption Rachel Botsman's coined the term 'collaborative consumption' to describe the emerging economy based on sharing, borrowing and swapping goods and services, from power tools to accomodation. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish: Groper - Hapuka Groper's a flaky fish that's also known as hapuka, and is similar to sea bass. With Rachel Taulelei of Yellow Brick Road. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Weather derivatives Predicting the weather can make you cash, lots of cash! Bill Windle is president of the Weather Risk Management Association. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mix and Mash Remixing New Zealand culture with Courtney Johnston, one of the organisers of the Mix and Mash competition. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish oil capsules We're looking at fish oil capsules with Associate Professor Marie Wong of Massey University. So are they all the same, how do you make them, and what does 'molecularly distilled' mean? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website London calling We head to the UK to chat to expat journo Chris Parkin. Cycle to work schemes, reindeer meat, and free cheese for the Irish. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kettle test results The lab test results are back. Plus a more detailed explanation of how kettle discolouration happens with Chris Nokes of ESR. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Professional organiser Galit Maxwell de-clutters people's homes for a living. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Gail Steketee Gail Steketee's been studying compulsive hoarding for years. She's just written 'Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding And The Meaning Of Things'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Black Ops and gamification The launch of the computer game 'Tour Of Duty: Black Ops' has been huge. Plus how life's turning into one big game; it's called gamification. Keith Stuart of the Guardian reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Translating the web The search is on to automatically translate the world wide web into your mother tongue. Plus how cell phones are being used to predict flu outbreaks. Jim Giles of the New Scientist reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Honeybee Democracy Thomas Seeley's book 'Honeybee Democracy' looks at why bees swarm in the spring and the decision-making processes that go on when thousands of bees and a queen decide to leave their hive and find a new home. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumble bees Out and about with pest controller Paul Chapman from Pestproof, and this week a call-out to a house with a bumble bee nest that's bugging the neighbours. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tide tables Rob Bell of NIWA explains how he can make tide forecasts going into next century. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Apps: personal productivity tools Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb.com looks at personal productivity apps; from online calendars to digital to-do lists. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The kettle's black! Does your stainless steel cordless kettle have a discoloured ring on the inside? We find out what it is with John Fairclough, Cliff Carr and Dr David Weatherburn. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Product design Product designer Dick Powell has designed everything from the cordless kettle to a hydrogen-powered motorbike. The changing role of the product designer in a digital and more environmentally conscious age. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ah-Choo!: the uncommon life of the common cold Writer Jennifer Ackerman's been deliberately catching colds all in the name of research for her book. She looks at some of the weird and wonderful tests for how colds spread- including the one hour kissing test- and whether any of the remedies out there actually work. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: cyberbullying and Facebook Bill Thompson on a new US plan to crack down on cyber-bullying and Facebook takes its location-based services to another level. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Silverbeet stalks and growing under glass Professor Julian Heyes of Massey University answers more food-related questions. Including, will growing veg under plastic or glass effect their nutritional value? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ginger and galangal Alison Sandle on two fragrant rhizomes rooted in Asian cooking. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Time to shop? Professor Karen Pine is studying how women's spending habits are influenced by their menstrual cycles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food questions: dark chutney Louise's chutney's looking a bit off colour. Sam Heenan of Otago University reckons he knows what's going on. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: Jasmine We're foraging for jasmine with Johanna Knox. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website History of artificial light Jane Brox has looked at our relationship with artificial light and how it's shaping our lives in her new book,"Brilliant". Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website NZ pies in the USA Alka Patel's an expat New Zealander who's trying to wean Americans off apple pies and convince them that savoury pies really are a good idea! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Golf by the numbers Every golf shot on the PGA Tour is getting recorded using lasers and logged on Shotlink's giant database; it has over 7 million golf shots stored away. Michael Agger's been to see the Shotlink system in action. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Buyer's guide to cricket bats The cricket season's upon us- ah, the sound of leather on willow! But do you go English or Kashmir willow? Scott Lindsay of Kilbirnie Sports with our buyer's guide to cricket bats. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Driverless cars With big players like GM and Google getting serious about the driverless car, we ask Raja Sengupta how soon human drivers could be taking a back seat. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ultrafast broadband and Windows Phone 7 Ben Gracewood with the latest on the government's ultra-fast broadband plans. Plus Microsoft makes a belated entry into the smart phone market. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Buyer's guide to tennis rackets Anyone for tennis? Greg Jolliffe with a buyer's guide for tennis rackets. So do you go hollow core, graph-alu or composite? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Online travel review Chris Parkin with consumer news from the UK. New Zealand lamb gets a bit of bad publicity. Plus nearly 800 hotels and B and amp;Bs fight back against TripAdvisor.com, one of the world's biggest travel review web sites. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The beautiful game? After the recent acrimonious takeover of Liverpool Football Club and with Manchester United's star striker Wayne Rooney agitating for a transfer, the Guardian's football correspondent David Conn on what's up with the English Premier League. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bee team expansion The Backyard Bee Team goes into expansion mode. After a bumper honey harvest last year, bee mentor David Carleton helps us move in a new hive. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cuddly toy tours Denis Gerber will take your cuddly toy on holiday in Paris and send you the photos to prove it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Digital Radio How far away is New Zealand from launching a digital radio service like they've got in the US, the UK, Australia and Korea? Aaron Olphert from Kordia knows. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wendyl Nissen Wendyl Nissen's spent the past year trying to live more simply- a bit like her granny used to. She shares some of her natural recipes for things like sunscreen and cleaning products. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Apps review: check-in apps Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb looks at some of the big check-in apps out there. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Champion porridge maker Scotsman Neal Robertson has just been crowned the world champion porridge maker. His secret weapon is a stirring implement called a spon. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Right to bear arms Anna Fifield visits the only city in the US where gun ownership's not just a constitutional right; it's compulsory! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Taking the pith? Professor Julian Heyes answers more culinary conundrums. This week, do you have to wash fruit and veggies before you eat them? Plus should you eat the pith and peel you find on mandarins and oranges? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Kimchi crisis Brett Cole reports from South Korea where a cabbage shortage has seen kimchi prices jump by 500 percent. Plus we find out Mrs Ahn's secret recipe for this fermented cabbage dish. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food additives: thickeners Guar, locust bean and xanthan gums are all food thickeners. Matt Golding joins us in the aisles to tell us what they are and how they work. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Caviar: a global history Caviar retails for about 20,000 NZ dollars a kilo and the real McCoy comes from the giant sturgeon found in the Caspian and Black seas. Food writer and historian Nichola Fletcher has just written its global history. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spicy stuff Professor Paul Rozin has been examining what possesses so many people to eat hot, spicy foods. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Snail Trail Keen gardener, grandmother and amateur scientist Ruth Brooks has just proved that snails have a homing instinct. Plus ecology professor Steve Wratten has tips for the home gardener on how to keep slugs and snails at bay. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pet blood bank We visit New Zealand's only pet blood bank in Manawatu where Neil and Sandy Marshall bleed cats, dogs and the odd alpaca! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Plastic fantastic Peter Lewis is turning plastic rubbish into building blocks in Dunedin. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Email discount offers Daily emails offering you mouth-watering bargains on everything from ice creams to ski passes are becoming a part of many people's inbox traffic. Sheldon Nesdale is looking at the sector: so how does it work and what can you do when things go wrong? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Carnivorous plants Peter D'Amato's the man behind one of the largest carnivorous plant retailers in the world. He has literally thousands of these for sale, and they're all hungry! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news Bill Thompson on the lawyer's letters being sent to lots of UK computer users who are suspected of downloading a few tracks illegally or watching a bit of porn on the home PC. Plus the words on Google's blacklist- from amateur to yiffy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Whitebait Whitebait's the fingerling that's lovely fried. Continuing our fish series with Rachel Taulelei. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spencer Wells - birth of farming Spencer Wells is the author of 'Pandora's Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilisation'. In it he suggests the most important moment in human history was when we stopped hunting and gathering and started growing our own food. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Should you stretch before exercise? You'll often see joggers, cyclists and footy players bending and stretching enthusiastically before starting any physical activity. But does all this limbering up actually achieve anything? Malachy McHugh's been reviewing a decade's worth of stretching research. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Book: When A Billion Chinese Jump Jonathan Watts lives in Beijing and in his book 'When A Billion Chinese Jump' he looks at how the developed world's appetite for consumer goods is transforming China's environment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Falling iPod sales and the music biz iPod sales are on the decline and so are paid digital downloads. Charles Arthur, the technology editor at the Guardian, looks at the implications for the music industry. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Male lamb taste taint? Culinary questions and food facts and is there a taste difference (aka a ram taint) between male and female lamb meat? Dr Nicola Schreurs is a lecturer in Ruminant Nutrition at Massey University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vinegar We're tasting vinegars with Maggie Forest. So what's the difference between a cheap balsamic vinegar and something more pricey off the top shelf? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website GM salmon Will the US approve the world's first genetically modified animal for human consumption? Writer Paul Greenberg's been following the story of the AquAdvantage salmon, designed to grow twice as quickly as conventional salmon. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ants as pests We tackle ants from a slightly different perspective - as a household pest. Pest controller Paul Chapman heads out with us on the hunt for a colony of white-footed ants in someone's home. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Adventures Among Ants: Mark Moffett Mark Moffett's a bit like an insect-loving Indiana Jones who's been all over the world studying and photographing ants for his new book 'Adventures Among Ants'. We're speaking about the amazingly intricate social structures these tiny creatures inhabit. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: IE9, digital TV and Nokia Bill Thompson beams in with news of the beta launch of Microsoft's new web browser Internet Explorer 9. Plus switching over from analog to digital TV, and Nokia attempts to turn its fortunes around. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food: fresh vs frozen veggies? Fresh or frozen veggies: which are most nutritious? And why is vegetable oil being applied to our dried fruit? Professor Julian Heyes of Massey University has the answers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Your brain on computers What happens when 5 neuroscientists head into a remote area of Utah without cellphones, emails or laptops? Matt Richtel's watching the start of some research into how technology changes the way we think and behave. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website History of NZ restaurants We're dining out on the history of the restaurant in New Zealand with food historian Perrin Rowland. She's been studying how the local dining scene has evolved from Maori markets, through hotel dining rooms, wine bars, and BYO to today's smorgasbord of different cuisines. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Google Maps design Patrick Hofmann's a user experience designer working on Google Maps. His job is to decide how wide things like roads should be on the map and come up with icons and easily understandable symbols for things like hospitals and places of worship. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lamb vs hogget Meat scientist Roger Purchas of Massey University on the differences between lamb, hogget and mutton. So how can you tell if your lamb's a bit long in the tooth? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Death of the web Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of the tech mag Wired, reckons the web is dead. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spices: Pepper The world's most popular spice, pepper, with Alison Sandle. You used to be able to pay the rent with it! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website World's biggest tidal power turbine The world's largest tidal turbine for generating electricity has just been lowered into the sea off Scotland. We're speaking to Tim Cornelius of Atlantis Resources. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tonecheck If you've ever sent or received a rude-sounding email then Tonecheck could be for you. It's like a spell-checker for emotive words and phrases and Matt Eldridge is its founder and CEO. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Virgin vs extra virgin olive oil Studies in the US and Australia show lots of what's being sold as extra virgin olive oil doesn't make the grade. Marie Wong of Massey University has some tips on how to tell that the stuff we pay more for in the shops is the real deal. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Urban farming in Detroit Detroit was once the proud capital of the US auto industry but sadly these days parts of it resemble a post-industrial wasteland. Mark Dowie on the vibrant urban farming movement that could transform it into the world's first truly self-sufficient city. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sex, Lies and Pharmaceuticals Writer Ray Moynihan says that soon you'll be hearing a lot more about an emerging condition called 'Female Sexual Dysfunction'. He says it's the clearest example yet of the corporate-sponsored selling of sickness. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Privacy, Google Phone and Samsung's Galaxy Tab Bill Thompson with details of a proposed new privacy law in Germany. Plus Google makes a move into the world of internet telephony and Samsung's new tablet computer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Connected: Nicholas Christakis Nicholas Christakis is a Professor of Sociology at Harvard who studies how our social networks operate. We speak to him about his book 'Connected: the amazing power of social networks'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Recycled island Dutch architect Ramon Knoester wants to recycle the plastic floating in our oceans to build an island home for 500,000 people. Plus Kara Lavender Law, lead author of a 22-year study looking at the build-up of plastic rubbish in the Atlantic Ocean. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish: Snapper Rachel Taulelei on snapper, the popular recreational species that's worth millions in exports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Watery diet New research shows that drinking water before a meal can help you lose more weight. Dr Brenda Davy of Virginia Tech led the study. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Methane power in Rwanda In Rwanda they've found a way to generate power from all the methane bubbling up through Lake Kivu. Xan Rice reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: Cabbage tree We're foraging for free food with Johanna Knox. This week, cordyline australis aka the cabbage tree or Ti Kouka. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Better Marriage Blanket Frank Bibbo's Better Marriage Blanket promises to save relationships from the scourge of nocturnal flatulence. Plus Professor Roger Lentle on the science of breaking wind. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Proverbial Wallets John Kestner of the MIT Media Lab is working on wallets that can talk to your bank. So the less money you have in your account the harder it is to open and every time a transaction is processed it vibrates like a phone. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food questions: dried pasta and soy milk Is there really any difference between all the different brands of dried pasta on the market (apart from the price!)? Plus why consumers have to pay more for coffee made with soy milk. Allan Hardacre of Massey University and James O'Connell-Cooper of Mojo Coffee. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Invisible Gorilla: Chris Chabris You might remember seeing a psychological test involving monkey suits and basketballs online. Christopher Chabris is one of the guys behind this, and now co-author of 'The Invisible Gorilla: and other ways our intuition deceives us'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Facebook Effect Writer and technology journalist David Kirkpatrick got access to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook staff to research his book 'The Facebook Effect'. So what did he find out? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech News: Net neutrality Bill Thompson beams in with bits and bytes from the world of technology. This week, net neutrality: the concept that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Google Maps John Gravois is writing about some of the geo-political disputes Google's been getting dragged into with its free mapping software, Google Maps. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Farmville A.J. Liskiewicz is based in Buffalo and he's following the amazing growth of the game Farmville in Facebook. It's meant to be the world's most popular computer game. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food Additives: Emulsifiers More food additives with Associate Professor Matt Golding of Massey University. This week, emulsifiers crop up in everything from chocolate and bread to mayonnaise and ice cream. So what are they there for? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website World's biggest wind turbine Professor Feargal Brennan's the head of offshore engineering at Cranfield University and is part of a team that's trying to develop the biggest wind turbines on the planet. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The science of toast The science of toast and why are some breads better for toasting than others? Allan Hardacre of Massey University's Institute of Food Nutrition and amp; Human Health explains. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website India: Saffron and cosmetic surgery The Indian saffron industry, based in Kashmir, is struggling to survive. Plus more students opt for cosmetic surgery to land that dream job. Jason Burke reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Preserving Virtual Worlds The Indian saffron industry, based in Kashmir, is struggling to survive. Plus more students opt for cosmetic surgery to land that dream job. Jason Burke reports Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pests: Mice Pest controller Paul Chapman checks out a mouse infestation at a block of flats. Plus Dr Carolyn King of Waikato University on its lifestyle and habits. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food: Vinegar and mouldy jam Professor Phil Bremer of the University of Otago on why vinegar sometimes goes cloudy and/or lumpy. Plus is re-boiling mouldy jam such a good idea? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumpology: Pain and blokes New Scientist's Linda Geddes is a few weeks away from giving birth. This week she's looking at how males respond to pregnancy. Plus why do some women find giving birth a more painful experience than others? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fish: Paul Greenberg From sushi to smoked salmon we're eating more fish than ever. Paul Greenberg's just written 'Four Fish: the story of fishing and what's left to eat' Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Internet addiction in South Korea The ancient sport of sumo is having more image problems. Plus the South Korean government's unveiled ambitious plans to help the estimated 2 million Koreans it claims are addicted to the internet. Justin McCurry reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sauces: Piccalilli Maggie Forest continues our series on famous sauces and condiments . Piccalilli is the mustard vegetable pickle coloured yellow with turmeric that dates back to Roman times. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Motion capture in computer games Keith Stuart of the Guardian reports. With gamers expecting more realistic sports simulation games, every move gets recorded with the latest motion capture technology. So every wave to the crowd and goal celebration matches the real-life player! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inflatable movie extras Joe Biggins blows up movie extras every day. He's got an inflatable crowd of 40,000 on his books! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Italy: Nutella ban? There's rumours the sugary chocolate and hazelnut spread could be banned by the European Union. John Hooper lives in Rome. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nicholas Carr: The Shallows Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows suggests the internet is changing the way we think, read and remember. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food: water sprays on veggies More listener food questions with Professor Julian Heyes of Massey University. This week, why do supermarkets spray water and mist on their fruit and veg? Plus strangely sprouting tomatoes: are frog genes to blame? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website World's most expensive instrument Geoffrey Fushi of the Chicago violin trader Bein and amp; Fushi is selling the world's most expensive musical instrument. It's worth about US$18 million and it's a violin: but it's not a Stradavarius. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Selling potatoes to China Lauren Keane of the Washington Post on the attempts being made to persuade the Chinese to eat less rice and more potatoes. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: iPhone 4 and Google gaming Bill Thompson beams in with technology news and we're looking at the problematic launch of Apple's iPhone 4. Also Google moves into online gaming. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Touchy decisions The role of touch in our decision making, Josh Ackerman's shown that sitting on a hard seat when negotiating a deal means you more likely to stick to your guns when it comes to price. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spices: Nutmeg Forget about Kiwisaver or your retirement savings plan, once upon a time all you needed was a couple of nutmegs to set you up for life. Alison Sandle with the history and uses of nutmeg. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Geoengineering: Jeff Goodell Geoengineering is the science of using technology to change the earth's climate. Jeff Goodell's new book 'How To Cool The Planet' explores the ideas out there. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumpology: learning and sleep Bumpologist Linda Geddes is looking at how much babies hear and remember in the womb. Plus sleeping- why does it always seem like they wake up just as you're going to bed?! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mekong Part 5: Vietnam The final part of our 5,000 km odyssey down the Mekong River in South East Asia. This week, NPR's Michael Sullivan ends his journey at the mouth of the river in Vietnam. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A global history of cake Nicola Humble's been looking at when, how and why cake's become a food that shouts out 'celebration'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dutch football: David Winner David Winner, the author of 'Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer', with his thoughts on the Netherlands' 1-0 defeat to Spain in the World Cup Final. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dental anaesthetics Lisa Wilson of Chemical and Engineering News has been finding out what goes into those dental anaesthetics that make you comfortably numb before the dentist gets his drill out. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: Geraniums We're foraging for geraniums (aka pelargoniums) with Johanna Knox. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Voice and strength study Aaron Sell of the University of California in Santa Barbara is looking at what your voice says about you, specifically how strong you are. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mekong Part 4: Cambodia The fourth part of our 5,000km trip down the Mekong River in South East Asia. NPR's Michael Sullivan has a look round the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Venezuelan retailers and Cuban cigars It's crisis time for the Cuban cigar- exports have fallen by two-thirds in just 3 years. Plus Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has a crack at private food retailers. Rory Carroll reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Super cookies Peter Griffin's looking at super cookies. They live on your hard drive and are a lasting record of where you've been online. So should you be worried and what can you do about them? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food: olive oil content of spreads How can a spread with olives all over the carton and the words 'spread with the goodness of olive oil' contain just 21 percent olive oil? With Margaret Brooker (NZFSA) and Professor Murray Skeaff (University of Otago). Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Emerging Technologies: Mobile 3D, social TV, green concrete Jason Pontin of The Technology Review runs through three ideas on its list of top 10 emerging technologies. This week: mobile 3D, social TV and green concrete. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food additives: antioxidants We head to the supermarket looking for food additives. In the first part of a new series we're hunting for antioxidants with Associate Professor Matt Golding of Massey University. So what are they and what do they do? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Drug cheats and testing The Tour De France is underway and already there's talk of doping. But would a new approach that flags up super-human performance work any better than random testing? Jim Giles of the New Scientist reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mekong River 3: Golden Triangle Part three of Michael Sullivan of NPR's odyssey down the Mekong River from China to Vietnam. We enter the notorious drug producing region, the Golden Triangle, on the Laos/Thailand border. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sugar: a history Sugar's history hasn't always been all that sweet. In the early days it was produced by slave labour and now it's implicated in obesity issues. Elizabeth Abbott's the writer of 'Sugar: A Bittersweet History'. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Global loo roll The average American wipes their way through 23 kilos of toilet paper a year, but demand's rising fast across Asia and Africa. Noelle Robbins has been researching the global toilet paper market. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mouldy bread: to eat or not to eat? Most of us have found a bit of mould on a slice of bread. But is it safe to eat it or should you throw it in the bin? Professor Phil Bremer is the Head of the Department of Food Science at the University of Otago. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China: Rent-a-white-guy Mitch Moxley recently got paid US$1,000 a week for being a suit-wearing foreigner in China, no other qualifications required. All he had to do was act like the quality control manager at a Chinese factory. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Digital classrooms David Glover of Learning Media's just got back from a gathering of the world's largest educational publishers. So how will the good old school textbook survive in the digital age? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sourcemap Sourcemap.org is a web site which show exactly where things come from. So you can see where all the components in a lap top originate, how far they've travelled, and how much carbon's been used in the process. Matthew Hockenberry is Sourcemap's executive director. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Nile: battle for control The 9 countries bordering the Nile are finding it hard to agree on who can do what with the water flowing along the world's longest river. Xan Rice reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website New customs charges Bad news if you're a fan of online shopping. New charges are coming in from Thursday 1st July every time you bring in more than $400 worth of stuff from overseas. Conrad Petersen of the Customs Service has the details. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mekong River 2: Myanmar The second part of our 5,000km trip down the Mekong River with Michael Sullivan of NPR. Today he's in Myanmar, a place where reporters aren't exactly welcomed with open arms. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website TLC for your septic tank A listener's getting all sorts of conflicting advice about what she can and can't put into her septic tank. Wastewater specialist Ian Gunn sets us straight. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumpology Linda Geddes is back with more pregnancy science. This week, is there anything you can do before conception to influence your baby's gender? Plus drinking alcohol during pregnancy- is there any such thing as a safe limit? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Newspaper props Why an identical newspaper's been appearing in lots of different films and TV shows. We enter the newspaper props business with Gregg Bilson, Jnr of ISS Props. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Japan: Ramen, beard bans and horrid shirts Our Japan correspondent Justin McCurry's a big fan of ramen noodles: they're a Chinese invention that have practically become a Japanese national dish. Plus a local council imposes a beard ban of its staff. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Citric acid in food Citric acid or E330 is causing a listener a few headaches. Food technologist Torben Sorensen on why citric acid is cropping up in so much of our food. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wasabi Our series looking at some of the world's most popular sauces and condiments with Maggie Forest. This week, wasabi- it's the grated root from Japan that's good with raw fish. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Yves Behar - free specs Yves Behar's the chief industrial designer of the One Laptop Per Child Programme. His new project's trying to provide hundreds of thousands of Mexican school kids with free glasses. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mekong River Part 1 We start a 5-part odyssey down the 5,000 kilometre course of the Mekong River in the company of NPR's Southeast Asia correspondent, Michael Sullivan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Caffeine withdrawal Peter Rogers of Bristol University has led a new study on the ability of caffeine to kickstart your day. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert on how to save money on your food bills and what the supermarkets of the future are going to look like. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: Fennel We're foraging for a free feed of fennel with Johanna Knox. To be fair it's not something you have to hunt around too hard for! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Bebo and E3 Bill Thompson beams in with news of AOL's sale of the social networking site Bebo plus the latest in video gaming technology from this week's E3 conference in Los Angeles. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Coffee storage Sharon Fowler's a listener in Lithuania who wants to know what the best way is to store her coffee. There's lots of conflicting advice out there...so should she go fridge, cupboard or freezer? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spices: Cinnamon A new spice series with Alison Sandle. Loads of the cinnamon we're buying here isn't true cinnamon but cassia. So does it really matter and how can you tell the difference? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Speed Monopoly Dan Myers thinks he's found a way to finish a game of Monopoly in 21 seconds flat! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website World Cup: ticket sales and vuvuzelas The latest on ticket sales and why foreign fans have been staying away. Plus the vuvuzela- it's the African horn you'll be hearing a lot of through the tournament! With Ned Boulting. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumble bees Brad Howlett's a pollination expert with Plant and Food who's working on a project to restore the short-haired bumblebee to the UK where it's become extinct. But now the bees have all died so what went wrong? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 3D TVs Peter Griffin test drives a new, flat screen 3D-TV. It's the latest in TV technology so how do they work, are they any good, and is now the right time to buy one? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website India: Yoga protection The Indian government's creating a database of every single yoga pose to protect the ancient art from foreign imitators. Jason Burke reports from Delhi. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Penalty kicks Greg Wood's a psychologist at Exeter University who's been studying what penalty-takers can do to increase their chances. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cyber espionage Your modern day spook is more likely to be found hunched over a keyboard in a dark room than at a cocktail party wearing a false moustache! Rafal Rohozinski is studying how the world's governments are spying on each other online. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pests: Bedbugs We pull back the covers on the bedbug with pest controller Paul Chapman and entomologist Allen Heath. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumpology: taste and mum-nesia Bumpologist Linda Geddes of the New Scientist with more of the myths and science of pregnancy. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website World Cup: ticket sales and vuvuzelas The latest on ticket sales and why foreign fans have been staying away. Plus the vuvuzela- it's the African horn you'll be hearing a lot of through the tournament! With Ned Boulting. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumble bees Brad Howlett's a pollination expert with Plant and amp; Food who's working on a project to restore the short-haired bumblebee to the UK where it's become extinct. But now the bees have all died so what went wrong? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Digital books Bill Thompson on continuing battles over the ebook format. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 3D TVs Peter Griffin test drives a new, flat screen 3D-TV. It's the latest in TV technology so how do they work, are they any good, and is now the right time to buy one? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Scratch Building computer games from Scratch, a cool piece of software that means you don't need to know a thing about programming or computer code! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website India: Yoga protection The Indian government's creating a database of every single yoga pose to protect the ancient art from foreign imitators. Jason Burke reports from Delhi. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website DEET-resistant mozzies DEET's a great repellent for mosquitoes, but no one's really ever understood how it works. Researcher James Logan's trying to change that. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Penalty kicks Greg Wood's a psychologist at Exeter University who's been studying what penalty-takers can do to increase their chances. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Toastie pioneer New Zealander Frazier Graveson had the challenge of selling some of the first electric sandwich toasters in Asia. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cyber espionage Your modern day spook is more likely to be found hunched over a keyboard in a dark room than at a cocktail party wearing a false moustache! Rafal Rohozinski is studying how the world's governments are spying on each other online. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Telepresence robots Now you can log into a workplace robot from home and use a remote controller to whizz around bugging your work-mates. Steve Cousins the CEO of Willow Garage is using this technology today. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Flies in urinals Fly transfers stuck onto mens' urinals are a bit of behavioural science designed to promote better aim. But why a fly? Entomologist Allen Heath reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Pests: Bedbugs We pull back the covers on the bedbug with pest controller Paul Chapman and entomologist Allen Heath. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ping pong The rising popularity of ping pong. Now governments across Europe are trying to harness the sport's popularity to push their keep fit agendas. In one initiative, Sport England is funding 100 free open-air tables all over London. Diccon Gray from the English Table Tennis Association on the Ping London project. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Annoying phone calls Scientific proof of why it's so annoying to hear other people talking on their cellphones. Lauren Emberson of Cornell University's been studying the phenomenon. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website China: giant hydro project There's plans to build the world's biggest hydro-electric project in the foothills of the Himalayas. Jonathan Watts reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website 10 emerging technologies: Part 1 We look at some of the emerging technologies that could shape our future over the next 2 to 5 years with the editor-in-chief of the Technology Review, Jason Pontin. This week, engineered stem cells, real time internet searches, and cheaper, more efficient solar cells. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Burnt Food Museum Deborah Henson-Conant's a professional musician and a lousy cook. What better qualifications do you need to be the Burnt Food Museum's founder and head curator?! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bed sheets When it comes to buying sheets, it's a jungle out there...thread counts, ply, percale, Egyptian cotton...We pick our way through some of the jargon with Professor Raechel Laing of the University of Otago. Plus how often should you wash your sheets? Clinical microbiologist Dr Mark Jones knows. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fruit and veg ripening We're looking at some of the science behind keeping our fruit and veg 'fresh' with Professor Julian Heyes of Massey University. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Intro What's coming up in the show today. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumpology: Hi-tech scanning The science of pregancy with Linda Geddes of the New Scientist. This week, how the latest scanning technology is contributing to a better understanding of breastfeeding and the baby's movements in the womb. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Social gaming Social games- a cross between social networking and computer gaming- are being used by millions worldwide. We speak to Nick Parfene who's using them to get real-time transport information. Hayden Green, Robyn Gallagher and Matt Troughton are Four Square fans- it awards people points for going out. Finally, Ariel Hauter of Armchair Revolutionary wants social gaming to save the world. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Keen as mustard A new series with Maggie Forest looking at the world's most popular sauces and condiments. This week, mustard. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Black carrot juice A listener food question: why are black carrots being used in our drinks? Professor Julian Heyes of Massey University knows. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Interphone cellphone study The findings of the 10-year-long Interphone study into the potential link between cellphone use and cancer are inconclusive. Nathaniel Rich has written about the issue for Harpers magazine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Japan: Hostess rights Modern day geishas are fighting for fairer working conditions in Japan. David McNeill reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mobile phones in Africa Cell phone use has exploded in Africa over the past decade. Jenny Aker's looking at the way this is transforming the way people do business and buy goods and services. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Turning chicken poo into power John Logan's a chicken farmer based in the US who's perfected a way of turning chicken poo into power and fertiliser. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: mobile termination rates Peter Griffin on the government's plan to regulate mobile phone termination rates. Could the threat of regulation mean cheaper calls and increased competition? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rugby World Cup tickets Tickets for the 2011 Rugby World Cup started going on sale last month to the general public. So how easy will it be to buy a few extra tickets and sell them on for a profit? We check out the fine print with consumer lawyer Bill Bevan. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Norway: The Russ The Russ is a traditional party time for graduating high school students in Norway. They cruise around in pimped up coaches dressed in multi-coloured boiler suits wearing peaked caps. Jorn Tomter's a photographer who's been watching the event for 5 years. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rat exterminator With the weather getting colder rats are heading inside to nice warm lofts and houses. Pest controller Paul Chapman has some tips on how to keep them out of your home. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What's in our margarine? We're lifting the lid on margarine to see what's in the stuff with Jennifer Moss of Unilever, the makers of Flora margarine. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food Culture in the Pacific Dr Roger Haden, author of 'Food Culture in the Pacific Islands' on the foods and styles which have developed across the region from fermented taro to the advent of the umu. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website North Korean Restaurants Journalist Sebastian Strangio reports on the phenomenon of Pyongyang, a chain of restaurants run by the North Korean government with a menu including food and dancing girls. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bits and bytes: Books and music Technology correspondent Bill Thompson on Apple and the changing model of online music storage, Google's foray into digital books and the demise of the floppy disk. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Laughing gas NPR's Robert Krulwhich on the strange scientific origins of laughing gas. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Bumpology baby science: Part 1 New Scientist writer Linda Geddes on the different stages of her first pregnancy; from old wive's tales to scientific research. This week; gender, food cravings and the effects of stress. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: Pine Foraging for free food with Johanna Knox. This week, pine, the edible tree that produces nuts and even makes a lovely cup of tea. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dodgy Frenchmen French correspondent Charles Bremner on a fare dodging scam on the Paris Metro, Air France's 'fat tax' and the trend of slimming cream for men. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Thanatourism How sites of natural disasters, murders and torture become visitor sites and tourist attractions. Brigitte Sion's just organised a global conference on the subject. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Url shortening services Peter Griffin's looking at URL shortening services. They're the quick and easy way to reduce all those unwieldy web addresses to a size you can easily text or email. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cuban mobiles and Coca Colla Mobile phone use is on the rise in Cuba but nobody's making any calls! Plus a Bolivian soft drink with a strangely familiar name. Rory Carroll reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tales of things Chris Speed of talesofthings.com. It's an easy way to attach your memories, images and video to possessions like a bike, clock, or that special hat. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Goalkeepers' shirt colours If you're a goal-keeper wanting to stop more goals the colour of shirt you're wearing can make all the difference. Iain Greenlees is a sports psychologist who led the study. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Brand-free cigarettes The Australian government's just become the first government in the world to ban cigarette branding completely. Janet Hoek from Otago University studies the role of brands and smoking. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Marmite vs Vegemite A listener email about yeast-based spreads gets us asking about the difference between the various 'mites' on the market. Associate Professor Matt Golding of Massey University helps out. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Web Harvest The National Library's web harvest takes a snapshot of more than 130 million web pages for the historians of the future. Courtney Johnston's one of the harvesters. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nail polish Carmen Drahl of Chemical and Engineering News on the clever science behind nail polish. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Peanuts Shelling peanuts with Alison Sandle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sniffing out bed bugs Jeremy Ecker lives in New York where he hunts for bed bugs with his specially trained sniffer dogs. He's on the front line of the Big Apple's bed bug epidemic! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: ACTA and iPhone Bill Thompson reports. After being shrouded in secrecy the draft terms of the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement go public. Plus a story about a bloke who leaves his phone in the pub. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Spread and palm oil Finding a low fat spread without palm oil in it. Laurence Eyres helps out. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ice cream and hokey pokey The history of ice cream with Jeri Quinzio and we get the scoop on who invented hokey pokey! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website ACTA and the history of IP piracy Adrian Johns has been studying the history of intellectual property rights from the Middle Ages to the present day. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Telstra Clear browsing problems Problems for some of Telstra Clear's 300,000 internet customers. We find out what's going on with Geekzone blogger Mauricio Freitas and John Bone, Telstra Clear's Head of Customer Experience. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Landfill deodorant Jonathan Watts lives in Beijing where illegal rubbish dumping means city authorities are looking at giant deodorant sprays to freshen things up. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Polaroid revival In 2007 Polaroid stopped making its massively popular instant cameras and then the film that went inside. Marlene Kelnreiter of the Impossible Project on its attempt to bring it back to life. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Self-shearing sheep In some parts of the world the wool market's tanking. So rather than spending money shearing sheep, Englishman Peter Baber's breeding some that moult instead. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Japanese women getting slimmer Unlike the situation in the rest of the developed world, Japanese women are actually getting slimmer! Blaine Harden's been finding out why. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Social media- good for consumers? How businesses are using social media like Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their customers and deal with consumer complaints. With Darren Barefoot and Jonathan Dodd. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website iPad teardown Luke Soules queued up for ages to get one of Apple's new iPads and then immediately trashed it! Luke's a teardown specialist who takes the latest gadgets apart for an audience of geeks, DIY repairers and investors. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Vietnam: texting on mopeds Intrepid texters are taking their lives in their hands in Vietnam as they text on bikes and mopeds in heavy traffic. NPR's Michael Sullivan reports. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Amazon vs Canada Andrew Clark's been looking at the stand the Canadian government and booksellers are taking against the giant online bookseller Amazon. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: UK digital laws and election Bits and bytes from the world of technology with Bill Thompson. The UK Digital Economy Bill becomes law and with a general election looming on May 6th how will the parties be using technology to win votes? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Selenium and Vitamin B12 How do you know your brazil nuts have good selenium levels? Plus Vitamin B12 - why do we need it and what's the best way to get it? Nutritionist Jennifer Bowden has the answers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lactose intolerance Professor Mark Thomas from University College London's been studying when and how humans developed the ability to digest lactose, one of the main sugars found in milk. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Powershop and mobile phone rates Tech correspondent Peter Griffin with an update on the online energy retailer, Powershop. Plus dropping call and text rates point to increased competition in the mobile phone market. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Priceless: what's a fair price? William Poundstone's the author of 'Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value'. Pricing psychology and the way shoppers are being manipulated over the price they pay. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Driver distraction: electronic billboards With more digital signage going up every day, flat screen technology's coming to a billboard near you. Matt Richtel on the debate over how distracting this will be for drivers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Corned Beef Listener Don asks what the reddish liquid is you find left over in a packet of corned beef. Torben Sorensen is a food technologist who knows the answer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Foraging: Coprosma Foraging for free sweet treats with Johanna Knox. Coprosma has a tasty yellowy orange berry, but watch out for seeds! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mexico: charity pawn chain Bill Booth lives in Mexico where the Mountain of Pity, a national pawnbroking chain that's run like a charity, has lent nearly 2 billion dollars. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website India: Autorickshaws, coffee culture Jason Burke lives in Delhi in India where city authorities are trying to take the capital's 80,000 auto-rickshaws off the streets. Plus what social changes and the arrival of the big coffee chains are meaning for the local coffee house scene. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Wireless access Vinny Kumar's leading a team of local inventors who've come up with a neat way to distribute information wirelessly using existing FM and AM radio networks. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What happens to our milk? Listener Heather want to know more about our milk- what goes into it, what gets taken out, and can humans drink rat milk?! Dairy expert Dr Alistair Carr from Massey University has the answers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tech news: Google and ACTA Bill Thompson beams in with the latest tech news and this week Google versus China. Plus global anti-counterfeiting talks come to New Zealand next month. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Jamaica: chicken pill diet The Kitchen Sisters and NPR explore a strange and potentially dangerous Jamaican dieting trend. To get more curvy, women are taking nutritional supplements normally used by farmers to grow bigger chickens! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mineral collecting We visit Ian Godfrey and some of the other rockhounds at a local rock and mineral club. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Nuts: the coconut We crack open the coconut with Alison Sandle. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website iGovt Not a new Apple product but a potential new way to identify yourself when dealing with government departments online. Andrea Gray and Karl McDiarmid of The Department of Internal Affairs. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Darts: history, club night and stats study How the game and the board developed with darts historian Dr Patrick Chaplin. Plus we drop into a local darts club for a game of 501 and find out the best place to aim on a dartboard, statistically speaking! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Exercise and brain growth Dr Tim Bussey from Cambridge University is showing that regular exercise can grow your brain and help your memory...if you're a mouse. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Food product placement Lisa Sutherland of Dartmouth Medical School has studied 200 Hollywood blockbusters to see how many times branded food and drinks appear on screen. They're everywhere! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Cheese history Author Andrew Dalby's just written the global history of cheese. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Marinated meat: why so cheap? A listener's food question: why is marinated steak cheaper than plain steak? Meat scientist Dr Brian Wilkinson of Massey University explains. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fun Inc: the global gaming industry We're looking at the 50 billion US dollar global video game market with author Tom Chatfield. Some video games earn ten times more than Hollywood blockbusters like Avatar on their opening day. So why do we hear so little about them in the mainstream media? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Manchester United takeover Football truly is a global sport and the beautiful game's never been hotter here in New Zealand. But at one of the world's biggest and richest clubs, Manchester United, fans and owners are battling for the future of their team. We're speaking to award-winning sports writer David Conn of the Guardian. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Model powerboat racing Meet some big boys with fast toys: remote-controlled, miniature powerboats to be precise. We join Wayne McNaught and other enthusiasts for a day of model powerboat racing. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Internet data caps: why in NZ? Most New Zealand internet users have a cap on the amount of data they can send and receive. Go over your limit and you pay extra, or have your surfing speeds throttled back.