Series 3 Prog 8: 16/11/08

This week, the cafe includes news of a trip to the Himalayas by a team from Bangor University, to investigate how our bodies react to living at high altitude. We also hear about work from Aberystwyth University that studied the waviness of flowers and how it affects pollination. And there's a trip to Techniquest in Wrexham where we create some "psychedelic milk".

Sunday 16th November at 5.03pm

Repeated Wednesday 19th November at 9:30pm

High altitude science

If you imagine that scientists spend their working lives tucked up in nice warm laboratories, spare a thought for Dr. Jamie MacDonald and his team from Bangor University's Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences Department. They've just returned from a gruelling high altitude expedition in a remote area of the Himalayas where they've been conducting a series of medical experiments under extreme conditions with a group of trekkers. Jamie MacDonald joins Adam Walton to discuss the experience.

Is that flower waving?

A piece of research which was inspired by a casual observation on a Welsh beach, has gained recognition across the world. Dr John Warren of Aberystwyth University's Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences followed up the question posed by his curious mind, and out of it came a paper called "Do Flowers Wave To Attract Pollinators?"

The future is photonic

Our reporter Nan Pickering meets Ray Davies from the Photonics Academy at Technium Optic in St Asaph, who you may remember joined us on our recent programme from Techniquest in Wrexham during the BBC Here For You event. Nan was able to see some of the inventions that students have come up with.

Psychedelic milk

We visit the Techniquest at NEWI science discovery centre in Wrexham where Diane Gray shows Adam what happens when food colouring and washing up liquid are added to milk - the results are surprising.

Intriguing science questions

For most of us the really intriguing scientific questions are the ones which affect our lives like: "how do you get stripes into toothpaste?"; or "how do you get the chocolate coating on a Malteser?"; and "If moths are nocturnal, why do they always fly towards the light?". Those are just a few of the queries which New Scientist readers have sent into the magazine over the years and they've just been brought together in a new book called "Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?" Mick O'Hare joins Adam to discuss the new book, published by Profile Books.

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