Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (26 min. 34 sec.) ; 160533046 bytes |
Summary |
Aussie amber's hidden treasures; linking the WA drought to Antarctica; illuminating the future; and beauty parlours for sharks and rays.AUSSIE AMBERThe semiprecious gem stone amber is of great interest to palaeontologists, because it can contain fossils of insects and other creatures, some up to 150 million years old.The conventional wisdom has been that Australia doesn't have any amber deposits, but a chance find by a couple in Queensland has changed that. Paul Willis travels to the beaches in far north Queensland and ventures into the rainforest where insects continue to be trapped in the sticky resin of living Kauris, the very source of amber. It isn't until the opaque amber is examined under the light of a synchrotron that the biological specimens trapped within start to take their striking forms.ICE CORE DROUGHTSevere drought has gripped south-western Australia for several decades now. Climate scientists think the cause is a mix of natural cycles and human activity, but precisely what changes in the atmosphere are occurring to create this big dry are still a matter of debate. Mark Horstman uncovers new research that's providing clues from a completely unexpected source - ice cores taken at the Australian Antarctic research facility at Law Dome. They indicate a thirty-year relationship between snowfall there and the decrease in rainfall in Western Australia.CHANGING THE GLOBEThe traditional incandescent bulb is being phased out - it's inefficient, generating a lot of heat along with the light. But even the new fluorescent replacements for these old globes are only a transitional technology. Tanya Ha goes in search of a light source for the future.ANIMAL ACTION: CLEANING STATION FOR SHARKS AND RAYSIn the peaceful waters of the Great Barrier Reef, cleaner fish do a sterling job of removing microscopic parasites and diseased or dead tissue from larger fish. But cameras set up by researchers from James Cook University found something never seen before. At Osprey Reef large numbers of sharks and rays know just where to go for their regular beauty treatments |
Event |
Broadcast 2010-06-17 at 20:00:00 |
Notes |
Classification: G |
Subject |
Climatic changes -- Social aspects.
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Droughts -- Environmental aspects.
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Fishes -- Diseases.
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Fluorescent lamps -- Energy consumption.
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Australia.
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Streaming video
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Author |
Archer, Mike, contributor
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Bickel, Daniel J, contributor
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Bourne, Giles, contributor
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Douglas, Bryan, contributor
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Godthelp, Henk, contributor
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Ha, Tanya, reporter
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Hand, Suzanne, contributor
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Horstman, Mark, reporter
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Jones, Allan, contributor
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Ommen, Tas Van, contributor
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Osman, Peter, contributor
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Phillips, Graham, host
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Phillips, M, contributor
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Willis, Paul, reporter
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