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THE MATERIAL WORLD
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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Quentin Cooper reports on developments across the sciences. Each week scientists describe their work, conveying the excitement they feel for their research projects.
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Contact Material World |
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LISTEN AGAIN Ìý30 min |
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PRESENTER |
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"For me science isn't a subject, it's a perspective. There are fascinating scientific aspects to everything from ancient history to the latest gadgets, outer space to interior decorating; and each week on The Material World we try to reflect the excitement, ideas, uncertainties, collisions and collaborations as science continues its never-ending voyage into the unknown".
Quentin Cooper |
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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| Athabasca Oil Sands (Nancy Groce, Smithsonian Institution) |
The Cannabinoid System
The legal status of Cannabis is regularly debated but scientists are becoming ever more interested in the hidden nerve receptor system that it works on in the body. The Cannabinoid System is a series of chemical receptors built in to respond to the presence of cannabinoid chemicals, of which cannabis is just one. But why do we have this system?
It was only in the early 1990s that scientists discovered it was not an accident - that the body itself creates its own form of cannabis for short periods during times of injury – it acts as a pain reliever.
Quentin Cooper is joined by Professor Roger Pertwee (Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen and the Director of Pharmacology, GW Pharmaceuticals) and by Dr Steve Alexander (Molecular Neuroscience & Neuropharmacology at Nottingham University). Can the system can be manipulated to treat chronic pain conditions like multiple sclerosis and conditions like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. Can it be done without the hazardous side effects associated with cannabis use? Could the body’s own cannabinoids be the key?
Oil From Sand
A region of Canada in Northern Alberta contains oil reserves to rival Saudi Arabia! But these are not underground reservoirs of sweet, light, crude oil that just need to be pumped out. These are the Athabasca oil sands – an unpleasant mixture of sand, water, oil and sulphurous tar. They cover more than a thousand square miles of remote terrain and are difficult, expensive and environmentally damaging to extract and process.
With the rise in oil prices, extracting oil from the tar sands has become big business. Oil companies have invested billions and expect production to rise to 5 million barrels of heavy crude a day over the next couple of decades, making Canada a major oil exporter.
To talk him through some of the slick ways to get thick oil out of the sand Quentin is joined by Dr Joe Wood, Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Birmingham University – who is working on CAPRI, a method for refining the oil while it’s still in the ground - and by Professor Malcolm Greaves of the Improved Oil Recovery Research Group at Bath University, who has developed something called THAI - Toe to Heel Air Injection.
Next week:ÌýhowÌýa new European satelliteÌýwill explore gravity on Earth |
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