Welcome to A Week in Science. I'm Paul Willis and RIOs brings you the news in
science all week, every week.
The movement of species due to climate change has been documented in research
out of Queensland this week. They observed that species are already starting to
move towards the poles and more moderate climates driven by increasing
temperatures. The researchers suggest that as global temperatures continue to
rise and rainfall patterns change more species will begin to shift their
distributions.
Quantum computing gained a boost this week with engineers producing the first
working quantum bit or qubit. The qubit is the basis of quantum computing and
they represent the control of the spin of single electrons. For the first time
researchers have been able to read and write data by controlling the electron
spin representing an important step in bringing quantum computing towards
reality. Other science headlines this week include a species of corn that's
been genetically engineered to produce a drug for a rare inherited disease, bees
take unique paths between flowers and learn more efficient routes through
trial and error. The location that you live in may have an effect on your mental
health with people living in more affluent areas having an increase in
well-being independent of their income. And in good news for colorful scuba
divers like our producer Ben sharks cannot see in full color and are in fact
colorblind.
Genetic studies have examined the systems controlling the patterns of cats coats.
Domestic cats have the same genetic system controlling the patterns on their
coats as cheaters according to an international team of geneticists. They
identified two genes in particular one which gives cats stripes and the other
which produces spots. And finally further modeling of the effects of climate change
has revealed a troubling future for the world's corals. Even if global
temperature rises are limited to two degrees Celsius new research has shown
that most of the world's coral will still undergo bleaching. The authors
suggest that to preserve more than 10% of coral the temperature rises need to
be limited to below one and a half degrees. With September drawing to a
close check out the RIO's website for events happening in October. Events
include xenotransplantation and a visit from a Nobel laureate. That's been a
week in science. For more information check out the RIO's website at
rios.org.au. You can follow a week in science on the RIO's Twitter feed and
join in the conversation using the hashtag A Week in Cy. That's it from me
Paul Willis and from the team here at RIO's. Thank you for watching. See you next week.
