This Way Up for Saturday 23 February 2013
Japan news
David McNeill reports on Japan's thriving adult adoption industry, its longlasting love affair with the fax machine, and what the recent sale of a huge bluefin tuna for about $2 million says about the state of fish stocks and the sushi industry.
Ice cream scoop sizes
How big is a single scoop of icecream?! We've been measuring scoop sizes at 6 local dairies and the results are shocking. We also speak to Minna Reinikkala, the Group Marketing Manager for Tip Top.
Naked Science
The latest science news with Naked Scientist Dr Chris Smith. This week, a new flu drug, how prescription drugs that end up in river water are effecting fish, and a new way to fool our immune systems to make medicines more effective.
uBiome.com
uBiome is a crowdsourced and crowdfunded project to sequence the DNA of the bacteria that live on and in our bodies. Jessica Richman is a Phd student at Oxford University who set it up.
Greek food festival
We drop in on preparations for the country's biggest Greek food festival and make pastitsio; it's a bit like macaroni cheese crossed with lasagne, and every bit as good! With Stella Bares, the president of the Greek Orthodox Community of Wellington.
Tobacco as biofuel
The US government's trying to find ways to use tobacco and its existing production system to make biofuel. Christer Jansson, the Senior Staff Scientist at the Berkeley Lab in California is leading the research.