On the Radar

The pick of the science news

Lose the shoes

Could ditching the running shoes put some pep in your step? A study of runners in the US and Kenya has found that those habitually going barefoot tend to strike the ground with the balls or middle of their feet, while those wearing running shoes tend to land heel-first.

"By landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shod runners generate when they heel-strike," said Harvard scientist Daniel Lieberman, a co-author on the Naturepaper describing the findings.

“Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts, but actually you can run barefoot on the world’s hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain. All you need is a few calluses to avoid roughing up the skin of the foot.”

Opportunity still knocks on Mars

Two high-profile space missions have reached the end of the road. The Mars rover Spirit, which became mired on the planet last month, has finally given up the ghost. However Spirit’s sister robot, Opportunity, remains in action.

Meanwhile US president Barack Obama’s budget plan pulls the plug on Constellation, NASA’s mission to take humans to the Moon again.

“This isn’t a step backwards,” said Jim Kohlenberger, chief of staff at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to the BBC.

“I think the step backwards was trying to recreate the Moon landings of 40 years ago using largely yesterdays technology, instead of game-changing new technology that can take us further, faster and more affordably into space.”

Explosive talk

Next Wednesday, NUI Galway’s Centre of Astronomy will host a talk on gamma-ray bursts – flashes of gamma rays associated with explosions in distant galaxies.

“These explosions are a million trillion times as bright as the Sun, and are caused when the very largest stars run out of fuel and are torn apart by their own gravity, resulting in the formation of a black hole,” says NUIG’s Dr Gregg Hallinan, who will deliver the free lecture on February 10th at 7.30 pm in the McMunn Theatre, NUI Galway.

“Scientists are not very good at arguments. We are facing a very articulate, very well-rehearsed . . . set of arguments. We have to give credit where it is due. They are winning the communi- cation war . . .

– Prof John Sweeney NUI Maynooth