This Way Up for Saturday 18 July 2015

This Way Up 18 July 2015: Part 1

Pluto fly by, how your microbiome could make your hangover worse, and techology news (possible demise of Flash Player and broadband speeds)

Pluto mission

Astronomer Michele Bannister. Photo: Supplied.

The amazing images of Pluto and her moons beamed back to earth from the New Horizons space mission have been all over the news this week.

They are the clearest images yet of Pluto and bring the outer reaches of our solar system into clear focus for the first time.

New Zealander Dr Michele Bannister is an astronomer based at The University of Victoria in British Columbia who's scrutinising the images of Pluto with great excitement.

Pluto and Charon display striking color and brightness contrast in this composite image from 11 July. (PHOTO: NASA)

Pluto has been found to be slightly bigger than thought. (PHOTO: NASA)

Remarkable new details of Pluto’s largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken from a distance of 289,000 miles (466,000 kilometers). (PHOTO: NASA / JHUAPL)

New close-up images reveal a range of mountains rising as high as 3500 metres, believed to be relatively young - formed a mere 100 million years ago. (PHOTO: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI)

The last image of Pluto sent back by New Horizons before its closest approach to Pluto. (PHOTO: NASA/APL/SwRI)

An image from Pluto's stellar occultation on 30 June 2015. (PHOTO: NIWA)

The latest spectra from New Horizons Ralph instrument reveal an abundance of methane ice, but with striking differences from place to place across the frozen surface of Pluto. (PHOTO: NASA)

Pluto’s North Pole, Equator, and Central Meridian. (PHOTO: NASA)

Hangovers and microbes

Dr Tim Spector. Photo: Supplied.

If you've ever had a hangover then maybe you should start blaming the microbes living in your gut, and not that extra drink you had.

Tim Spector is a professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and he's been studying our guts and how the bacteria that live inside us are affected by what we eat and drink.

He's says there's growing evidence that how bad we feel after drinking too much could be related to our microbial guests, which we collectively call our microbiome.

Professor Tim Spector's book The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Tech: the death of Adobe's Flash Player

Tech commentator Peter Griffin. Photo: Supplied

Some big names like Facebook and Mozilla say they want to ditch Adobe's Flash Player, the plug-in software that (sometimes) lets you play video on websites. Peter Griffin explains what's going on.

This Way Up 18 July 2015: Part 2

The causes of autism, the power of screams, satellite-based internet, the saddleback and cookbooks of the future.

Science: autism causes and the power of screams

Dr Chris Smith of The Naked Scientists Photo: SUPPLIED

Dr Chris Smith of The Naked Scientists and Chris has news of some exciting new research around the causes of autism; it seems to revolve around the formation of nerve cells in the brain. Also why are screams so good at grabbing people's attention?!

Space-based internet

OneWeb Terminal Photo: Supplied.

Greg Wyler from OneWeb. Photo: Supplied.

Space could be your final frontier if your broadband is playing up or slowing down.

OneWeb is a privately owned company which plans to offer high speed internet connections via satellite, enabling remote or rural areas to get faster broadband.

It plans to launch over 600 mini satellites into space and has recently got some major financial backing (US$500 million) from some big name investors including Richard Branson's Virgin Group, Coca Cola and Airbus.

The only drawback with this satellite-based internet network is that you might have to wait until 2019 for the service to start.

Simon Morton talks to OneWeb's founder and chief executive, Greg Wyler.

Birds: Saddleback

North Island Saddleback on Tiritiri Matangi Island. Photo: Duncan Wright (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Simon Morton and Hugh Robertson go saddleback spotting.

Cookbooks of the future

Food historian Ken Albala. Photo: Supplied.

Food historian Ken Albala has been pondering the future of the cookbook in the digital age.