This Way Up Podcast Options

12:15 PM.From Hollywood to Europe, to the hair salons of Africa, the most highly prized human hair in the world to use in wigs, weaves and hair extensions comes from India. The market's now worth some US$250… Read more Audio, Gallery

12:01 PM.Global hair trade, 'first night' sleep problems, communal living and tech news (Australia fights cybercrime and Magic Leap/augmented reality). Audio

1:45 PM.Professor Peter Wilf at Pennsylvania State University is using the latest machine learning technology to identify ancient leaves. A computer program he developed can scan leaves and categorise them… Read more Audio

1:30 PM.Specialist laboratory equipment costs an absolute fortune. The market's small and the markup's big, and a large portion of research money ends up getting swallowed buying kit. That's why an increasing… Read more Audio

1:15 PM.Peter Griffin on a study of New Zealanders' internet use and online habits, with people more worried by corporate tracking and monitoring than anything our government is doing. Also the instant… Read more Audio

1:01 PM.Tech: NZ internet use and Whatsapp encryption, open source lab equipment and leaf identification. Audio

12:50 PM.Science news with Dr Chris Smith of The Naked Scientists and the clearest evidence yet linking the Zika virus to microcephaly in children. Also how trees are sharing carbon via their root systems. Read more Audio

12:35 PM.One of the world's biggest oil producers, Saudi Arabia, seems to be positioning itself for a future beyond oil. It's signalling a sell off of some state-owned petroleum assets to establish a US$2… Read more Audio

12:15 PM.With the use of SSRI antidepressants skyrocketing in New Zealand, as it is in other parts of the developed world, we take a closer look at what these drugs are and how they work. Also, with stopping… Read more Audio

12:01 PM.SSRI antidepressants, Saudi oil sell off, and science news (Zika discovery and trees sharing carbon). Audio

1:45 PM.Joanne Kamens is the Executive Director of Addgene, a not-for-profit library of genetic material that can be used by scientists around the world to manipulate genes. Addgene's aim is to facilitate… Read more Audio

1:30 PM.Could mammograms be used for more than assessing a woman's risk of breast cancer? Like whether she has heart disease, a condition that in the US is about 7 times more likely to kill her than breast… Read more Audio

1:01 PM.Is surgery the ultimate placebo? Mammograms as a cardiac screening tool, and gene libraries. Audio

12:30 PM.Peter Griffin with the technological challenges raised and overcome by this week's revelations surrounding the Panama Papers, a huge collection of millions of documents leaked to a German newspaper… Read more Audio

12:01 PM.Fertility apps, Panama Papers, video editing apps, and the microbiome's link to brain health. Audio

1:45 PM.Stephen Montgomery studies genetics and runs the Montgomery Lab at Stanford University. He's particularly interested in how and why genes, of which we have over 20,000 in our human genome, turn on and… Read more Audio

1:30 PM.With more and more of us eager to coast uphill (relatively) painlessly we look at the latest electric bikes on the market with Paul Smith, the Head of Testing at consumer.org.nz. Read more Audio

1:10 PM.The world market for the precious gemstone amber is booming; driven by demand from China, prices have risen by up to 1000% over the past 5 years. Amidst fears that this demand might be slowing, Alex… Read more Audio, Gallery

1:01 PM.Discoveries in amber, ebikes buyer's guide, and how genes define us. Audio

12:50 PM.Digital ebooks are opening up unique opportunities for measuring reader behaviour, helping publishers and writers track how people read books, and when they might give up. Andrew Rhomberg is the… Read more Audio

12:30 PM.Kashmir Hill of fusion.net on the implications of the FBI versus Apple fight over access to an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. With the FBI announcing this week that it's… Read more Audio