Ep 161: 2016 Pulses and Pulsars

Happy 2016! This week, I spoke on ABC Radio Central West about some of the science we can expect in 2016:

1. 2016 is the International Year of Pulses, which aims to heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition. The Year will create a unique opportunity to encourage connections throughout the food chain that would better utilize pulse-based proteins, further global production of pulses, better utilize crop rotations and address the challenges in the trade of pulses.
2. 2016 will also see some interesting astronomical events, although it will be hard to beat 2015. My favourite upcoming events are:

• The Juno mission to Jupiter 
• The continuing Akatsuki mission to Venus. This mission is a testament to the usefulness of maths: originally, the orbiter could not get into orbit around Venus due to on-board failures, and orbited the Sun for 5 years, until the mathematicians got together and figured out how to get the craft back into orbit around Venus using the remaining working thrusters. After 5 years!

Listen in to this show below on ABC NSW's soundcloud page, or grab the mp3. As always, thanks for Kia!