Radio Wammo

Russell reports that the Mexican President wants to talk drug legalisation and meanwhile at home The Herald features a story about a website that rates Ecstasy tablets.

Wildlife experts are preparing to collect tens of thousands of endangered sea turtle eggs and move them hundreds of miles away in an unprecedented bid to protect them from the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Also Jeff says scientists were unsure why male Mexican mollies wear an extravagant moustache-like structure on their top lip, but now they’ve worked out why and wine-makers are set to release a corking new vintage they’ve just unearthed from the bottom of the sea. Check out more stories at UnderWaterTimes.com.

The swine flu virus is special because birds and people rarely catch flu viruses adapted to another host, but they can pass flu to pigs, which also have their own strains. If a pig catches two kinds of flu at once, it can act as a mixing vessel, and hybrids can emerge with genes from both viruses.

The global threat level for swine flu was raised to 5 on a scale of 6 this week, escalating the WHO strategy to prevent further spread of the virus beyond Mexico. But if the virus does spread far and wide, will we be ready? There are three approaches to an infectious disease: you can survive it (or not), kill the bug responsible or best of all prevent it. Experts agree that our best hope may lay in monoclonal antibodies.

Janine Young is a freelance science writer, Immunologist and also a broadcaster for New Scientist magazine.

Listen/Download Janine Young on Swine Science

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Paul reports that Ecuadoreans voted Sunday on a new constitution that would significantly broaden leftist President Rafael Correa‘s powers. Rising drug related violence in Mexico is causing concern and Paul discusses what each of the two US election candidates have to offer Latin America.

Paul Sheltus is freelance journalist, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Listen/Download Paul Sheltus on Ecuador, Mexico and Latin America