The Hello, and this week how earwax from blue whales can give us an insight into

ocean pollution the power site that stops mice from being scared of cats and

citizen science we'll be finding out how you can get

involved in some cutting-edge research from spotting spiders to mapping

happiness. And we'd also like to hear from you if you'd like to have a go at our

quiz. our scientific

teaser for this week is, how many galaxies do you think there are in the known universe?

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email Chris at the naked scientist dot com

first let's take a look at what's be making the science headlines this week and

Chris what have you got for us? Well scientists in California have obtained a blue whale and they've used its ear wax in order to work out

biochemically what has happened to this whale during its lifetime, its exposure to

various pollutants and even mercury.

Who would have thought that was possible?

Eewax you say.

Yeah now bizarrely enough just like us, Wales being mammals they have a big long ear canal and they make earwax.

It's actually known by the chemical and scientific term Serumin, it's a waxy oily substance.

In us, our ear canal is only a few centimetres long at most. In a whale, it's a meter, in a blue well at least.

And this particular blue well was about 12 years old when it unfortunately died owing to a collision with a boat.

The body was recovered to Santa Barbara in California, and the scientists

were able to extract this what's called an ear plug, which is a buildup of this wax.

And it turns out that in these whales the wax is deposited in layers year on year

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