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Science and that is the same physics nature time the brain life the universe

Hello welcome to the naked scientists the show where we bring you the latest breakthroughs in science and technology with me Chris Smith and

with Katie Hayler. And this week we are stripping down sexual health and

sexually transmitted infections. Coming up will we soon have a vaccine for chlamydia and what happens in a sexual health check?

And in the news, the fires in the Amazon rainforest, a new weapon against malaria,

and what happens when a neutron star and a black hole collide.

The Naked Scientists Podcast is powered by UKfast.co.uk. Now first this week Brazil's Amazon rainforest which is often dubbed

the lungs of the planet and is home to an impressive variety of plants and animals

is on fire. The scale of the damage isn't known yet. So why has this happened and what might

be the consequences? Isi Clark spoke with Rachel Comenter from the University of Cambridge Conservation Institute.

In its natural state, a rainforest wouldn't burn. They're very moist places. They're steeped in shade. There are fern, and there's a lot of water in the system.

But what's happened over time is rainforests have become more fragmented,

and they've been logged, and so that means that certain trees the large valuable

timber trees have been taken out when that happens big openings in the

forest appear which means the sunlight can penetrate through, which means that all of that

tender and all of the vegetation can be dried out and then it becomes fuel for

fire and then you combine that with many more actors in the region using fire.

Combined with, you know, the climatic factors of drought and changing temperatures,

...