Oxytocin / Crown of Thorns Starfish

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Description

It turns out oxytocin is responsible for a lot more than just love. New science has found that this amazing molecule also influences how sociable each of us is, allowing us to 'tune in' to the social information around us, perceiving it in much higher resolution. Scientists are now applying this new knowledge in the lab, and as reporter Dr. Graham Phillips finds out, they're discovering oxytocin's great potential to treat social disorders, like drug addiction and alcoholism. Also, despite a new, potent injectable to help divers kill record numbers of Crown of Thorns Starfish, the plague continues to eat huge swathes of the Great Barrier Reef down to white skeletons. Reporter Anja Taylor visits some QLD scientists working on creative ways of controlling their numbers, from robot starfish terminators to the terrifying smell of giant underwater snails.