A section of the Yangtze River in Chongqing, China, has overnight turned red. The cause is still being investigated, but officials say it may have been caused by recent floods stirring up silt upstream. Fishermen are going about their business as usual and concerned citizens are collecting samples for analysis. The Environmental Protection Bureau is also looking into potential industrial pollution or sewage breaches.

The river Jian that is  connected to the Yangtze river in china was colored red by firework factories dumping out coloring agents into the river in december last year.

It is not  completely unnatural for a body of water to turn red, Chromatiaceae bacteria are known to cause this coloring when a lake gets oxygen deprived from say a draught and they thrive on it. This happened last year to the OC Fisher reservoir in Texas. This behaviour has not been seen in a big river yet .

Picture: China Foto Press / Barcroft Media

I hope you enjoyed part one of this series detailing some of the best science related podcasts out there. Lined up for you today we have the Big Picture Science Show hosted by Seth Shostak  from SETI and the accomplished science journalist and radio savant Molly Bentley and also we have the powerhouse StarTalk Radio propelled by the ever charismatic astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson and his rotating co-hosts.

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Hello out there in the ether, do you like to learn new things and listen to smooth sultry voices? Well then this post is for you.
We will cover the biggest, the funniest, the smartest and the most influential podcasts out there in this series. Starting us we have the gigantic Radiolab, the funny ProbablyScience and the ever so informative AstronomyCast. Enjoy!

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