Thursday, 09 October 2008 08:00pm

GAMBLING
The modern 'pokie' bears only a passing resemblance to the one-armed bandits of the past. Entire teams now work on the design, music and features of poker machines, to make what is a very slim chance of winning a large jackpot, seem tantalisingly close. However, even when punters know they're more likely to lose than win, they often continue to play, but why? Dr Graham Phillips goes in search of what makes someone think they can beat the odds and finds a gambler who lost $350,000 on the pokies. He meets a psychologist who is researching how things like arousal and the size of crowds in gaming venues can affect our brains. And he finds out what's being done to help people stop gambling.

TASMANIAN TIGER MOUSE
They said it couldn't be done, but for the first time ever, scientists have brought an extinct animal back to life - well, part of one anyway. Graham Phillips investigates how a fragment of Tasmanian Tiger DNA has been reconstructed and inserted into a developing mouse embryo. It's a fascinating technology that one day could be used to re-create other fragments of extinct creatures from dodos to dinosaurs.

DEATH BY VITAMINS?
Australians have some of the most expensive urine in the world. We spend $2.3 billion a year on complementary medicines and most of it ends up going down the drain. But it's not just the hip pocket we should be worried about - according to recent research, antioxidant supplements such as betacarotene, vitamin A and E may have detrimental health effects and could even lead to death. Dr Norman Swan reports on this multi-million dollar industry and warns the buyer to beware.

Catalyst will be repeated on ABC2 – Friday, October 10 at 5:35pm