logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2023
31m 9s

All aboard the RRS Sir David Attenboroug...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

This week, the RRS Sir David Attenborough arrived in Antarctica to start its first full season of science in the polar region. Dr Nadine Johnston reveals more about the mission and the research they’ll be carrying out.

Next up, medical geneticist Professor Shahida Moosa and her student Jessica Jane Cormick are working to help diagnose and treat rare diseases. They explain why better genetic databases for Africans are urgently needed.

We also hear from Simon Evans of the Carbon Brief, who has just completed an analysis that found the responsibility for climate change dramatically shifts once historical rule and colonialism are taken into account.

Finally, a new study has revealed that emissions from coal-fired power plants have led to the deaths of nearly half a million Americans in the last 20 years. Professor Cory Zigler, from the University of Texas at Austin, tells us more.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth Sounds provided by: Nadine Johnston and Katherine Turner from BAS and the University of Southampton

(Image: A general view of the RRS David Attenborough vessel on October 28, 2021 in Greenwich, England. Credit: Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Up next
Aug 21
Not cold fusion all over again
A desktop nuclear fusion reactor that uses electrochemistry to up the ante. Also, a global survey of human wildfire exposures finds Africa burning ahead, plus tiny swarming robots and record-breaking 2024 ice melts from glaciers on Svalbard. Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex ... Show More
30m 13s
Aug 14
Vaccine study retraction request rejected
US Health Secretary RFK Jr’s call to retract a study on childhood vaccines is resisted by the journal. Also antibiotics get designed by AI, and a new way for stars to die. A study focussing on Danish childhood vaccination data has attracted the US Secretary for Health’s anger, as ... Show More
30m 43s
Aug 7
An end to allergic reactions?
As the United States secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr., announces a $500 million cut to mRNA vaccine research in the United States, we hear a statement from the Nobel Prize winning biologist who made mRNA vaccines possible. A team of scientists from Nor ... Show More
29m 37s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2023
Reality check: carbon capture and storage
This week the UK government announced that around 100 new oil and gas licences for the North Sea will be issued. At the same time the Prime Minister said the government would back two new carbon capture and storage plants, one in Aberdeenshire and one in the Humber. Victoria Gill ... Show More
28m 3s
Dec 2023
Iceland Volcano
An underground river of magma and thousands of tremors have been observed across the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland. We speak to the scientists monitoring the Fagradalsfjall volcano who explain how this might be ushering in a new era of huge volcanic activity in the country. Sir ... Show More
28m 12s
Feb 2023
How can oceans help us capture carbon?
The ocean covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and can hold more than 150 times the amount of carbon dioxide as air. Around a quarter of CO2 emissions created by human activity each year is absorbed by them. From phytoplankton to whales to seagrass meadows, we explore how this ... Show More
28m 8s
Nov 2021
All Aboard the Sir David Attenborough
The public wanted to name her Boaty McBoatface, but in the end she got a slightly more stately name. The UK's newest polar research vessel, the RRS Sir David Attenborough, has just set out on her maiden voyage to Antarctica, where she'll enable scientists to research climate chan ... Show More
27m 32s
Oct 2021
The Possible Impact of false-negative PCR Tests
As many as 43,000 PCR tests for people living in and around the South West of England could have been wrongly returned as negative recently, thanks to a seemingly unknown error, or errors, at a laboratory near Wolverhampton. For an extraordinarily long time the mistakes went unde ... Show More
38m 53s
Aug 2022
What do warmer waters mean for life below the waves?
The Ocean, it covers more than 70% of the surface if our planet, it provides us with food, medicine and even influences the weather. For years its also helped to mitigate the effects of climate change. Since the 1970’s over 90% of atmospheric warming caused by green house gas emi ... Show More
27m 22s
Oct 2023
The state of nature in the UK
In this week’s episode Victoria Gill speaks to Nida al-Fulaij, conservation research manager at the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, about the UK’s new State of Nature report. Climate change, habitat loss and intensive agricultural practices have been blamed for the decline ... Show More
28m 14s
Dec 2023
Loss and damages for vulnerable countries
Professor Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, has died. He was instrumental in pushing for a loss and damages fund for vulnerable countries affected by climate change. Last year’s COP27 climate conference made a ple ... Show More
30m 47s
May 2022
How can oceans help us capture carbon?
The ocean covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and can hold more than 150 times the amount of carbon dioxide as air. Around a quarter of CO2 emissions created by human activity each year is absorbed by them. From phytoplankton to whales to seagrass meadows we explore how this h ... Show More
27m 14s
Dec 2022
Monkeypox
A new study published in the British Medical Journal suggests monkey pox might be passed from person to person before symptoms show. Esther Freeman, Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Director of Global Health Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hos ... Show More
34m 41s