Dams

How animals make us smarter – we thought you might like to hear our brand new episode. It’s about a robotic arm inspired by an elephant’s trunk.For more, search for 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter wherever you get your podcasts.#30Animals 

Jump on-board a doomed mission to the Moon. Apollo 13: the extraordinary story, told by the people who flew it and saved it. Search for 13 Minutes to the Moon wherever you get your podcasts. #13MinutestotheMoon 

Johannes Gutenberg's printing press changed the course of human history. It created a new way of doing business, drastically reduced the cost and speed of making books, and enabled texts, ideas and arguments to spread further and faster than ever before. So why did he struggle to ... Show More

Half of the world’s river systems host hydro-electric dams. They offer reliable electricity but their construction forces people from their homes and disrupts the natural life of the river.Scores of dams already span the Mekong River, the great waterway linking China to Vietnam. ... Show More

Officials from Egypt and Tanzania are inaugurating the new Julius Nyerere Hydropower dam. The dam has a capacity of 2,115 MW and is set to become the largest in East Africa, and Africa’s fourth largest. It was built at a cost of US$3 Billion. The inauguration will see the first f ... Show More

In the early hours of 17 May 1943 a bold World War II attack destroyed two dams in the Ruhr Valley in Germany's industrial heartland, causing 1,600 casualties and catastrophic flooding which hampered the German war effort.The dams were highly protected but 617 Squadron of the Roy ... Show More

The Pentland Firth is the strait that lies between the far north of mainland Scotland and the Orkney Islands. It's a wild area with some of the fastest tides in the world, where the power of the sea is being harnessed by tidal turbines sitting on the sea bed.But this type of gree ... Show More

On today’s show we are talking about flooding. When it rains you have to think about where the water is going to go. We’ve all heard the advice about how to always pitch your tent in a high location and to avoid the low spots where water will flow in the event of a rainstorm. The ... Show More

How rocks on the ocean floor could be key to the transition to electric cars. Justin Rowlatt speaks to Gerard Barron, boss of DeepGreen, a company that wants to gather rocks from the ocean floors rich in the metals essential for making electric car batteries. He tells us why this ... Show More

Recent floods in eastern Australia have caused devastating losses of life and livelihoods. The BBC's Vivienne Nunis visits southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales where the damage bill from torrential rain is said to be in the billions of dollars. Climate change means n ... Show More

Flint was once one of the richest cities in the United States. But in the 1980s, it was badly affected by the downturn in car manufacturing and by 2014 it was nearly bankrupt. To save money, the city switched its water supply away from Lake Huron to its own Flint River, but state ... Show More

CATL is a hugely important company that a lot of people probably haven't heard of. It's grown from nothing to become the world's largest EV battery supplier — with some strong help from the Chinese government along the way. This story of how EV batteries became cheap kicks off Th ... Show More