A new saliva gland, Bill Bryson on the Human Body, and the return of the Dust Bowl

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2020

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Marnie Chesterton presents an update on the week's science. Behind your eyes, above your mouth but below the brain, two 3cm saliva glands have been hiding since anatomy began. So reports a new study by Matthijs Valstar and Wouter Vogel of The Netherlands Cancer Institute. They describe to Marnie how they found these hitherto unnoticed glands, and importantly how knowledge of these will help people treated for head and neck cancers to get on with their lives in the future. It may be that radiotherapies have been inadvertantly destroying the glands in the past, leading to difficulties eating and breathing. Bill Bryson is the latest in BBC Inside Science's flick through 2020's Royal Society Book Prize shortlisted authors. He talks to Adam Rutherford about his work, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, and his continuing awe at its complexity. And Roland Pease reports on evidence of a return to the Dust Bowl conditions that so devastated agriculture and livelihoods in the US mid-west during the 1930s. This time, we can see the dust storms gathering from space. But that doesn't mean that intensive agriculture, extreme weather and climate change aren't combining to do what might be a re-run of some of the disastrous issues from those years. Presented by Marnie Chesterton Produced by Alex Mansfield Produced in collaboration with The Open University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast I'd like to introduce myself. My name's
0:04.0	Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport
0:07.5	podcasts. I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with leading
0:11.1	journalists, experienced pundits and the biggest
0:13.3	sports stars. Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights
0:17.4	straight from the player's mouth. But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is
0:22.0	our unique access to the sporting world.
0:25.0	What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to
0:28.9	dedicated sports fans across the UK.
0:31.5	So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:35.2	BBC Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.
0:40.3	Hello there, you have downloaded BBC Inside Science first broadcast on the 29th of
0:45.7	October 2020 I'm Marnie Chesterton. The elections may be dominating the
0:51.6	headlines from the US but we'll be hearing about the potential
0:55.1	re-emergence of a phenomenon that caused havoc in America in the 1930s, the Dust Bowl.
1:01.8	And in the UK, in Ad dreich week best described as sub optimal, it's reassuring to be reminded about the good things in life,
1:09.5	like the fact that we as a collection of chemicals exist at all.
1:13.4	What to me is extraordinary about it is that there isn't any sort of like
1:17.4	headquarters in you. There's nobody that's coordinating everything.
1:20.6	It's just all happy and it's just you know various chemicals bumping into other chemicals and everything. It's just all happening. It's just you know various chemicals
1:23.0	bumping into other chemicals and responding in some programmed way and yet look at
1:27.6	what you get as a result of it. You and I sitting here now just because of all of these
	...

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