A very dark day
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 567 Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2023
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the week of the solstice – the shortest or longest day of the year depending on your latitude - Unexpected Elements brings you tales of darkness and light.
We hear about the dark history of sensory deprivation studies and why up until now, we’ve been in the dark about light’s role in the fairly fundamental process of evaporation.
We’ll be shining a light on the darkest oceans, meeting the fantastical creatures who can turn their bodies into flashlights.
Our Under the Radar story this week also comes from the sea as we discover how fish skin is helping to treat burn victims in Brazil.
We have an Ask the Unexpected question about why we don’t sneeze when we’re asleep, and more of your emails and voicenotes about obscure sports, tunnel living and earworms.
We even find time to wonder why the Brazil nut isn’t called the Bolivia nut.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Camilla Mota and Chhavi Sachdev
Producer: Ben Motley, with Dan Welsh
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 2019, we began investigating the disappearance of Dr. Ruzha Ignatva. |
| 0:08.0 | I believe we are a very special network. |
| 0:10.0 | A scammer who stole billions from investors around the world. |
| 0:15.0 | She's on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. |
| 0:18.0 | And now, we have some unmissable updates. She has money and when you have |
| 0:23.0 | money you have power. Join me, Jamie Bartlett, as the hunt for the missing crypto queen continues. |
| 0:29.5 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. Something mysterious plagues County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland |
| 0:35.7 | and its legendary Gaelic football team. |
| 0:38.1 | Sometimes I think there's something sinister going on. |
| 0:41.4 | I believe in the curse. I think it's real. |
| 0:43.6 | Listen to the curious tale of the Mayo Curse |
| 0:46.3 | on Amazing Sports Stories from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:49.9 | Search for amazing sports stories wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:56.7 | This time of year is usually a bustling panic of jobs to do before everyone disappears for the end of year holidays. |
| 1:03.6 | So it was a guilty pleasure to run away from my responsibilities and visit a bird sanctuary at the weekend. |
| 1:10.6 | The site has several flocks of flamingos, |
| 1:13.5 | and the ones from the Caribbean are the most flamboyant, |
| 1:16.9 | orangey pink I've ever seen. |
| 1:19.5 | That colour against the drab English winter landscape |
| 1:22.9 | is almost obscenely brilliant. |
| 1:26.1 | I stared and stared, trying to comprehend how evolution could |
| 1:30.5 | have shaped something so angular, so curved and so pink. I'd assumed that the more years one |
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