Amazon fires, Royal Society Book Prize shortlist announced, John Gribben on quantum physics

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Satellite data has shown an 85% increase in the number of fires across Brazil this year. There are more than 2,500 fires active across the Amazon region. This represents the most active number of fires since 2010. The increase in fires has been attributed to deliberate deforestation and clearing for agriculture or mining. The new president of Brazil, Jair Bolsanaro, supports the commercialisation of the Amazon forest and this is said to have encouraged the wide scale burning. Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California Irvine, Jim Randerson and Luiz Aragão of Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research are just two scientists concerned about the destruction and carbon emissions from the extensive burning. The 6 shortlisted books have been announced in the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize this year. Judges Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, a computer scientist and best-selling author Dorothy Koomson run through the list: Infinite Powers – Steven Strogatz The Remarkable Life of the Skin – Monty Lyman Clearing the Air – Tim Smedley Invisible Women – Caroline Criado Perez The Second Kind of Impossible – Paul Steinhardt Six Impossible Things – John Gribbin Science writer and journalist John Gribben takes Gareth through the world of quantum physics when he discusses his book "Six Impossible Things - The Quanta of Solace and the Mysteries of the Subatomic World" Producer - Fiona Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know I also know that comedy is really
0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.2	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:41.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:44.8	Hello everybody, thank you very much for downloading us.
0:47.4	I'm Gareth Mitchell since you asked and this is the podcast edition of BBC Inside Science
0:51.8	for Thursday the 29th of August 2019.
0:55.0	There's the metadata for you right there.
0:57.0	I can also add that I am standing in for Adam Rutherford in case you hadn't noticed
1:00.0	and I'll be here for another couple of weeks.
1:02.0	Very much enjoying my summer residents with you as well.
1:04.4	Thanks for making me say welcome.
1:05.9	Now I think there's a lot of science to talk about today including those fires that are burning in the Amazon,
1:12.4	but anyway wildfires happen all the time.
1:15.0	So are there science reasons for all the fuss over this particular set of fires?
1:20.1	Meanwhile, one of the big annual science book prizes has just announced its short list.
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