Balloon manoeuvres
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 567 Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After North Korean balloons delivered trash to South Korea, we explore balloons of all kinds, why they can be useful, and when they’re not.
Scientists have been using balloons for a long time, from pig bladders dropped from great heights, to Michael Faraday inventing the rubber balloon.
Floating through the air seems like a great, energy-efficient way to fly. So why isn’t the sky full of airships?
And party balloons are fun… but do we want to waste our precious helium on parties? What is this limited gas worth saving for?
Also, why you’re likely smarter than your grandparents were at your age, why snails climb up walls, and scientists looking at clouds from space.
Presenter: MarnieChesterton Panellists: Andrada Fiscutean, Meral Jamal Guests: Prof Andrea Sella (University College London) and Prof Dave Hodgson (University of Exeter) Producer: Florian Bohr with Harrison Lewis, Julia Ravey and Noa Dowling
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can I just say? |
| 0:01.5 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | It's such a wonderful listen. |
| 0:05.6 | So nice. |
| 0:06.5 | There are loads more like it on BBC sounds. |
| 0:08.8 | Different paces, different heights. |
| 0:10.6 | The roof is buckling. |
| 0:11.9 | Where you can also listen to live sports commentary. |
| 0:14.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:16.7 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:21.6 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
| 0:25.2 | And she's had to live with that. |
| 0:26.8 | So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion. |
| 0:29.7 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.7 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:37.1 | At the weekend, I was hanging out with friends who know a lot about wildlife their home is a |
| 0:43.2 | sanctuary for insects and birds nailed to the outside wall of their abode was a housing estate's worth |
| 0:49.9 | of accommodation for bees swallows bats and swifts And as swifts swooped above us, I heard just how |
| 0:58.5 | alien their lives are to our own. These birds can eat, drink and even sleep in the air, |
| 1:04.9 | climbing great heights and micro-napping as they glide. They live in the air for months at a time as comfortably as we live on the ground. |
| 1:13.8 | And what tempts them back to terra firmer is nesting. My friends tried to help with that too, |
| 1:20.2 | building an impressive fake gabled roof structure for the Swifts to call home. And their reward for all the heavy lifting and the calloused hands, |
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