Bonus: 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

BBC

Business

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2019

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Introducing our new podcast about innovation, technology and the animal kingdom. This is the whole of the first episode about how the kingfisher inspired the design of a train. The 500 series Shinkansen, also known as bullet train, is one of the fastest in the world. It is also quiet, but that was not always the case. This is the tale of Japanese engineer Eiji Nakatsu, the kingfisher, an owl, a penguin and biomimicry. www.bbcworldservice.com/30animals

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm so pleased to be back with 50 things that made the modern economy.
0:04.0	To accompany the start of our new season, for a few weeks I've got a bonus podcast for
0:08.6	you.
0:09.6	Because if you like my podcast, I feel you're like this one too.
0:12.4	It's called 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter.
0:15.6	It's brand new from the BBC World Service and it brings together innovation and technology
0:20.0	with the wonders of the animal kingdom.
0:22.3	It's all about what we humans have learned from some amazing animals.
0:25.9	Here's Patrick I.E. with the first episode.
0:28.8	I hope you enjoy it.
0:42.9	My earliest memory of watching a spider weaving its web was when I was about 11 years old.
0:49.3	It was in the back garden of our new house.
0:51.8	Of course I'd seen spiders webbed before but they were all quite small and they'd bigger
0:56.3	than the palm of my hand.
0:58.3	But this one was about two feet wide, easily the biggest I'd ever laid eyes on.
1:04.1	And what's even more impressive was the size of the insects entangled in the sticky strands.
1:09.7	Big bugs, solid juicy flies trapped in thread so delicate you could hardly see them.
1:16.2	I moved in closer and very gently touched the web with my finger.
1:21.6	Immediately I jumped back with excitement as a spider scuttle across the silken threads
1:25.7	to investigate.
1:28.1	Spider silk is amazing stuff.
1:31.3	Wait for wait it's about five times as strong as steel, yet it's finer than human hair
	...

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