Creation of island Britain, Sleep gene, Mary Kelly forensics, Global Tree Search survey
BBC Inside Science
BBC
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2017
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Adam Rutherford examines a new study published this week which reveals how a megaflood and giant waterfalls severed our connection to what is now France, resulting in the creation of island Britain and the watery moat of the English Channel. Jenny Collier of Imperial College London uncovers the ancient evidence dating back 450 000 years ago.
The dream of unbroken sleep is a complex interaction between our environment and our genes, and new research is a step towards understanding the genetics of sleeping patterns. Jason Gerstner of Washington State University discusses his isolation of a gene that seems to play a crucial role in sleep across a number of species including humans.
Turi King played a pivotal role in the identification of Richard III from bones discovered in a Leicester car park She's now involved in another infamous cold case - that of Jack the Ripper. Her interest is in the last of his five canonical victims, known as Mary Kelly, and she's authored a commissioned report on the possibility of identifying the body of Mary Kelly using DNA.
And Paul Smith from Gardens Conservation International discusses the new Global Tree Survey - the biggest and the most comprehensive database of all the trees in the world - accumulated from 500 papers, and nearly four centuries of dendrology.
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, |
| 0:33.0 | find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.3 | Hello you, this is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:40.1 | First broadcast on the 6th of April 2017. I'm Adam Rutherford. |
| 0:45.0 | We've got the latest in the saga of Jack the Ripper, |
| 0:48.0 | but this time round it's an attempt to use DNA |
| 0:51.0 | to identify one of the women he murdered. |
| 0:54.3 | For those troubled by disrupted sleep, |
| 0:56.1 | we've got a tantalizing glimpse at some of the genes |
| 0:58.4 | that may underlie a restless night. |
| 1:01.2 | And we happily present the biggest, most comprehensive the most detailed most awesome |
| 1:06.1 | list of all the trees in the world. Gardner's question time eat your heart out. |
| 1:12.1 | But first article 50 is triggered, Brexit is happening, but science |
| 1:16.8 | transcends the ephemeral short-termism of politics we like to take a long view on such matters. |
| 1:22.8 | And so we turn to the first time that these septid Isles severed ties and broke away from |
| 1:28.0 | mainland Europe, quite literally. |
... |
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