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BBC Inside Science

Disobedient particles, noisy gorillas, sharks and fictional languages

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.51.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2016, an accelerator physics centre called Fermilab acquired a massive circular 50 foot magnet from a lab in New York. Too big for the roads, the magnet had to take a 2000km detour via New Orleans to get to its new home. This was the start of the “muon g-2” experiment. Last week, Fermilab announced some of their results, and they don’t quite add up. UK experiment lead Professor Mark Lancaster from Manchester University tells us what they have discovered about the tiny particle that is disobeying the laws that govern how our entire universe fits together. Mountain gorillas are among the most impressive and powerful primates alive today. Living in the dense forests of eastern and central Africa, they are able to communicate with other gorillas a mile away by cupping their hands and beating their chests. Primatologist Edward Wright and colleagues have been studying male silverback gorillas and explains how gorillas use chest beating to attract potential mates and suss out competitors. And Professor Corey Bradshaw from Adelaide, South Australia sheds light on a more fearsome animal: sharks. His research has investigated the likelihood of shark attacks around the Australian coast into the future, up to 2066, and asked what would happen to those figures if everyone wore an electrical emitter that interferes with the sharks electrical senses. He finds that shark attacks are remarkably low already, but these emitters could reduce bites by up to 3000 over the next 50 years. Super fans around the world have learned to speak fluent Klingon, a fictional language originating from Star Trek. In a quest to understand the science behind these languages often dismissed as gobbledygook, Gaia Vince has been speaking to some of the linguists responsible for creating these languages. It’s time for her to relax the tongue, loosen those jaw muscles and wrap her head around the scientific building blocks embedded in language and what languages like Klingon tell us about prehistoric forms of communication. Presented by Marnie Chesterton Produced by Rory Galloway

Transcript

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0:00.0

Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.

0:03.7

My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts.

0:08.4

I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced

0:12.2

pundits and the biggest sport stars.

0:14.3

Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players'

0:18.5

mouths.

0:19.5

But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world.

0:25.0

What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to

0:28.8

dedicated sports fans across the UK.

0:31.2

So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.

0:35.8

Hello, you're listening to the BBC Inside Science podcast, first broadcast on the 8th of April

0:41.3

2021.

0:42.3

I'm Marnie Chesterton.

0:45.2

Since you've downloaded this podcast, you clearly have amazing taste.

0:48.9

So can I take a moment to recommend a brilliant show made by my department that airs this

0:53.4

Saturday?

0:54.4

It's from the team behind the award-winning 13 minutes to the moon.

0:58.8

And in it, 60 years after Yuri Gagarin's historic orbit of the Earth, Kevin Fong tells the

1:04.2

story of the first human spaceflight and how the Soviet Union led and then lost the space

1:10.0

race.

1:11.0

It's called Gagarin and the Lost Moon, and that's on Radio 4, 8pm on Saturday the 10th

1:16.8

of April.

...

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