Eternal flames
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 567 Ratings
🗓️ 31 May 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the Olympic torch makes its way through France, we investigate the fires that continually smoulder and those which are stomped out.
You might expect snow to make a solid fire extinguisher, but in Canada, it is somehow keeping embers alight. These ‘Zombie fires’ keep burning through the winter, releasing huge amounts of carbon into the air and enhancing the tinderbox for summer wildfires.
While wildfires leave trails of destruction, for some plants and animals, they act as a catalyst for life – helping them to spread their seeds or flower. And the extent of these blazes can also be marshalled by nature – with elephants and beavers building natural fire breaks into landscapes to prevent uncontrollable flames.
We hear about when the first fires happened on Earth and how we can study ancient fires which have long since gone out. Plus, we unpick the key to monogamy (in mice), why cicadas love prime numbers as well as your thoughts on snakes...
Presenter: Caroline Steel with Philistiah Mwatee and Chhavi Sachdev Producer: Alex Mansfield with Florian Bohr, Harrison Lewis, Julia Ravey and Noa Dowling Sound engineer: Emily Preston
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 2019, we began investigating the disappearance of Dr. Ruzha Ignatva. |
| 0:08.0 | I believe we are a very special network. |
| 0:10.0 | A scammer who stole billions from investors around the world. |
| 0:15.0 | She's on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. |
| 0:18.0 | And now, we have some unmissable updates. She has money and when you have |
| 0:23.0 | money you have power. Join me, Jamie Bartlett, as the hunt for the missing crypto queen continues. |
| 0:29.5 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. For me, this week has been filled with a lot of email debt guilt. |
| 0:39.4 | You know that feeling when someone emails you and you're not quite sure what to reply, |
| 0:43.8 | so you put it off. |
| 0:45.2 | Then it's been a few days, so you feel like you've got to write something really good |
| 0:48.8 | to make up for the time that's passed, but that feels even harder. |
| 0:53.2 | Then it's been a couple of weeks and you feel like a total |
| 0:56.7 | failure, so ignore the problem entirely and just never reply. If you can relate to that feeling, |
| 1:01.9 | I have some good news for you. You are absolved because the 31st of May is email debt forgiveness |
| 1:08.1 | day. So we can all pardon each other for those unanswered emails and start |
| 1:12.3 | fresh. Maybe I'll just do one big group email and send everyone I owe a reply to a link to this show |
| 1:19.2 | instead. So if you're one of those people listening now, I'm sorry, please forgive me. I'm Caroline Steele |
| 1:25.7 | from the BBC World Service. This is unexpected elements. |
| 1:42.2 | I'm joined by two people who luckily did answer their emails, so we could arrange for them to be here. In Mumbai, India, we've got science journalist Chavi Satchev. Hey, Chavi. Hello, Tsibai. And in Nairobi in the BBC Kenya's office, we have Phyllis Mwati. Lovely to see you again, Phyllis. Hello, Caroline, who jambu. Chavi, Phyllis, |
| 2:02.0 | do you relate to email debt? Or are you just thinking, Caroline, just sit down and reply. It's not |
| 2:07.2 | that hard. Oh, I definitely relate to it. I was obsessed with inbox zero for a little while. |
| 2:13.1 | It's the concept of like setting aside these filters and then replying to everything important |
... |
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