Ethiopian genome, Coral nutrients, The hunt for gravitational waves, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As evidence grows about the vulnerability of our ocean corals to climate change, what's often overlooked are the more subtle changes in the ocean waters that contribute to coral resilience. Adam visits Southampton's Oceanography Centre where new research is showing how an imbalance of nutrients in reef waters is increasing the vulnerability of reef corals to high water temperatures which could help direct future coastal management.

The long awaited hunt for gravitational waves gets underway as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States begins its first observational run. The waves, generated by some of the most dramatic events in space such as the explosion of stars and the merging of two black holes, were first postulated by Einstein in 1916. So far they've never been detected but if LIGO is successful it'll not only provide proof of Einstein's Theory of Relativity but also provide the first direct evidence of the existence of black holes.

And Adam meets theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli whose new book Seven Brief Lessons on Physics examines in seven short essays how 20th century physics is shaping our world view. In Italy, it's outsold 50 Shades of Grey and the Pope's Encyclical and has now been translated into English. What's been the key to its success?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello you this is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on the 8th of October
0:06.5	2015 I'm Adam Rutherford and more information can be found at BBC.co. UK slash Radio 4.
0:13.2	We're on the hunt for something that physicists have been after for years
0:16.8	which will tie up Einstein's theory of general relativity in its centenary year,
0:21.1	the very elusive gravitational waves.
0:24.3	We're into corals but not in the ocean, in labs
0:26.9	where they're being tested for their resilience
0:28.9	to troubled waters.
0:30.3	And finally, we have proof that physics is better than both sex and God.
0:35.6	We've got the theoretical physicist whose latest book has outsold 50 Shades of Grey
0:39.7	and the Pope's latest encyclical in Italy.
0:43.3	But first, regular listeners will know that although I adore all branches of science, I get particularly
0:48.0	excited about genetics and evolution, and the combination of these two in the story of us is basically in my opinion the most exciting part of contemporary science
0:57.8	Our ability to read DNA and recover it from the long dead has utterly transformed our understanding of human evolution
1:04.8	and of how this bald ape moved out of Africa and took over the world.
1:08.8	Because the technology has become so much more accessible in the last couple of years,
1:13.1	the flood of papers describing the movements of people in prehistory is overwhelming, but every
1:19.2	so often one pops up which is just breathtaking.
1:22.2	We already know that around 3,000 years ago there was a
1:25.1	major movement back into Africa which brought genes and culture and farming. Tonight
1:31.2	I'd like to introduce you to Mota, a man who was buried face down in a cave in the highlands of what is now Ethiopia around 4,500 years ago.
1:40.0	An international team woke him from his grave and have managed to extract his entire genome from a bone in his skull.
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