Flooding, Scientific modelling, Magnetoreception, Escalators

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2015

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Flood modelling As parts of Cumbria and Somerset remain on flood alert, Adam looks at the science that predicts floods. Are our flood defences good enough and is climate change behind the recent cluster of '1 in 100 year' floods? Flood modeller Nick Reynard from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology explains.

What is a scientific model? Prompted by a listener's question, Adam asks scientists what they mean when they say they "modelled the data". He explores the strengths and weaknesses of using models to represent things as diverse as the spin of planets and field choice of skylarks.

Magneto-reception Is there a 6th sense? Since the 1960s, it has been generally accepted that animals have a sense of magnetism. This may help explain how some birds are able to migrate huge distances. However, ever since this discovery, the mechanism behind the reception of the Earth's magnetic field has remained a mystery. Scientists don't know which components are responsible for detecting the magnetism, hence the search for 'a biological compass'. The quest has united people from a range of disciplines such as animal behaviourists, chemists and quantum biologists. Are scientists getting any closer to finding the biological compass?

Escalator experiment Regular commuters on the London Underground know instinctively to 'stand on the right and walk up on the left' when using the many escalators on the Tube. But in a three week trial at one of the busiest stations - Holborn - Transport for London staff are asking travellers to stand on both sides. The idea is to regulate the flow of traffic. Will it work?

Producer: Fiona Roberts.

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 10th of
0:05.8	December 2015 I'm Adam Rutherford more information can be found at BBC.co. UK slash
0:11.6	radio 4 this week we get to the bottom of the escalators at Hoban Tube Station
0:16.2	with an experiment in standing still on the left-hand side. Yes, crazy I know.
0:21.2	We don't quite get to the bottom of the ability of birds to track magnetic fields,
0:26.6	and bottom top, strange and charm all subatomic particles, but are they quarks or quarks? we settle the debate once and for all.
0:35.0	But first this week the rain came in Cumbria and wreaked devastation on scale rarely seen in the UK.
0:42.0	Strong winds and heavy rain are causing major problems across northern England and Scotland.
0:46.8	There's serious flooding in parts of Cumbria and the Scottish borders.
0:49.6	Now Cumbria, we have a red warning from the Met Office that is pretty extraordinary
0:54.5	fair simply because it has rained very heavily. Today's events appear to be
0:58.7	unprecedented in Kessick and within Cumbria. Private change is factored in to all the modelling work the Environment Agency does, but clearly in the light of this extreme weather,
1:10.0	we are going to have to look at that modelling.
1:12.0	Storm Desmond arrived in northwest Europe and
1:14.4	unleashed extreme weather across cumbria, Northumberland, parts of Wales, Ireland and
1:19.2	Norway. Thousands of homes have been evacuated and ruined by flood water as many rivers broke their banks and flood defences were stretched beyond their limits.
1:28.0	With the ongoing discussion in Paris about climate change, we want to try and understand the relationship between the
1:33.5	changing climate and extreme weather events. The impact of the disaster on people's
1:38.1	lives is of course paramount, but how we mitigate for unprecedented weather is underwritten by science.
1:44.3	You just heard the Secretary of State for Environment Liz Truss talking about how we try to understand
1:49.2	and predict these types of weather hazards using scientific modeling, and we'll be discussing exactly what that means in just a moment.
1:56.0	But first, Nick Raynard is a natural disaster scientist at the Center for Ecology in
	...

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