Gain-of-function research, Mindfulness, Women in science, Snake locomotion
BBC Inside Science
BBC
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week in the US, public discussions are taking place into controversial Gain of Function research. Who should decide the limits of studies where scientists make new, deadlier viruses in the laboratory? Dr Filippa Lentzos, biosecurity expert from King's College, London, lists a litany of accidental security breaches from the past. Should we stop this kind of dangerous research, or encourage it, in the interests of national security?
Mindfulness is a hot topic at the moment. As part of BBC School Report, students from Connaught School for Girls in Leytonstone have tested themselves to see whether meditation helps with their studies. Tracey Logan discusses the scientific research underpinning this trend with psychologist Claudia Hammond.
The Royal Society released a report this week entitled "Parent, Carer, Scientist." The idea is to encourage an environment in research institutions where scientists can have a life as well as a vocation. Professor Ottoline Leyser, Professor of Plant Development and Director of Cambridge University's Sainsbury Laboratory, discusses what needs to change to ensure more female scientists to stay in science.
How do snakes move across sand? BBC science reporter Jonathan Webb meets Perrin Schiebel, at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A physicist, she works with a giant sand pit and high-speed cameras, putting snakes through their paces to unpick how they can push their bodies off the sand without sinking into it.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello I'm Tracy Logan and this is the podcast of BBC Inside Science first broadcast on the 10th of March 2016. |
| 0:07.0 | You can find plenty more science programs and our terms and conditions at BBC.k.k.k. |
| 0:12.0 | UK slash Radio 4. This week the Royal Society |
| 0:16.0 | launches its latest campaign to promote diversity in the lab. Was the campaign |
| 0:21.2 | right to feature men's voices? |
| 0:23.3 | Judge for yourself later in the programme, |
| 0:25.3 | along with the benefits of mindfulness meditation in exam time |
| 0:29.1 | as studied by our ace school reporters? |
| 0:32.1 | Then there are the snakes and their slithering skills on |
| 0:35.8 | sand. Why don't they sink like we do? But first, is there some science that should never be done? |
| 0:44.1 | It's just too dangerous. |
| 0:46.8 | Today in the United States, public discussions are taking place |
| 0:49.6 | on a highly controversial area of biosciences, making new |
| 0:53.4 | deadlier viruses by adding new functions to natural viruses. |
| 0:57.8 | In 2014, the US government temporarily banned |
| 1:01.5 | this so-called gain-of-function research or |
| 1:04.1 | geo-f over fears of it getting into the wrong hands and they launched a |
| 1:08.3 | deliberation on its pros and cons. This type of research has been going on for decades at least. In the 1970s a new influenza |
| 1:16.4 | virus was created that killed 100% of all turkeys had infected. In 2012, research was published showing how just a few genetic mutations could |
| 1:26.1 | transform the H5N1 bird flu virus, making it much more likely to infect and even kill mammals. In that case ferrets, but it could have been us. |
| 1:36.3 | Following that research, academics agreed to a one-year moratorium on such studies and they resumed in 2013. |
| 1:44.0 | Among the comments received ahead of today's meeting is one from Dr David Fedson, |
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