How vulnerable is our power supply?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Severe power cuts hit Spain, Portugal and parts of France this week, cutting the lights and stopping flights, trains, and ATM machines in their tracks. The Spanish grid operator has said it’s ruled out a cyber-attack, but the reason behind what happened is still unclear. We speak to Keith Bell, Professor of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, and David Brayshaw, Professor of Climate Science and Energy Meteorology at the University of Reading, to ask whether the UK’s power supply could be just as vulnerable to a major blackout.

Presenter Victoria Gill hears about how cyborg cockroaches are being developed to try to help at disaster scenes. We’re also joined by science journalist Caroline Steel to discuss the week’s standout science news. And we find out how a critically endangered salamander, the axolotl, could hold the biological key to repairing damaged spinal cords.

Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Clare Salisbury, Dan Welsh and Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, it's Lucy Worsley here and we're back with a brand new series of ladies swindlers.
0:07.5	Promise never to mention a word of what is going on.
0:10.1	Join me and my all-female team of detectives as we revisit the audacious crimes of women trying to make it in a world made for men.
0:19.5	This is a story of working class women trying to get by.
0:24.4	This is survival.
0:25.3	Join me for the second season of Lady Swindlers, where true crime meets history with a twist.
0:31.4	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:36.3	BBC Sounds, music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:41.0	Hello and welcome to the Inside Science podcast, you delightful, curious-minded humans.
0:46.5	This episode was first broadcast on Thursday the 1st of May 2025, and I'm Victoria Gill.
0:51.7	Today we are bringing you insects and amphibians with surprising superpowers
0:56.6	because we're finding out how cyborg cockroaches could help at the scene of a disaster
1:01.3	and if a strange, critically endangered salamander could hold the biological key
1:06.8	to repairing a damaged spinal cord.
1:09.9	And science journalist Caroline Steele is here with me, dissecting the science news for us.
1:14.4	Hello, Caroline.
1:15.3	Hi, Vic. Thanks for having me back on.
1:17.0	Oh, you are always welcome. What do you have in store for us?
1:19.3	So I've got a new version of the periodic table.
1:22.7	I've got some new research that suggests humans have evolved to survive mild burns at the expense of more severe
1:28.8	ones and a sea lion that holds a beat better than humans. An eclectic chocolate box of
1:35.7	stories there. Thank you, Caroline. We'll be back with you shortly. First, though, images
	...

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