Listeners' Science Questions
BBC Inside Science
BBC
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Adam Rutherford and panellists Helen Czerski, Andrew Pontzen and Nick Crumpton answer listeners' science questions: What's the best way to become fossilised when you die? What are the most genetically different animals than can breed, either in the wild or in captivity? Why are there no animals with green fur? If one of the fundamental constants, like the speed of light, was 50% faster how would it affect our universe and would the universe even exist? Can we infer where the edge of our expanding universe is from its age - is that even a sensible question? Would you experience zero gravity at the centre of the Earth? At a busy airport are the chances of meeting and finding each other better if one person stays put in a space while the other person searches, or if both parties wander around searching? Find out the answers to these and more.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
| 0:09.0 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
| 0:16.0 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
| 0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by |
| 0:23.1 | their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me, |
| 0:28.6 | Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. This is the podcast version of Inside Science from the BBC |
| 0:34.7 | first broadcast on the 24th of September 2015. And I'm Adam Rutherford. |
| 0:40.0 | More information can be found at BBC.co.com.uk slash radio four. |
| 0:45.3 | Hello, welcome to question time. That is science question time. We asked you to send in your |
| 0:50.7 | burning scientific problems, ones that you might not be able to find the answer to on Wikipedia, and you did in your droves, from the cosmological to the quantum with all |
| 0:59.6 | life in between. We've only got time for just 10 today. We've selected ones that made us think |
| 1:04.8 | and smile, but we will do this all again at the end of the year, so do keep sending them in BBCinsidescience |
| 1:10.7 | at BBC.com.com. We've selected a cast of brilliant minds. do this all again at the end of the year, so do keep sending them in BBCinsidescience at |
| 1:11.0 | BBC.co.com. We've selected a cast of brilliant minds across a range of disciplines to |
| 1:16.3 | ponder your inquiries. And unlike the real question time, our panel has seen the questions |
| 1:21.7 | in advance so they actually know what they're talking about. Scientists, please introduce |
| 1:25.8 | yourselves in the manner of university |
| 1:27.6 | challenge. I'm Dr. Helen Cherescott and I'm a physicist at University College London. |
| 1:31.7 | I'm Andrew Ponson and I'm a Royal Society University Research Fellow in Cosmology. |
| 1:37.5 | And I'm Dr Nick Crumpton and I'm a zoologist at University College London. |
| 1:41.9 | Brilliant. Okay. So some of the questions here are very clearly on one |
| 1:45.9 | subject and I'm going to direct them to the relevant person, if I can work out who that is, |
... |
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