Longitude Prize 2014; Dementia; Matter from light; Coastal deposition

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2014

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Longitude Prize 2014 The Longitude Prize offers a £10 million prize pot to help find the solution to one of the greatest issues of our age. Votes from the British public will decide what that issue will be. This week, the six shortlisted challenges have been unveiled. They cover flight, food, antibiotics, paralysis, water and dementia. Alice Roberts talks to Adam about why we need an X-factor for science. Over the next month, Inside Science will profile each of these challenges and explain how you can cast your vote.

Matter from Light In 12 months' time, researchers say they will be able to make matter from light. Three physicists were sitting in a tiny office at Imperial College London and while drinking coffee they found what they call a fairly simple way to prove a theory first suggested by scientists 80 years ago: to convert photons - i.e. particles of light - into electrons (particles of matter) and positrons (antimatter). Adam discusses the work with theoretical physicist Professor Steven Rose from Imperial College London and science writer Philip Ball.

Longitude challenge - Dementia How can we help people with dementia to live independently for longer? Dr Kevin Fong is the champion for this Longitude Challenge, arguing that we all use technology to support our lifestyles but that people with dementia need extra tech. Marnie Chesterton visits Designability, a Bath-based design charity that works with people with dementia to develop new technologies. Their Day Clock shows that a simple design can produce radical results.

Coastal deposition The destructive winter storms that hit the UK caused were flooded by the worst tidal surge on the east coast in 60 years. Sand dunes play an important defensive role on our coastline but little is known about their resilience or recovery rate. So after the December 5th storm, scientists sprang into action in Lincolnshire with a new project that officially began in February. The aim is to help future coastal management by researching the effects of storm surges on sand dunes.

Producer: Fiona Roberts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds.
0:29.1	Hello You this is the podcast of Inside Science from the BBC first broadcast on the
0:34.2	22nd of May 2014 my name is Adam Rutherford some form of terms and conditions
0:40.3	which I've never actually looked at can be found at BBC.co.
0:43.7	UK slash radio for. This week lo we have seen the light and rather surprisingly it was
0:50.5	solid ish new research on turning photons into matter coming up and we're taking a look at the opposite of erosion, coastal deposition where following the brutal storms of last winter land is advancing into the sea.
1:04.0	But the big news this week has been the launch of the new 10 million pound longitude prize,
1:09.0	the 21st century's challenge to scientists, both professional and amateur, to tackle some big issues.
1:15.6	We'll be following this over the next few weeks, and ultimately only one of the six proposed
1:20.4	topics will form the challenge, and that will be determined by you.
1:24.8	More on that coming up in just a minute.
1:27.0	Scientists, Doctor and All-round Good Egg, Professor Alice Roberts is the Longitude Showrunner
1:31.0	for the BBC and of course she is sometime presenter of
1:34.6	this very program when they let me out of the Inside Science Paddock.
1:37.8	Alice why is it called the Longitude Prize? The reason it's called the Longitude Prize
	...

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