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BBC Inside Science

Lovelock at 100; Hydrothermal vents and antibiotic resistance in the environment

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.51.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2019

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

James Lovelock is one of the most influential thinkers on the environment of the last half century. His grand theory of planet Earth - Gaia, which is the idea that from the bottom of the Earth's crust to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, Earth is one giant inter-connected and self-regulating system, has had an impact way beyond the world of science. As Lovelock celebrates his hundredth birthday (he was born on 26th July 1919) he is still writing books and thinking about science. Science writer Gaia Vince spoke to him about his work and how he came to his famous but controversial theory. Most hydrothermal vents are in deep water far from land, making them incredibly inaccessible to divers. But in a fjord known locally as Eyjafjörður, off the coast of Iceland, is the hydrothermal vent Strytan. It's close enough that it can be accessed by scuba divers, and the algae and animals living in the hot chemical-laden plumes can be sampled. Geoff Marsh heads out with a team of scientists from the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Southampton to collect creatures living both in the hot vent water and in the icy cold fjord. The idea is to sample the genes to see what adaptations to temperature are evolving. We are hearing more and more about antibiotic resistance. Overuse of antibiotics has led to more and more bacteria evolving and adapting ways to survive antimicrobial treatments. But did you know that the genes coding for this resistance can also float freely in water and on surfaces in the environment? A couple of recent studies have been sampling freshwater bodies and commonly touched surfaces (like handrails and toilet seats) in and around London and the amount of antibiotic resistance genes (either freely floating or in bacteria) is quite alarming. Environmental engineer at UCL, Professor Lena Ciric, explains to Marnie Chesterton what this means and whether we should be concerned. Producer: Fiona Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan

0:05.2

I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy

0:10.2

podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.

0:13.0

Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,

0:18.0

making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.

0:22.0

But you know I also know that comedy is really

0:24.4

subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer

0:29.6

from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you

0:36.2

fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds. Last Friday, the 26th of July, marked the 100th birthday of James Lovelock, an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist.

0:55.5

He started out as a medical researcher, then turned to chemical engineering, assisting

1:00.5

NASA looking for life on Mars and designing instruments to measure the hole in the ozone layer.

1:05.6

But he's best known for proposing the Gaea theory, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system.

1:13.6

In Greek mythology, Gaya is the personification of the earth,

1:17.2

but she's also journalist, award-winning author,

1:20.4

and top human Gaya Vince, who spoke to James last week and is on the top human Gaya Vince who spoke to James last week and is on the line

1:25.0

from the University of Exeter where she's attending a meeting marking his

1:28.9

centenary on the future of global systems thinking.

1:33.0

Gaya, hi.

1:34.0

Hello.

1:35.0

Just briefly, can you explain how Lovelot came to his Gaya theory,

1:39.0

the self-regulating earth?

1:41.0

He was at NASA working there, and he was asked to devise a system to look for life

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