meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
BBC Inside Science

Making the UK's dams safe, AI spots fake smiles, How many trees should we be planting?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.51.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the light of the evacuation of the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge due to damage to the Todbrook reservoir dam and the threat of a catastrophic collapse, questions inevitably arise as to how ‘future proofed’ UK dams are? This is doubly worrying in light of climate change and the increasing likelihood of extreme weather events. With the average age of UK dams being over 100 years and the UK climate forecast to become wetter and warmer, should we be concerned? Gareth Mitchell speaks to Rachel Pether from the British Dam Society and Craig Goff, Technical Lead, Dams and Reservoirs from HR Wallingford, who explain the science and engineering involved in monitoring and safely managing UK dams in a changing climate. When someone smiles at you, how can you tell whether that smile is genuine or fake and why would you want to know? According to Professor of visual computing at the University of Bradford, Hassan Ugail, it’s all in the eyes! Humans are notoriously bad at picking up fake smiles, because we tend to focus our vision on the upturned corners of the mouth. Focus on specific movement of the eyes and the dynamic progression of a smile, however, and that’s when a genuine smile is evident. Hassan explains how computers are over 90% successful at being able to detect fake smiles, and examines the purposes to which this facial recognition technology may be applied in our daily lives. Inside Science listener, Thomas from New Zealand, has noticed the sudden surge in nations encouraging mass tree planting and reforestation. But how much of a difference is it all making? Professor of Agriculture, policy and development at the University of Reading Dr Martin Lukac discusses the impacts of, the soot and ash from the recent forest fires in Siberia, deforestation and even makes an educated guess at much forest you would have to plant to counteract the CO2 emissions emitted after using your family car for the year. Producer - Fiona Roberts

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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.

0:41.0

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:45.0

Hello everyone, I'm Gareth Mitchell, keeping the science coming right at you.

0:49.0

For the next few weeks, I'm standing in for Adam Rutherford.

0:52.0

This is the podcast edition of Inside Science from BBC

0:56.2

Radio 4 for Thursday the 8th of August 2019. You're very welcome. Today the computer software that can tell if that smile of yours is real or fake.

1:07.0

And how many trees should countries around the world be planting? We put a listener's questions to a leading ecologist. But first, in Waley Bridge, a week after

1:17.5

being told to leave their homes following the partial collapse of the Todd Brook Dan, the residents are back.

1:25.0

We've all missed each other.

1:26.0

We just wanted to see everybody and make sure everybody's alright.

1:29.0

We've got some older regulars that you're worried about and thought where are they are they okay.

1:35.0

I was actually on my post round and I got the call from my partner to say that the village was

1:39.6

being shut the dam was about to go, got stopped by the police, told me I needed to get my cat,

1:44.6

ran in the house, luckily he was in the house, shoved him into a basket, got too much my mums.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.