meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
BBC Inside Science

Mars - rovers v humans? Forests and carbon, Ethiopian bush crow

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.51.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2019

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nasa have called time on the 14 year mission with the Mars Opportunity rover. Curiosity is still there. But what's next for our exploration of the Red planet? Adam asks Senior Strategist in Space Systems at Airbus, Liz Seward and BBC space correspondent, Jonathan Amos. Airbus are working with the European and Russian Space Agencies on the next rover, part of the Exomars mission. This new rover is called the Rosalind Franklin, after the UK scientist and when it hopefully lands in 2021, it'll be drilling down, deep into the surface of Mars to look for evidence of past life. We know that trees help mitigate the effects of greenhouse gases on climate change by sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In fact forests are estimated to lock up 2 of every 10 carbon molecules released. But which forests do it best? Tom Pugh at the University of Birmingham has been looking at the age of forests to try and see if this is a factor. It turns out the pristine, ancient tropical forests like the Amazon, although doing a good job, just aren't as good as the younger, regrowth forests of the Boreal and Temperate zones in the northern hemisphere. It's all down to demographics and the balance between new trees and dying trees. We keep hearing that this, or that, species is being threatened by climate change, but often the mechanisms are not that obvious. One particularly intriguing example comes in the form of the Ethiopian bush crow. An intelligent, seemingly adaptable bird, living in what seems like a general, widespread habitat in Southern Ethiopia, eating a wide and varied diet. Yet it's range is restricted to tiny pockets of land in a huge area of, what seems like a similar habitat. Ecologist, Andrew Bladon at Cambridge University thinks he has the answer to what's restricting this bird's range and how is a warming climate pushing this bird to extinction. Producer: Fiona Roberts

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service.

0:04.7

Join me as I serve up personal conversations with my sensational guests.

0:08.8

Do a leap interviews, Tim Cook.

0:11.2

Technology doesn't want to be good or bad.

0:15.0

It's in the hands of the creator.

0:16.7

It's not every day that I have the CEO of the world's biggest company in my living room.

0:20.7

If you're looking at your phone more than you're looking in someone's eyes,

0:24.6

you're doing the wrong thing.

0:26.0

Julie, at your service, listen to all episodes on BBC Sales. I'm B. C Sounds, Music Radio Podcasts.

0:36.0

Hello you, this is Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on the 21st of February 2019. I'm Adam Rutherford. Trees are responsible for sucking a lot of the carbon out of the

0:47.0

atmosphere, yet another reason for protecting the forests of the world, but it's not just the

0:51.0

older forests that do all the work it turns out that teenage

0:53.9

trees are hard to beat that is an undertone's pun that none of my producers

0:58.9

managed to recognize and I I don't know I feel a bit sad about that.

1:04.0

And the curious case of the Ethiopian Bush Crow,

1:06.2

a beautiful noisy sociable Corvid

1:08.8

that has puzzled ornithologists for decades.

1:11.2

Unlike every other Crow, it has a tiny territorial range about the size of Norfolk.

1:15.9

New research discovers why this bird is not much for leaving home.

1:19.7

But first, we know of two planets inhabited by sentient beings.

1:24.2

One is Earth, almost too many billions to count here at home,

1:28.0

the other is populated entirely by robots.

...

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.