Mekong Delta will sink beneath the sea by 2100
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 568 Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2022
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Mekong Delta is home to 17 million people and is Vietnam’s most productive agricultural region. An international group of scientists warn this week that almost all of the low lying delta will have sunk beneath the sea within 80 years without international action. Its disappearance is the result of both sea level rise and developments such as dams and sand mining, as Matt Kondolf of the University of California, Berkeley explains to Roland Pease.
Also in the programme:
Seismologist Laura Emert on using the rumbling of traffic in Mexico City to monitor earthquake hazards.
Mars-shaking Marsquakes – recent record-breaking quakes on Mars explained by seismologist Anna Horleston of Bristol University.
A record-breaking high jumping robot designed by mechanical engineer and roboticist Elliot Hawkes which is so light it can access any terrain, perhaps even the moon.
And gene editing….
Humans now have the ability to directly change their DNA and gene-editing tool CRISPR has led to a new era in gene-editing. CrowdScience listener ‘Bones’ wants to know how gene-editing is currently being used and what might be possible in the future.
Gene-editing offers huge opportunities for the prevention and treatment of human diseases, and trials are currently underway in a wide range of diseases like sickle cell anaemia. CrowdScience presenter Caroline Steel finds out about some of the most promising work tackling disease before turning to consider the possibilities of using gene editing for non-medical changes.
Will we be able to extend human longevity, swap our eye colour or enhance athletic performance? And even if we can do all these things, should we?
As scientists push the boundaries of gene-editing and some people are DIY experimenting on themselves with CRISPR, we discuss the practical and ethical challenges facing this promising but potentially perilous area of science.
Photo: Mekong River in Kampong Cham, Cambodia Credit: Muaz Jaffar/EyeEm/Getty Images
Presenters: Roland Pease and Caroline Steel Producers: Andrew Luck-Baker and Melanie Brown
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might |
| 0:04.7 | like our podcast too. You might. You might. It is called Sightracked with me, Nick Grimshaw. |
| 0:09.2 | And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. All the news, all the cultural |
| 0:14.0 | happenings in the UK and beyond. And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can |
| 0:19.7 | also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and |
| 0:22.6 | live radio, everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind. But obviously start |
| 0:29.2 | with our podcast, sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC |
| 0:33.7 | Sounds. Thank you for downloading The Science Hour from the BBC World Service with me, Roland P's. |
| 0:39.4 | It's only a few years since CRISPR gene editing came on the scene, but already it's transforming lives. |
| 0:46.0 | Here I am completely gene edited and my life changed. |
| 0:50.4 | It feels like, you know, going from surviving to thriving. |
| 0:54.3 | So I'm hoping that's where we're going to go eradicating genetic diseases for everyone. |
| 1:00.1 | In half an hour, crowd science offers a quick guide to gene editing. |
| 1:04.0 | Before that, on Science in Action, we have Mars, shaking Marsquakes, |
| 1:08.1 | how the rumble of urban traffic is giving experts a peak into the sinking soil beneath Mexico City, |
| 1:15.0 | and the athletic robot that can jump 100 times its own height. |
| 1:20.2 | Every time you launch this thing, it's just, it just blows my mind still. |
| 1:24.4 | It's just a tiny little thing. It's just sitting there, sitting there, and then there's this pop, and then all of a sudden you look up and this thing way above your head. |
| 1:31.7 | I mean, it's almost like a model rocket. We start with a plea to save the Mekong Delta from drowning. |
| 1:38.9 | It sounds dramatic, but at the southern tip of Southeast Asia and perpetually replenished until recent decades |
| 1:45.6 | by sediments from one of the world's major rivers, the Mekong Delta is in danger of being |
| 1:51.0 | swamped by the Pacific. |
... |
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 2026.