Neurons that restore walking in paralysed patients
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 568 Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2022
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Researchers have identified which neurons, when electrically stimulated, can restore the ability to walk in paralysed patients. Professor Jocelyne Bloch, Associate Professor at the Université de Lausanne, tells Roland how the technology works.
Astronomers have discovered the closest black hole to Earth. Researchers led by Kareem El-Badry, astrophysicist at Harvard University, identified the celestial body when they spotted a Sun-like star orbiting a dark, dense object.
The origins of eels have been mystifying scientists for centuries. Though the Sargasso Sea has been their presumed breeding place for 100 years, there has been no direct evidence of their migration – until now. Ros Wright, Senior Fisheries Technical Specialist at the Environment Agency, shares how researchers finally pinned down these slippery creatures.
This week, a new report from the UN Environment Programme reveals that carbon dioxide emissions from building operations have reached an all-time high. Insaf Ben Othmane, architect and co-author of the report, talks through the risks and opportunities this poses for Africa and why there is still hope for the future.
After learning how long it will take the Earth's ice sheets to melt in the previous episode, we continue our journey in Greenland. As world leaders gather in Egypt for the annual UN climate conference, listener Johan isn't too optimistic about governments' ability to curb greenhouse gas emissions and get a handle on climate change. So from his coastal perch in Denmark, he's asked where we should live when the poles have melted away and coastlines creep inland.
Along with the help of BBC correspondents around the world, Marnie Chesterton scours the globe for the best option for listener Johan's new home. From high-up, cold desert regions to manmade islands, Marnie's on a mission to find a climate-proof destination. But as we hear from climate scientists, we might not be the only ones on the move, and waters aren't going to rise evenly around the world. Can Marnie find a place to go, away from the expanding seas?
(Image: Patient with complete spinal cord injury (left) and incomplete spinal cord injury (right) walking in Lausanne. Credit: Jimmy Ravier/NeuroRestore)
Transcript
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| 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. |
| 0:39.3 | In half an hour, CrowdScience has travelled to the edge of Greenland's icy coastline. |
| 0:45.5 | We are in a boat in a fjured surrounded by icebergs. |
| 0:52.3 | And I can see straight ahead of me where they've all come off. |
| 0:56.4 | The Greenland ice sheet, one edge of which has spilled out into this fjord. |
| 1:02.6 | Just the place to see how fast the ice sheet is melting. |
| 1:06.5 | That report later in the podcast. |
| 1:09.3 | Before that on Science in Action, making it possible for the |
| 1:12.6 | lame to walk again, we're looking into the science, the long and windy migration of eels |
| 1:18.0 | to the Sargasso Sea, the nearest black hole to home. The orbit is 186 days, so about half |
| 1:24.9 | of an Earth year, and the distance between the star and the black hole |
| 1:27.9 | is about one and a half times the distance from the earth to the sun. So it's somewhat similar |
| 1:32.8 | to if you take the solar system, replace the sun with a black hole and the earth with the sun. |
| 1:38.3 | And building Africa's future in a climate-friendly way. You can feel it if you are in the field. You can see how much the |
| 1:45.7 | only concern of this youth is to go and to be active towards a green and sustainable future for |
... |
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