Predictions from the sky and murderous fish

Unexpected Elements

BBC

Science

4.4 • 567 Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid, but how to pick a date for your festivities?

The Islamic calendar says look to the moon, but haven’t we always chosen to order life on earth by using the planets, moons and stars?

We hear about the Mayans who tracked Venus and the astronomer who proved that comets weren’t bad omens.

Having looked at the outsourcing of decisions to the sky, we wonder why we can’t just trust our brains and wonder what neuroscience has to say about it.

And now that AI is able to make decisions for us, we hear about the computer-predicted proteins doing work that would otherwise take millions of years of evolution.

Our ‘Under the Radar’ story this week comes from Brazil, where we meet the Lionfish – hear how these kings of the coral reef are upsetting the ecosystem by eating most of it.

In our ongoing quest to find The Coolest Science in the World, we hear from a scientist doing amazing things with immersive audio.

And Marnie learns about the engineer trying to build roads through fresh volcanic lava, and reflects on how we predict eruptions.

All this plus your emails and WhatsApps, and a lot of mango chat.

Presented by Marnie Chesterton Produced by Ben Motley, with Alex Mansfield and Sophie Ormiston Production Coordinator: Jonathan Harris

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 with
0:29.3	our podcast sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:34.0	The explanation from the BBC World Service takes a deep dive into the big
0:38.9	stories affecting our lives, giving you an unvarnished explanation of the world. Search for the
0:46.2	explanation wherever you get your BBC podcasts. I live in a predominantly Muslim part of London.
0:57.2	At the moment, I can probably get my hands on five different types of mango.
1:02.1	That sounds like a brag, and it sort of is.
1:05.2	I'm constantly astonished and grateful that I live in an age
1:08.9	where we have that multicultural mixing and technological know-how
1:13.0	to get a notoriously fragile tropical fruit from Pakistan, India and the Dominican Republic
1:19.4	to the streets of my bit of Britain. And these perfumed wonders are 100 times better than what I thought a mango was.
1:28.1	I love that boxes of 12, why would you want fewer than 12, are given as gift at holiday times?
1:35.1	I love that it gets tricky to walk down the street because people crowd round the fruit stalls,
1:40.6	happily ignoring those signs that say do not touch the mangoes, as they focus on a single-minded
1:46.7	quest for the best box. I don't share a religion, but I do share mutual fruit appreciation
1:53.5	with my mango-loving community. I'm Marnie Chesterton, this is unexpected elements.
2:16.9	And this show has its own little community, although I haven't checked with them yet whether they share my
	...

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