Rat eradication; elephant talk; the rise of the dinosaurs; physics of snooker
BBC Inside Science
BBC
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On the remote island of South Georgia, the invasion of rats from passing ships has wreaked havoc on the local wildlife. But the South Georgia Heritage Trust announced this week that all rats have been eradicated thanks to an extensive project. Adam Rutherford speaks to chairman Professor Mike Richardson about the achievement and how the wildlife is already healing.
Elephants don’t only communicate using their trunks but also their feet. A new study taps into this underground communication using seismic equipment to detect the vibrations. Dr Beth Mortimer explains how the technology may help to react in real-time to elephant distress such as panic running – for example – when being hunted by poachers.
We all know how dinosaurs became extinct but how did they rise to prominence? Author of the new book “The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs” Steve Brusatte talks about how the beloved creatures came to dominate the Earth and the new technologies being used to discover even more about them.
How does science help us understand snooker? From the importance of chalking cues to how physics explains extraordinary snooker shots. Adam Rutherford tries to find out how he can up his game with the help of physicist Dr Phil Sutton.
Transcript
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| 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, you're doing the wrong thing. |
| 0:26.0 | Julie, but at your service. |
| 0:28.0 | Listen to all episodes on BBC Sales. |
| 0:31.0 | Hello You, this is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on the 10th of May 2018 I'm Adam Rutherford. |
| 0:39.0 | A brief public service announcement. The curious cases of Rutherford and Fry is back for Series 10 on |
| 0:44.8 | podcast weeks before its broadcast and this time they let me and Hannah out of the studio for |
| 0:50.0 | a trip to Cern and into the fifth dimension. |
| 0:53.8 | We're also investigating Bird Song Deja vu, |
| 0:56.5 | how our voices change with age and deja vu. |
| 0:59.6 | If you like this program, then you'll probably like that one one so do give it a go. |
| 1:04.0 | On Inside Science though this week we've got rats, elephants, dinosaurs |
| 1:08.0 | and if that's all a bit animaly, snooker, actually the physics of spin |
| 1:12.0 | and the Newtonian mechanics of how Mark Williams claimed victory in the World Snooker Championship this week. |
| 1:17.0 | We're also eavesdropping on the sounds of elephants, normally inaudible to us because the frequencies are too low but |
| 1:23.7 | detected using earthquake apparatus in a minute we're talking about the |
| 1:27.1 | extinction of rats from south Georgia and celebrating not the end but the rise |
... |
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