This podcast is supported by Jian Zhao Tong, Liverpool University, where East meets West to redefine the future of learning and discovery.

This year, we're turning 20.

Celebrate with us as we honor two decades of breakthroughs, cross-cultural exchange, and world-changing research.

Curious about how we're making waves, join the party at www.xjtlu.edu.

.c.n........... this is a science podcast for January 15, 2026. I'm Sarah Crespi. First up this week, researchers battle cats, rats, and flies in an effort

to restore balance to the Galapagos. Freeland science writer Sophia Qualia talks about her visit

to the archipelago and the complexities of ecosystem restoration there. Next on the show, Antarctica's

deep ice sheet obscures the hills and valleys

of its land, making the continent's response to climate change one of the biggest unknowns in predicting

sea level rise over the next century. Glaciologist Helen Ackenden joins the podcast to discuss

how her team use satellite imagery and the physics of

ice flows to fill in the missing details of Antarctica's subglacial surface.

Now we have Sophia Qualia. She's a freelance science writer. This week in science, she wrote about

conservation and restoration efforts on an island in the Galapagos. Hi, Sophia. Welcome to the

science podcast. Thanks so much for having me. Sure. The Galapagos are famous for their diversity,

for this huge number of unique species there, maybe most famously for Darwin's finches,

but there are penguins that only live there.

And this is like the equator.

And there are marine iguanas

and, of course, all kinds of crazy tortoises.

You actually had a chance to visit

this kind of magical place.

...