RIP Granny the oldest Orca - Graphene + Silly Putty - Moving a Giant Magnet - Space in 2017

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Science

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2017

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The world's oldest known killer whale is presumed dead. At an estimated age of 100 years, 'Granny' was last seen with her family in October. The scientists who've followed her and her pod for four decades announced that they believe she has died somewhere in the North American Pacific. Adam Rutherford talks to evolutionary biologist Darren Croft of the University of Exeter about this remarkable animal and the insights that Granny and her clan have provided on killer whale social life and the evolution of the menopause.

Adam also hears how a 'kitchen' experiment with Silly Putty and the form of carbon known as graphene led to the creation of an ultra-sensitive electro-mechanical sensing material. G-putty may provide the basis for a continuous and wearable blood pressure monitor. It can also detect the footsteps of spiders. Professor Jonathan Coleman of Trinity College, Dublin explains how its properties arise from mixing the two materials.

Reporter Marnie Chesterton tells how a 700 tonne magnet was moved 3,000 miles by road and river across the United States, inciting both conspiracy theories and adulation. Now homed at Fermilab - the US's premier particle physics lab - the magnet is about to start probing the laws of the Universe in the Muon g-2 experiment.

BBC science correspondents Rebecca Morelle and Jonathan Amos pick their space and astronomy highlights for the coming year.

Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello you, this is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4, first broadcast on the 5th of January 2017.
0:07.0	Happy new year to you all.
0:08.6	I'm Adam Rutherford, now here's some brand new science.
0:12.3	Happy new arbitrary designation of the astronomical calendar.
0:16.0	As it's the new year, we're getting out the crystal ball.
0:19.0	And then we're throwing it away, because that's a load of old rubbish,
0:21.0	and instead using real astronomy to take a look at the exciting
0:24.2	space milestones coming up in 2017.
0:27.6	We've got the brand new revolutionary substance that combines super high-tech wonder material graphing with freaky children's toy
0:35.4	silly putty. The results are an ultra-sensitive electromechanical detector capable of
0:40.6	sensing spider footsteps.
0:43.0	And we have the curious tale of what happens when you have to move a colossal 700 ton magnet.
0:49.0	All of these moves that we did took place in the middle of the night.
0:52.0	They're quite exciting, you know, under the
0:53.2	moonlight the ring would roll out onto a abandoned highway where four trucks had pulled out to block
0:59.2	all the incoming traffic as the ring rolled down the interstate for several hours.
1:05.0	But first, one of the unreported celebrity deaths of 2016 was of profound scientific interest and deserves greater attention.
1:14.1	Her official designation was J2 but was known to all as Granny.
1:18.6	She was the oldest known killer whale estimated to be up to 100 years old. Last year she was even the
1:24.2	star of a Radio 4 documentary. Yes so J2 is there. J2 is there so that's
1:28.6	Granny. Yeah affectionately known as Granny. That's a celebrity of the whale watching world we've just seen.
1:34.8	Certainly a celebrity of the whale watching world. She's the oldest known killer whale.
	...

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