Science funding cuts; Mice get Covid-19; Native oyster reintroductions

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Scientists were delighted earlier this year to find they would still have access to the EU Horizon 2020 funding and collaborations. Now, it has been revealed that membership of this group, which was previously paid for through fees to the European Union, may come directly from the science budget, at a cost of about £15 billion over the next 7 years. That’s £1-2 billion a year. Marnie Chesterton speaks with Beth Thompson, head of policy at the Wellcome Trust about the implications, and Roland Pease asks scientists working around the world how the previously announced ODA cuts are affecting their work. Native oysters help to filter coastal waters of the UK of pollutants including nitrates, while also providing habitat for other species. But their numbers have declined by 95% throughout their British range. Now, the Zoological Society of London is placing thousands of mature oysters under pontoons in marinas across the UK to let them breed, and encourage the return of the species to their former numbers. And the new coronavirus mutations that are worrying us all have been found to affect mice in experimental studies at the Pasteur Institute in France. Marnie asks if this change to the infectivity of the new variants has implications for human health and our ability to combat the virus. Presented by Marnie Chesterton Produced by Rory Galloway

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Newscast is the unscripted chat behind the headlines.
0:05.6	It's informed that in Formal we pick the day's top stories and we find experts who can
0:11.2	really dig into them.
0:12.4	We use our colleagues in the newsroom and our contacts.
0:15.2	Some people pick up the phone rather faster than others.
0:18.6	We sometimes literally run around the BBC building to grab the very best guests.
0:23.4	Join us for daily news chats.
0:25.6	To get you ready for today's conversations, newscast,
0:29.3	listen on BBC Sounds.
0:32.3	Hello, you are listening to the podcast of Inside Science first broadcast on the first of April 2020
0:39.6	and welcome to half an hour of scintillating science.
0:43.2	We'll be hearing about a scientist with a truckload of oysters that aren't going anywhere near
0:47.4	Tabasco in a slice of lemon.
0:49.2	In the latest coronavirus research, it seems mice can catch the newest variants should we be worried.
0:56.3	But I want to start the show by talking about a lot of missing money that has scientists
1:01.2	very concerned indeed.
1:03.2	When we left the European Union, our Prime Minister sought to reassure everyone that
1:07.4	this was the start of something brilliant for a new, independent Britain.
1:11.6	Free to turbocharge our ambition to be a science superpower.
1:17.1	We will work with partners around the world, not just a tackle climate change,
1:22.8	but to create the millions of high-skilled jobs this country will need.
1:27.0	Not just this year, 2021, as we bounce back from Covid, but in the years to come.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.