Scottish GM ban, Earth's magnetic field, OCD, Birth of a new galaxy

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As Scotland announces it ban on GM crops and with the current post of chief scientific adviser for Scotland vacant, Adam talks to the previous post holder, Professor Muffy Calder about the role of science advice to government and her reaction to news of the ban. The Earth's magnetic field is weakening which could be a sign that the magnetic poles are soon due to flip. Daniel Lathrop and team at Maryland University are trying to model the Earth's magnetic field using a large molten globe of sodium. Should we be worried if a flip is on the cards? Royal Society Winton book prize short-list: Science writer, David Adam, author of 'The Man Who Couldn't Stop' talks to Marnie Chesterton about his experience of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Adam hears about the birth of a new galaxy seen for the very first time. He talks to Chris Martin from Caltech about his latest galactic research published in Nature.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello you this is a podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on the 12th of August 2015.
0:07.0	I'm Adam Rutherford and a special congratulations to some of my A-Level biology students who got their grades today.y, Flo, Harold, Louis, Basty, Rory and all the rest at
0:16.0	Alain's too many to name. You guys rock. I'm off for a few weeks and you'll be in the more
0:20.5	than capable hands of the inimitable
0:22.6	Tracy Logan and inestable inestable inestimable yeah that'll do
0:26.7	Gareth Mitchell more information BBC.co. UK slash radio 4
0:31.8	today we have a giant metal spinning globe filled with molten sodium.
0:36.4	Just for the hell of it, no it's an attempt to understand how and why magnetic north
0:41.4	is swiftly moving south and if that's not grand enough for you, we have some
0:45.3	galactic midwifery, the actual birth of a galaxy seen for the very first time a giant
0:51.6	swirling disk of gas 10 billion light years away.
0:55.0	And the second of our summer book recommendations, all drawn from the Royal Society Book Prize
0:59.6	shortlist, this week a life with obsessive compulsive disorder which is not as many people
1:04.9	think an irrepressible drive to wash your hands or keep things neat and tidy but a
1:09.3	potentially devastating inability to control one's thoughts. But first, earlier this week the
1:15.4	Scottish government announced that they are planning to formally ban the
1:18.9	commercial farming of genetically modified crops. Europe has had the most stringent GM restrictions in the world
1:25.0	but gradually these have been relaxed giving member states more autonomy to grow a
1:29.1	range of approved GM crops including maize, soybeans and a few others.
1:34.0	But the Scottish government has rejected these.
1:37.0	Richard Lockhead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment, announced that,
1:41.0	quote, there are no genetically modified
	...

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