SECRET VOICES OF THE WILD: AI Unlocks Animal Language🦁🐘

Fun Kids Science Weekly

Fun Kids

Education For Kids, Kids & Family, Science

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Get ready for another adventure through space, nature, and the strangest corners of science on the BIGGER and BETTER Science Weekly!

This week, we’re answering YOUR questions, have scientists battle it out to decide which science is the best, and uncovering why plastic is such a big problem for our planet- plus what we can all do to help.

In Science in the News, scientists in China have made a jaw-dropping discovery: a human skull thought to be 1 million years old! Then we take to the skies as the falcon is crowned New Zealand’s Bird of the Year. And finally, Dan is joined by Mélissa Berthet to explore how AI could help us decode the mysterious language of animals.

We’ll also be diving into your questions: Avi wants to know why the time is different in other countries, and Stephen Clark from recycling charity Loop explains the hidden dangers of plastic.

Dangerous Dan is back and this week, we're taking a look at the Blunt-Toothed Giant Hutia, a creature as strange as its name.

And in Battle of the Sciences, Mathew Sparks makes the case for entomology, revealing the amazing ant that actually uses its head as a door!

What do we learn about?
· Why plastic is bad for the planet
· The discovery of a 1-million-year-old skull in China
· How the falcon won Bird of the Year in New Zealand
· How AI is helping decode animal speech
· The Blunt-Toothed Giant Hutia
· And in Battle of the Sciences... the ant that uses its head as a door!

All on this week’s episode of Science Weekly!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome along, explorer. Ahoy, hoi, my name's Dan. It's time to explore the entire universe
0:08.0	and see what's waiting for us. Let's get on with a brand new Fun Kid Science Weekly.
0:14.3	So this week, we learn why plastic is everywhere and it can be very bad for our planet.
0:22.1	We'll uncover the hidden impact and what can be done about it.
0:27.2	Whilst everything is technically nearly recyclable, a lot of stuff doesn't get recycled,
0:32.5	not because it can't be, but because the economics don't work.
0:35.1	Now, we call this the economics of waste, packaging that's used once and then thrown away.
0:39.8	Also, you can travel back in time to find a huge rodent and we'll learn all about an ant
0:46.2	which uses its head as a door.
0:51.2	And this particular one, if they sense invading ants come along,
0:54.8	there'll have certain individuals who, well, basically, their head is just a flat door
0:58.6	that they stick in the holes into their hives to not let any other invading ants through.
1:03.3	It's all on the way in a brand new Fun Kids Science Weekly.
1:15.9	Let's start with your science in the news, and it's huge news to kick us off.
1:21.7	A human skull has been discovered in China, and it's thought to be 1 million years old.
1:30.6	While this is a surprise, it suggests our species, Homo sapiens, began to emerge half a million years before we have thought.
1:38.4	It shows that we coexisted with our sister species, Neanderthals, for much longer than we originally believed.
1:43.1	Experts say this totally changes our understanding of human evolution, and it would rewrite an important early chapter
1:45.8	in our history but other experts in the field say the idea that this could be so old is interesting
1:51.5	but it's not certain just yet how mind-boggling is that we may have discovered that humans
1:58.6	were around like 500,000 years before we thought they were,
2:01.7	just because we found a skull.
	...

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