Sex-change tree, Pluto's cryovolcanoes, Sellafield's plutonium, Ant super-organisms

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Britain's oldest tree changes sex - The science behind the headlines - this week it was reported that the Fortingall Yew in Perthshire (known to be a male tree, over 2-5000 years old) had started to produce berries (female) on one of its branches. Dr. Max Coleman from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh explains that sexuality in plants is more fluid than in animals.

Cryo-volcanoes on Pluto The latest observations from the New Horizons mission to Pluto show possible volcanic-type structures made from ice. The mountains have what appear to be caldera-like depressions in the top. Unlike volcanoes on Earth, that erupt molten rock, the suspected volcanoes on Pluto, would likely erupt an icy slush of substances such as water, nitrogen, ammonia or methane.

Sellafield's plutonium The nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria has amassed around 140 tonnes of plutonium on site. This is the largest stockpile of civil plutonium in the world. For now it is being stored without a long-term plan, which is costly and insecure. At some point a decision will need to be taken on how it is dealt with. The estimated clean-up costs are between £90-250 billion, which means the pressure to make the right decision is massive. Should we convert it into useable fuel or get rid of it? And how secure is it in its current state?

Ant super-organisms Ants behave as a super-organism when under predation threat - complex chemical communication in rock ants are key to how they behave as a unit to different threats.

Producer: Fiona Roberts.

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 12th of November 2015
0:06.5	special mention to Leslie no surname who wrote to us with a lovely note which is now
0:11.4	on the tea room notice board but alas we are going back to Pluto, sorry Leslie.
0:16.0	Don't forget loads of other radio for science programs can be found at BBC.co.
0:20.0	UK slash radio for Life Scientific with Jim Alcalini all in the mind with Claudia
0:24.4	Hammond and of course the infinite monkey cage with Brian Cox and Robin Ints you lucky
0:28.6	people we get inside the mind of a super organism this week and we find out what ant colonies do when they're under attack.
0:36.2	The answer is, Run away!
0:38.2	We're returning to the gift that keeps on giving. Pluto gives up yet another stunning revelation, and this time it might be the big one.
0:46.0	And on the anniversary of the advent of nuclear power in the UK, we're trying to work out what we're going to do with all the leftover plutonium.
0:53.2	There's a hell of a loss of it.
0:54.8	But first, Britain's oldest transsexual.
0:57.6	It's a tree we're talking about, a U-tree.
0:59.6	There's a joke somewhere in there about how do you do it but I'm well above that. The
1:03.9	Fortingal U is the grandest of trees growing in a churchyard in Perthshire it's
1:08.6	more than 2,000 years old though some estimates put it at 5,000 years old. It's very difficult to validate because at that age
1:16.0	the core of the tree has rotted away. But no matter the precise date, it's probably the oldest living thing in the UK.
1:23.0	Now, sex in trees is a messy complex business,
1:27.0	but broadly, U-trees are generally male or female,
1:31.0	with one tree only producing male gamet, sort of a dull pollen-filled sphere,
1:36.0	or female gamet which are lovely bright red berries called Arles.
1:40.0	The Foursingal U has been male for as long as anyone has known, but last week, as was reported all over the press, this old boy appears to have become an old girl.
	...

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