Should we rethink navigating by GPS?
BBC Inside Science
BBC
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week 14 European countries warned that “maritime safety and security” was being put in jeopardy by Russian interference. The Royal Institute of Navigation says GPS is so vulnerable to so called ‘spoofing’ and ‘jamming’ that we need to rethink the navigation systems on which shipping relies. Tom Whipple speaks to Ramsey Faragher, CEO of the Institute.
Something else with the potential to affect navigation systems are solar storms. Tom visits Professor Tim Horbury and Helen O’Brien at Imperial College London whose instrument strapped to the Solar Orbiter probe, and speeding through space, is giving us more warning about solar activity which could affect us here on earth.
And science journalist Caroline Steel brings you the latest scientific research.
To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk, search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, |
| 0:27.9 | it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, |
| 0:33.4 | listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello, welcome to Inside Science with me Tom Whipple. |
| 0:39.3 | This week, how geopolitical breakdown interferes with navigation, |
| 0:43.3 | how the sun interferes with space missions, |
| 0:46.1 | and how AI could help us understand how dark DNA, |
| 0:50.2 | formerly junk DNA, can interfere with the rest of our genome. |
| 0:56.3 | Also joining me is science journalist Caroline Steele to look at the key stories from the journals. Caroline, what have you been interfering |
| 1:01.3 | with? Well, I've not been interfering with anything, but scientists could be interfering with our |
| 1:07.0 | atmosphere. Excellent. We will look forward to hearing about that. |
| 1:11.3 | But first, it was a pretty stern letter. |
| 1:14.4 | The British government this week joined with 13 other Northern European nations |
| 1:19.1 | to warn that maritime safety and security itself was being put in jeopardy. |
| 1:25.3 | Too often, this group said, ships sailing in the Baltic found that their Satnav, their GNSS, |
| 1:31.8 | was giving them the wrong location or no location. |
| 1:35.8 | No prizes for guessing which nation with an exclave on the Baltic they blamed. |
| 1:40.4 | But actually it's not just the Baltic. |
| 1:43.8 | For three decades, ships have relied on satellites to sail the open seas. |
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