Solar Orbiter launch; Mutational signatures in cancer; paleo-oncology

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

The latest space mission to the Sun is due to launch on Sunday. SolO, the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter, will loop around our star in an elliptical orbit, sling-shotting around Venus. Professor Richard Harrison at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has been on the mission from its conception, he details the instruments and what they're hoping to discover about the Sun and its impact on space weather back here on Earth. If chemicals in cigarette smoke or exposure to UV light played a role in causing a cancerous tumour, we can now see this evidence in the DNA. These and other causes of cancer are being catalogued by a huge international study revealing the genetic fingerprints of DNA-damaging processes that drive cancer development. Professor Mike Stratton, is director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute and author of one of many papers released in Nature and associated journals this week that detail the results of the Pan-Cancer of Whole Genomes Consortium. Cancer is not a modern disease. Evidence in bones and remains reveal our ancient ancestors also suffered. Dr. Kate Hunt is a paleo-pathologist studying paleo-oncology, a very specific, very recent branch of archaeology, looking through ancient burial sites, artefacts and literature for signs of cancer. Presenter - Marnie Chesterton Producer - Fiona Roberts

Transcript

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0:45.0	This is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4, first broadcast on the 6th of February 2020. I'm Marnie Chesterton. Hello and let's start with a bit of Latin.
0:58.0	Omnis cellular ecellular. Life begat's life or all cells come from cells. 19th century biologist Rudolf
1:07.1	Vichow used it to describe the origins of units of life, cell division. Today we're going to be exploring the point where that process of
1:15.5	cellular ecellular de-rails, as important new cancer research comes out this week. I also talk to an archaeologist who explores ancient
1:25.3	cancer culture and here's a we teaser. This is the spectacular description of
1:30.3	breast cancer in ancient Egypt.
1:33.0	Brother of blood, friend of pus, father of the smelly jackal.
1:38.0	But we start with the massive ball of gas that provides the light and warmth necessary for life on earth to
1:44.7	flourish. The sun's behavior is in many ways still a mystery and the areas around
1:50.1	its poles are hard to study from the Earth.
1:53.4	This coming Monday, the European Space Agency will be launching a solar orbiter or
1:57.7	solo for short.
	...

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