The Dance of Nature
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2018
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From schools of fish to starlings to atomic particles. what does group behaviour look like in nature? Rana Mitter is joined by BBC Radio 4’s presenter of The Life Scientific Jim Al-Khalili, Melissa Bateson, Andrew McBain and Richard Bevan. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead for the 2018 Free Thinking Festival.
Jim Al-Khalili is Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey and presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific and TV documentaries including Gravity and Me: The Force that Shapes Our Lives and The Beginning and End of the Universe. His books include Paradox: the Nine Greatest Enigmas in Science, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines, Quantum: a Guide for the Perplexed and he’s edited What’s Next ? What Science Can Tell Us About Our Future.
Melissa Bateson is Professor of Ethology at Newcastle University, an expert in behavioural biology who has studied the behaviour of starlings, hummingbirds and humans.
Andrew McBain is a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on the responses of biofilms to antimicrobial treatments and the interaction of microorganisms colonising the skin, nasopharynx, oral cavity and intestine with the human host in health and disease
Richard Bevan is a lecturer in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences at Newcastle University. His research interests are in animal ecophysiology; the way that animals interact with their environment both physiologically and behaviourally and how this is vital in understanding and interpreting their biology.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps |
| 0:21.2 | it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream |
| 0:26.1 | van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Ron |
| 0:32.8 | Mitter, Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program, which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate. |
| 0:40.6 | If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe. |
| 0:43.5 | Search for the Arts and Ideas podcast wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:47.2 | And while you're there, please rate and review us. |
| 0:49.4 | It'll help other people find us. |
| 0:51.5 | This is the BBC. |
| 1:01.0 | Thank you. people find us. This is the BBC. Individuals don't always behave the same way |
| 1:03.4 | when they're in groups. |
| 1:05.3 | That's certainly true for people. |
| 1:07.2 | You just need to be where I was last night |
| 1:09.1 | over the water in Newcastle City Centre to find that out for yourself. |
| 1:12.6 | And it's just as true in nature, whether we're talking sheep, birds, or even subatomic particles. |
| 1:19.6 | Scientists don't just go down to the very smallest level, looking at a single bacterium, or cell, or even atom. They pull those tiny bits together and then |
| 1:30.2 | find out what happens when they're in groups. Animal behaviourists are more and more interested |
| 1:35.2 | in the herd, particularly when it turns out that the so-called herd mentality actually means that |
| 1:41.1 | the species less likely to show sheep-like behaviour than any other might actually be the sheep. |
| 1:47.9 | Well, today we want to find out more about how being brought together changes the way that things behave. |
| 1:53.7 | And to do that, we've assembled a group here that's even more than the sum of its parts. |
| 1:58.5 | Jim O'Kalili is Professor of Physics at Surrey University and presenter of |
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