The Polar Opposite
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 September 2017
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
No one knows why the Earth's magnetic North and South poles swap. But polar reversals have happened hundreds of times over the history of the Earth.
So, asks John Turk, when is the next pole swap due and what will happen to us?
Hannah turns to astronomer Lucie Green from Mullard Space Science Laboratory to discover how the earth's magnetic field protects us from the ravages of space. And Adam consults geophysicist Phil Livermore from the University of Leeds to find out if, and when, we're facing a global apocalypse.
Plus astronaut Terry Virts, author of The View from Above, describes his experiences of a strange magnetic glitch in the earth's magnetic field, known as The Bermuda Triangle of Space, which could help us prepare for the next event.
Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford Producer: Michelle Martin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday |
| 0:10.8 | mysteries. And we are going to investigate them. Using the power of science. Science. |
| 0:16.5 | I like it. It's episode two of the Curious Case of Rutherford and Fry with him and her. |
| 0:29.3 | So we need to say. I know. And today's question is super awesome. I mean, they all are. They all are. |
| 0:36.1 | Let's be honest. But this one is about the Earth's magnetic field. Oh, yeah. We had three |
| 0:41.9 | questioners asking about this question about what would happen if the magnetic poles of the Earth |
| 0:47.4 | were reversed. And it's actually quite a fun answer. It's quite a fun answer. I like these |
| 0:52.0 | questions. I like the questions that are about the Earth's shaking iron. You just like the biology ones. |
| 0:58.9 | Yes. Yes. I do like the non biology ones. Well, that's silly of you because the biology ones are |
| 1:06.1 | the best ones. The cake wasn't biology. The eating cake is biology. Barely. I like the non-biology ones. |
| 1:15.7 | Shooting rubbish into space. The concept of zero. Yeah. But if you remember where we actually |
| 1:20.9 | started with hairy backs and hairy humans and ginger hair. Helium balloons. Is this a request? |
| 1:28.2 | Do you just like the hair ones? It's been quite a lot of hair-based ones actually. But lots of |
| 1:33.2 | you know, people are interested in people. I am interested in people. Behaviours, what about |
| 1:37.0 | giraffes? You know, all of the key elements that people are mostly focused on are the behaviour |
| 1:42.3 | of giraffes and people. Yeah, but I think it's good when you can represent the whole of science. |
| 1:47.4 | Well, you know, we do like to cover all of this great endeavour that we call science and maths |
| 1:53.4 | and a bit of engineering thrown in there. But we did last week, we did a bit of chemistry. |
| 1:57.8 | We're cake making. That's true. Is this a... We can't solicit questions because that would be |
| 2:03.4 | against BBC policy. But we did solicit cake. If you wanted to maybe... I think Hannah's asking for |
| 2:09.8 | some non-biology related questions here. I just think it's nice to get a variety. Yes. We have |
| 2:15.1 | another giraff-based question for a long time. Anyway, on with the show. |
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