The Swing of Things
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 1 November 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this weekend ahead of the US election, we clock the importance of so-called swing states – and swing into action looking into not politics, but the science of swings.
We examine how a pendulum swung by French physicist Foucault demonstrated that the earth is spinning, and hear about how the gibbon became the king of swingers – and what current-day elite climbers can learn from them.
We also hear from educator Francis Mavhunga at the University of Eswatini who has regularly used swings in his physics classes, and now shows a new generation of teachers how to integrate children’s lived experiences into the classroom.
Plus, how science has revealed new secrets about the ancient silk road, and what your brain can see when your eyes can’t. And, just to swing back to the beginning, presenter Marnie Chesterton digs into the archives to find out if science and tech can provide a foolproof voting system, and how astronauts vote.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton with Chhavi Sachdev and Godfred Boafo Producer: Harrison Lewis with Florian Bohr, Julia Ravey, Dan Welsh and Imaan Moin Sound Engineer: Gareth Tyrrell
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might |
| 0:04.7 | like our podcast too. You might. You might. It is called Sightracked with me, Nick Grimshaw. |
| 0:09.2 | And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. All the news, all the cultural |
| 0:14.0 | happenings in the UK and beyond. And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can |
| 0:19.7 | also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and |
| 0:22.6 | live radio, everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind. But obviously start |
| 0:29.2 | with our podcast, sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC |
| 0:33.7 | Sounds. So this week, I've been thinking about what I on BBC Sands. |
| 0:43.4 | So this week I've been thinking about what I get from reading about science. |
| 0:49.6 | On one level, I've recently learned how we now know the origin of an asteroid that hit the earth almost half a billion years ago. |
| 0:52.1 | And at this point, many of my friends and family might be raising |
| 0:55.8 | a weary eyebrow. Who cares, Marnie? How is that possibly going to affect my life? And they're |
| 1:01.9 | almost right. It won't. And yet, I know a bit more about the planet I live on. Maybe one little |
| 1:10.0 | extra jigsaw piece from a puzzle as infinite as the |
| 1:13.5 | universe. But the human endeavour, and here I'm co-opting the effort of particular scientists, |
| 1:20.6 | is a comfort blanket. When the news seems unrelentingly bleak, science gives me hope that, as a species, we're capable of |
| 1:29.6 | noble intentions. In short, I'm saying science makes me happy. I'm Marnie Chesterton from the BBC |
| 1:36.7 | World Service. This is Unexpected Elements. And guess what else makes me happy? |
| 1:56.9 | I am delighted to say that I'm joined by a couple of excellent journalists. |
| 2:02.1 | In Accra in Ghana, we have Godfred Boafo. Welcome, welcome. |
| 2:06.2 | Thank you, Marni. It's great to be back. At the same, you have to say a year. Say a year. |
| 2:12.5 | A year. |
... |
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