What’s the highest a human could possibly pole vault?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis broke the sport’s world record again this week at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. It’s the 14th consecutive time he’s broken the record.

Professor of Sports Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, Steve Haake, joins Victoria Gill to discuss this monumental feat of athleticism, and to explain the role physics and engineering play in Duplantis’s unprecedented success.

The actor, comedian and scientist Nick Mohammed explains why he and his fellow judges selected ‘Ends of the Earth’ by Professor Neil Shubin as one of this year’s finalists in the Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize. We also hear from the book’s author about what it’s like doing science at the farthest reaches of the planet.

Neuroscientist Professor James Ainge from the University of St Andrews tells us how he has been mapping our internal mileage clock.

And the author and mathematician Dr Katie Steckles brings us the brand new maths and science shaping our world this week.

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk, search for BBC Inside Science, and follow the links to The Open University.

Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Clare Salisbury, Dan Welsh, Jonathan Blackwell and Tim Dodd Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:06.1	Can I just say?
0:07.6	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.
0:10.0	It's such a wonderful listen.
0:11.7	So nice.
0:12.5	There are loads more like it on BBC Sounds.
0:14.8	Different paces, different heights, the roof is buckling.
0:17.9	Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.
0:20.2	It's right foot goes for goal.
0:22.6	And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.
0:27.7	The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.
0:31.2	And she's had to live with that.
0:32.8	So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.
0:35.8	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:39.7	Sort of expecting that every week now.
0:56.7	Hello, lovely curious-minded people. Welcome to the podcast of Inside Science. First broadcast on the 18th of September 2025. Today, we're finding out how our brains tick as we navigate our way through the world. More on that strange sounds later.
1:03.1	We're also exploring science that can only be done at the very ends of the earth. And I am joined in the studio by Katie Steckles, mathematician, science enthusiast, broadcaster. Hi Katie, welcome. Hello.
1:08.9	Lovely to have you here. You've been digging through
1:10.9	some of the maths that's shaping our understanding of our world this week. What have you got for us?
1:15.9	Well, it turns out there's been a couple of really interesting maths developments fairly
1:19.5	recently, like in the last couple of weeks. So there's a new shape that's been discovered.
1:24.2	Oh, wow. And a new result in the area of knot theory, which is to do with kind of knots and tying loops
	...

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