The Gulf Stream, also known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is essential to stable global climate, and the reason we have moderate temperatures in Northern Europe. Now, a new modelling study suggests that this circulation could, at some point, be at a tipping point and collapse. We hear from one of the minds behind the model, post-doctoral researcher René van Westen from Utrecht University. But how likely is it that this will actually happen in the real world? Presenter Victoria Gill speaks to Jonathan Bamber who cautions that a gulf stream collapse is not imminent, and that it may just weaken slowly over time. Every summer in the Hudson Bay, on the Eastern side of Arctic Canada, the sea ice melts and the region’s polar bears head inland. But that ice-free season is getting longer, depriving the bears of that frozen platform that they use to pounce on their favourite prey – seals. So what do the bears do all summer? Research Wildlife Biologist Karyn Rode shares how she and her colleagues put a collar with video cameras on 20 polar bears, and what it revealed about their lives.
Is CERN finally going to get a gigantic new particle accelerator? Almost exactly one decade ago, Roland Pease reported from Switzerland about the very first meeting about the successor of the Large Hadron Collider which was used to discover the Higgs Boson. Now there’s an update to the story. Roland is back to tell Vic how far along CERN is with their plans, and how much more time and money it will take to build the Future Circular Collider.
Lovers of certain famous, creamy French cheeses could be in for a bit of a shock. Camembert and Brie are facing extinction as we know them! The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris has stated that, over the last 100 years, the food and farming industry has placed too much pressure on the production of these types of cheeses. Now, the fungus traditionally used to grow the famous, fluffy white rinds has been cloned to a point where the lack of diversity in its genetic makeup means it can no longer be reproduced. Turophiles must learn to appreciate more diversity of tastes, colours and textures to protect the cheeses’ future.
Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Florian Bohr, Louise Orchard, Alice Lipscombe-Southwell Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.
Halfway to net zero; hydrogen as a fuel; Fagradalsfjall, Iceland’s active volcano
Human embryo research and ethics; sperm whale social learning; Antikythera mechanism
China's green growth plan
Blue carbon; inside Little Foot's skull; reading locked letters
Good COP Bad COP, Shotgun Lead Persistence, and Featherdown Adaptation
Nasa's Perseverance - will it pay off? And spotting likely hosts for future pandemics.
Meeting Mars, Melting Ice, Ozone on the Mend Again, and A Sea Cacophany
Putting a number on biodiversity
Next Gen Covid Vaccines; Man's Oldest Bestest Friend; Bilingual Brain Development
Vaccine Hesitancy and Ethnicity; The Joy of catnip; Lake Heatwaves
UK Science post Brexit; GMOs vs Gene Editing regulation; Identical Twins That Aren't Indentical
Vaccine Dosing and Biodiversity Soundscape Monitoring
Brian Cox and Alice Roberts on a decade of extraordinary science
Space Rocks, Aquatic Dinosaurs and Global Temperatures; 2020 science reviewed
Covid mutation; On the facial expression of emotions; A mystery object
Future risk planning; Millennium Seed Bank; Urban trees
Protein folding; Hyabusa sample return; Holiday Covid testing
26/11/2020
COVID Operation Moonshot; Big Compost Experiment; Gulf of Mexico meteorite and new life
mRNA vaccinations; bacterial space miners; Artemis accords
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