Switzerland has submitted a proposal to create a United Nations expert group on solar geoengineering to inform governments and stakeholders. The idea was discussed at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, this week. Professor Aarti Gupta shares how, after tense negotiations, the different member states could not agree, and the proposal was withdrawn. Why is solar geoengineering a controversial issue? How would dimming the sun even work? And should we consider it a genuine option in our fight against climate change? Dr Pete Irvine and Professor Joanna Haigh join presenter Marnie Chesterton in the studio to discuss.
Animal welfare charities have been celebrating a ban on donkey skin trade, agreed to this month by 55 African countries. This will make it illegal to slaughter donkeys for their skin across the continent, where around two thirds of the world’s 53 million donkeys live. Victoria Gill tells Marnie that the demand for the animals' skins is fuelled by the popularity of an ancient Chinese medicine called Ejiao, believed to have health-enhancing and youth-preserving properties and traditionally made from donkey hides.
Lastly, Dr Jess Wade, physicist and science communicator at Imperial College London, discusses Breaking Through: My Life in Science. It’s the memoir of Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Dr Katalin Karikó, whose passion and dedication to mRNA research led to the development of the life-changing COVID mRNA vaccines.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Florian Bohr, Louise Orchard Assistant Producer: Imaan Moin Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.
Science Fraud & Bias, Immunity to COVID-19
Satellite navigation in the UK; the science of the World Wide Web and Neolithic genomics
Preventing pandemics, invading alien species, blood types & COVID-19.
The Human Genome Project's 20th Anniversary
Coronavirus conspiracy, Listeners' mask questions, Solar Orbiter gets close to the Sun
Engineering out of lockdown and should we castrate male dogs?
Back to School and Covid-19 and Ordnance Survey and the pandemic
Testing & Tracing the coronavirus, and the traces our movements leave behind
Coronavirus-free science, the impact of lockdown on climate change and the odds of both life and intelligent life existing.
Coronavirus R number, genome study of Covid-19 survivors and using aircraft messages to assess aviation
Should the public wear face masks? Did SARS-Cov-2 escape from a laboratory in Wuhan?
Testing for immunity to COVID-19 and Citizen science on BBC Radio past and present
Understanding Covid-19 death rates; Contact tracing apps; Whale sharks and atomic bombs
Lockdown lessons for climate change and the carbon neutral Cumbrian coal mine
Testing for asymptomatic coronavirus carriers, Human Cell Atlas, and invasive parakeets
Coronavirus: Models & being ‘led by the science’; Mars500 isolation tips; Kids’ science - singing glasses
Coronavirus - Lockdown efficacy; viral testing; surface survival; dog walking safety
TB vaccination to replace culling in badgers; Neil Shubin on the wonders of evolution
Biology of the new coronavirus
Banning lead shot for hunting; UK Fireball Network and Extremely thin gold
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