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Aarti Gupta shares how, after tense negotiations, the different member states could not agree, and the proposal was withdrawn.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.
Ebola model, Partula snails, Malaria origin
Extinction Rebellion, UK net zero emissions and climate change; Nobel Prizes
HIV protective gene paper retraction, Imaging ancient Herculaneum scrolls, Bill Bryson's The Body
Oceans, ice and climate change; Neolithic baby bottles; Caroline Criado-Perez wins RS Book Prize
MOSAiC Arctic super-expedition, Likely extinction of the Bahama nuthatch, Tim Smedley's book on air pollution
Model embryos from stem cells, Paul Steinhardt's book on impossible crystals, Mother Thames
Inventing GPS, Carbon nanotube computer, Steven Strogatz and Monty Lyman discuss calculus and skin
Amazon fires, Royal Society Book Prize shortlist announced, John Gribben on quantum physics
UK's black squirrels' genetic heritage; nuclear fusion in the UK and the Royal Society's science book prize
UK power cut, Huge dinosaur find in Wyoming, Micro-plastics in Arctic snow
Making the UK's dams safe, AI spots fake smiles, How many trees should we be planting?
Lovelock at 100; Hydrothermal vents and antibiotic resistance in the environment
False positives in genetic test kits, Impact of fishing on ocean sharks, Sex-change fish
Turing on the new £50 note, Moon landing on the radio, 25 years since Shoemaker-Levy comet
Earliest modern human skull, Analysing moon rocks, Viruses lurking in our genomes
X-Rays on Mercury, Monkey Tools, Music of Molecules, AI Drivers
Global Food Security, Reactive Use-By Labels, Origins of the Potato
Rinderpest destruction, Noise and birdsong, Science as entertainment
Net-Zero carbon target, Science Policy Under Thatcher, Screen time measures
CCR5 Mutation Effects, The Surrey Earthquake Swarm, Animal Emotions
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