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Aarti Gupta shares how, after tense negotiations, the different member states could not agree, and the proposal was withdrawn.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.
Buried Mars Landers, Freezing Species, and Low-Tide Archaeology
Running Rings Around Matter
Precious Metals, Earlier Eggs, and Meaningful Meteorites
The Ebb and Flow of the Tidal Power Revolution
Building Better Engagement
A Trip-Switch for Depression?
Declining Data, Climate Deadlines and the Day the Dinosaurs Died
How can the UK get to zero carbon?
Racial inequality in UK science
Global food security during Ukraine conflict
High Seas treaty talks and discoveries from the deep
Cyber frontlines in Ukraine
Inside Science is now first on BBC Sounds
World’s largest Jurassic pterosaur found on Skye
COVID-19: Beginnings... and endings?
Fusion energy smashes world record
The Continuing Story of the Nuclear Waste Bill
Predicting Long Covid, and the Global Toll of Antimicrobial Resistance
The 'perfect' depth for a destructive eruption
The Rutland ‘Sea Dragon’, An Astronomer's Christmas and some Animal Magic
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