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Aarti Gupta shares how, after tense negotiations, the different member states could not agree, and the proposal was withdrawn.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.
Mammoth Journey
IPCC report - extreme weather events
Bees and multiple pesticide exposure
Covid 19 – reaching the unvaccinated
A life-changing database
Covid19 - should we test everybody ?
Covid and our ancient ancestors
Gene editing gets real
UK science policy shake-up; Ivermectin & Covid; black fungus in Indian Covid patients; many hominins in Siberian cave
Cov-Boost trial; SARS-Cov 2 infection in action; sapling guards; why tadpoles are dying
Covid vaccines in children; preventing dengue; algal blooms; supersonic flight
Lab origin theory of SARS-Cov2; gene for obesity; dark matter map; rock art in Scotland
Human use of plants beyond the limits of history.
Blood Clot Cure, Synthetic Fuels and Coal Mine Heat Pumps
Microplastics in UK river beds
Early burials, diversity in Tudor England, a malaria vaccine, and rogue brain waves
Dragonfly on Titan, Retreating Glaciers, Surge Testing, Acoustic lighthouses
Coronavirus variants and vaccines, climate change resistant coffee, dare to repair and how to get rid of moths
Blood clots, grieving and the emotion of screams
Disobedient particles, noisy gorillas, sharks and fictional languages
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