We’re on board the RSS Sir David Attenborough for the vessel’s first big science season in the Antarctic, since it launched in 2020. It’s crewed by scientists involved in Project Biopole, a 5-year mission attempting to better understand carbon cycle at the poles. Nadine Johnston, a microbiologist with the British Antarctic Survey, joins Inside Science to talk about her work on copepods; zooplankton that build up huge fat reserves over the spring and summer months, then hibernate at 3000m during winter, taking carbon with them which is then locked-up in the deep ocean for up to 600yrs! Her research is a world first in the Southern Ocean and could help improve global carbon modelling of the earth system.
Staying in the South Pole, neuroscientist John-Antoine Libourel, talks about his latest research into the surprising sleeping habits of chinstrap penguins.
And after weeks of intense earthquake activity, the volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland has erupted. Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya, our go-to volcanologist, provides an update. Plus, a nod to the festive season, as composer and AI artist, LJ Rich, explains why Christmas music makes us feel all fuzzy.
Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Hannah Robins, Harrison Lewis & Louise Orchard Editor: Richard Collings Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.
Out of Africa, Predicting future heatwaves, Virtual reality molecules, Life in the dark
Northern white rhino preservation, Deep sea earthquake detection, Twitter's rare Heuchera discovery, Human roars
Hyabusa mission; ProtoDUNE neutrino detector; Caledonian crow skills; Koala microbiome
The Large Hadron Collider Upgrade, Voltaglue, Cambridge Zoology Museum, Francis Willughby
Antarctic melt speeds up, Antarctica's future, Cryo-acoustics, Narwhals
Dinosaur auction, Who owns the genes of the ocean life, Cancer immunotherapy
Hay Festival
CO2 and rice, Underground farming, Ancient interstellar asteroid, Microplastics air pollution
Face Recognition, ‘Thug’ plants, Cancer Funding Inequalities, Feynman’s 100th birthday
Rat eradication; elephant talk; the rise of the dinosaurs; physics of snooker
Antarctic, Kew, Paleogenomics, Sea birds
Human Consciousness: Could a brain in a dish become sentient?
Plastic-eating bacteria, Foam mattresses for crops, The evolved life aquatic, The Double Helix
Pesticides in British Farming
Stephen Hawking Tribute
Genes and education, John Goodenough, Caring bears and hunting
Data Scraping
Buzz kill
Russian Spy Poisoning
Weird Weather?
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