Is 1.5 still alive?

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

1.5C.

It’s THE number we talk about when we talk about climate change.

But what does 1.5C actually mean now – and as the world saw record-breaking heat last year, does it even matter anymore?

Climate scientist Mark Maslin and environmental psychologist Lorraine Whitmarsh discuss.

Also this week, new clues about how life may have begun from a dusty space rock called Bennu, and New Scientist’s Graham Lawton brings us the science of the week, including AI’s ‘Sputnik moment’, the mice born with two fathers, and how often do unexpected discoveries happen?

Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Sophie Ormiston, Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

If you want to test your climate change knowledge, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University to take the quiz.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On Radio 4, the more you listen, the more you see.
0:04.7	Hello, I'm Brian Cox.
0:05.7	And I'm Robin Ince, and this is The Infinite Monkey Cage.
0:08.4	In this series, we're going to have a planet off.
0:10.9	I feel like Jupiter wins.
0:12.9	And after all of that, we're just going to chill out a bit.
0:16.0	We're talking about your bog standard.
0:17.9	Ice, not the fancy one.
0:20.2	Science with funny bits.
0:22.0	The new series of The Infinite Monkey Cage.
0:24.2	Listen on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
0:29.2	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:33.3	Hello, lovely, curious-minded people.
0:35.9	We have almost made it to the end of January, and it's the last inside science of this dark, cold month.
0:42.2	So we're scrutinising the global temperature. We will be asking what is so significant about the figure 1.5 degrees?
0:49.5	And some brand new clues about how life began on earth from a very old piece of space rock.
0:55.7	And I join you today from a spacious, shiny BBC studio in Salford, where, as usual, the Greater
1:00.8	Manchester Sunshine is glinting through the windows. And I'm joined by new scientist writer,
1:05.2	Graham Lawton, who's going to unpick a very busy week in science news. Hello, Graham. Welcome to the studio. Thank you for having me.
1:14.9	And what have you got for us a bit later? Give us a teaser. Well, I'm going to talk about two stories with really exciting, interesting top lines, but when you dig down, turn out to be
1:18.8	something really rather different, but no less interesting for that. And then we're going
1:22.8	to talk about a surprising discovery about surprising discoveries. Excellent. I love it. Well, we will be back with you soon. Feel free to get yourself a cup of tea
	...

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