Tracking planes; Peer review; Mega-virus; Astronaut

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2014

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are black boxes outdated technology? With GPS widely available in everyday gadgets like mobile phones, how could Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 just disappear? Adam Rutherford speaks to Dr Matt Greaves, a Lecturer in Accident Investigation at Cranfield University, about how we track aircraft.

Earlier this year, a new study from Japan announced a curiously easy way to make stem cells, by placing them in a mild acid bath. It seemed too good to be true, and according to recent critics, it is. One of the authors has declared that the paper should be withdrawn, that he has 'lost faith in it'.

Ivan Oransky runs the site RetractionWatch, dedicated to scrutinizing irregular research. He talks to Adam about the value of post-publication peer review, and public scrutiny of science on the internet.

A 30,000 year old killer, buried 100 feet under the Siberian permafrost, has risen from the dead. It's a mega virus, with the largest genome of any known virus, and, happily, only infects amoebae. Virologist Professor Jonathan Ball, of the University of Nottingham, explains the implications of reanimating dead viruses.

And actual spaceman, retired NASA pilot Captain Jon McBride, came into the studio to share his out-of-this-world memories and prediction that the next generation of astronauts will be chosen on brains not brawn.

Producer: Fiona Roberts.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Hello You, this is the podcast of Inside Science from the BBC first broadcast on the 13th of March 2014. I'm Adam Rutherford and I'll be taking a short
0:45.8	break to film a telly series for BBC 4 but I'll be back after Easter. But on this
0:50.5	week's show we're probing. Under the ice into the mind of an actual astronaut and at the very foundations of science.
0:58.0	Science is just like every other human endeavor.
1:01.0	No one likes to be questioned. No one likes to have their dirty laundry
1:05.2	aired in public. This time it's stem cell research under the microscope. In the internet
1:10.0	age, how do we check that what gets published is honest, robust and correct.
1:15.6	We also have a killer raised from the dead, resurrected from its 30,000 year old icy tomb.
1:20.8	No, not a horror film, it's only a virus and only scary if you're an amoeba.
1:25.4	But we felt it was time to give viruses a PR makeover and reveal why they are essential to us.
1:31.7	And is the next astronaut listening right now? Space Shuttle pilot John McBride says that
1:36.0	the next generation of astronauts will be geeks, not jocks. I swear we are everywhere.
1:42.1	The beautiful part about the space shuttle is that strength and
1:45.1	agility and speed and all those things don't really matter and it really is
1:49.1	what's in between your ears. What you see more in the astronauts of today is
1:52.3	their mental capacity.
	...

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