Planet Earth
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Categories: Science & Medicine
Listen to the last episode:
In this week's podcast, Richard Hollingham strikes gold - literally - while Sue Nelson finds out why weather forecasters still struggle to predict sudden, violent summer storms. We'll also be hearing why scientists may be a step closer to getting rid of the American mink from the Outer Hebrides and how to run away from a Tyrannosaurus rex. Banks may have collapsed, shares plummeted and currencies faltered over the last couple of years, but if you put your money in gold, you could have made a tidy profit - the metal recently reached its highest value ever. Great news if there's a gold mine nearby, which funnily enough isn't as unlikely as you might think. As well as going gold-panning, Richard visits Northern Ireland's only gold mine and finds out why there's such a market for Northern Irish gold. Also, Sue Nelson meets cloud expert Dr Andrew Russell from the University of Manchester. Andy talks about the work he's doing to make forecasting storms easier. Finally, find out what scientists are doing to understand why some Antarctic penguin colonies are growing, while others are declining.
Previous episodes
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81 - Gold, storms and dinosaurs Thu, 2 Sep 2010 - 0h
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80 - Teeth, spiders and epic migrations Mon, 6 Sep 2010 - 0h
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79 - Geoengineering, wind and sea squirts Tue, 7 Sep 2010 - 0h
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78 - Energy crops, CryoSat-2 and bird bling Wed, 8 Sep 2010 - 0h
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77 - Oil palm plantations and coral reefs Thu, 9 Sep 2010 - 0h
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76 - Climate science, Vikings and other invasive species Fri, 10 Sep 2010 - 0h
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75 - Hi-tech physics, toxic soils and mussel shells Fri, 10 Sep 2010 - 0h
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74 - Antarctica, wild geese and ash plumes Sun, 12 Sep 2010 - 0h
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73 - Rockpools and ocean acidification Thu, 23 Sep 2010 - 0h
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72 - Lake Windermere and walking with dinosaurs Mon, 4 Oct 2010 - 0h
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71 - Plastics in the oceans and tracking satellites Thu, 7 Oct 2010 - 0h
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70 - Orangutans, green buildings and an Antarctic GP Sun, 10 Oct 2010 - 0h
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69 - Ice clouds and viper venom Thu, 14 Oct 2010 - 0h
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68 - Butterflies, buoys and the English Channel Sun, 17 Oct 2010 - 0h
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67 - The risks of following the herd and banded mongooses Wed, 20 Oct 2010 - 0h
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66 - Barrel jellyfish and supercooled water Wed, 27 Oct 2010 - 0h
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65 - Bowerbirds, a yellow sub and measuring CO2 Thu, 4 Nov 2010 - 0h
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64 - Splitting Earth, space weather and robotic dolphins Mon, 8 Nov 2010 - 0h
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63 - Kew Gardens, Antarctica and ancient trees Wed, 10 Nov 2010 - 0h
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62 - Leeches, earthquakes and weird sea-life Tue, 16 Nov 2010 - 0h
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61 - Palm oil plantations, charcoal, and a flea circus Tue, 23 Nov 2010 - 0h
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60 - Arctic Expedition Special Tue, 7 Dec 2010 - 0h
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59 - Red squirrels and a tropical Antarctica Thu, 9 Dec 2010 - 0h
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58 - An audio diary special edition Wed, 5 Jan 2011 - 0h
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57 - Essex coral reefs, malaria in the UK, and Antarctica Wed, 12 Jan 2011 - 0h
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56 - Noisy coral reefs, melting ice sheets and whale speak Fri, 28 Jan 2011 - 0h
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55 - Romans recycling, dinosaur colour, gravity mission Thu, 10 Feb 2011 - 0h
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54 - Tracking insects with a Big Dish, Australian floods Tue, 1 Mar 2011 - 0h
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53 - Carbon capture and storage, floods, CryoSat-2 Wed, 9 Mar 2011 - 0h
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52 - Fish poo, dead whales, and the Japan earthquake Wed, 23 Mar 2011 - 0h
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51 - The Earth's magnetic field, snow, and Chernobyl Thu, 7 Apr 2011 - 0h
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50 - Volcanic ash and sediment time machines Tue, 26 Apr 2011 - 0h
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49 - Science from a plane, and forecasting space storms Thu, 5 May 2011 - 0h
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48 - Flood defences, the Southern Ocean, and whiter clouds Tue, 24 May 2011 - 0h
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47 - Cuckoos at Wicken Fen, snow, and radiocarbon dating Fri, 3 Jun 2011 - 0h
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46 - Bumblebee declines, microbes, and amazing birds Fri, 17 Jun 2011 - 0h
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45 - WWII bunkers, thugs and aliens, and calving glaciers Thu, 7 Jul 2011 - 0h
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44 - Rip Currents and Carbon Capture Tue, 12 Jul 2011 - 0h
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43 - Searching for life in Lake Ellsworth Tue, 26 Jul 2011 - 0h
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42 - Where do all the salmon go, and making CO2 bricks Fri, 12 Aug 2011 - 0h
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41 - Stonehenge, microscopic plants, and baboons Tue, 23 Aug 2011 - 0h
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40 - Engineering the climate to tackle climate change Wed, 14 Sep 2011 - 0h
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39 - Spreading aliens, Arctic experience, and Antarctica Tue, 27 Sep 2011 - 0h
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38 - The deep sea, ancient proteins, Arctic research Thu, 13 Oct 2011 - 0h
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37 - Neanderthal mammoth hunters in Jersey Wed, 2 Nov 2011 - 0h
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36 - Treating snakebites, and European shags Tue, 8 Nov 2011 - 0h
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35 - The Ozone Hole, Starlings in Fair Isle, Forest Fires Tue, 22 Nov 2011 - 0h
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34 - The Thames Barrier, the colour of prehistoric birds Mon, 12 Dec 2011 - 0h
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33 - Parkour and orang-utans, risks from solar storms Mon, 9 Jan 2012 - 0h
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32 - The Hoff Crab, North Sea fisheries, flood prediction Tue, 17 Jan 2012 - 0h