Science In Action
BBC World Service
Catégories: Sciences et Médecine
Écoutez le dernier épisode:
Betelgeuse, one of the brightest and most famous stars in the northern night sky, has varied in brightness with an elusive pattern ever since observations began. Many theories exist as to why it ebbs and flows with apparently two distinct rhythms – one shorter and another around 2000 days long.
But just recently two independent astronomical teams have unveiled papers suggesting the existence of an orbital companion circling the red giant. About the size of our own sun, the “Betelbuddy” may whizz round Betelgeuse, almost skimming its surface, every 2000 days. And why haven’t we seen the Betelbuddy before? Because, from here, it would be a million times fainter than Betelgeuse itself, as one of the authors, and long-time Betelgeuse watcher, Andrea Dupree of Harvard and Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics explains.
Back here on earth, Omar Yaghi of Berkeley, University of California and colleagues have been designing a new material that can scrub carbon dioxide out of the air in minutes. They have patented this type of Covalent Organic Framework (COF) and are hoping to scale up production such that a few hundred tonnes deployed around our biggest cities could solve our CO2 crisis.
But then what do you do with all those gigatonnes of CO2? Maybe one thing would be to use solar power to convert it into plant food. Robert Jinkerson and colleagues describe in the journal Joule a proposal to transform global food production into “Electro-Agriculture”, growing plants, fungi and algae on acetate made from solar energy. Their proposal would also shrink the global footprint of farming to allow more natural habitat.
And finally, Michael Frachetti of Washington University in St Louis has published an archaeological survey of two lost conurbations in the mountains of southern Uzbekistan that he and colleagues rediscovered in the last few years. He argues that the scale and complexity of these dwelling, and their location over 2000m, way above normal agricultural altitude mean we need to reconsider these stops on what would have been the Silk Road, around 600-1000 CE, perhaps even pointing at a very early industrial economy.
Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield with Andrew Lewis
(Image: Orion sink to Kashimayarigadake. Credit: Getty)
Épisodes précédents
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476 - Betelbuddy and Silk Road Cities Thu, 24 Oct 2024
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475 - Marvels of life and death Thu, 17 Oct 2024
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474 - Nobel convergence Thu, 10 Oct 2024
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473 - Excesses of rain Thu, 03 Oct 2024
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472 - Historic weather extremes revealed using tree-rings Thu, 26 Sep 2024
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471 - Flash floods in the Sahara Thu, 19 Sep 2024
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470 - A landslide-induced megatsunami in Greenland Thu, 12 Sep 2024
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469 - Concerning viruses found in fur farmed animals Thu, 05 Sep 2024
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468 - Wow! A mystery signal solved Thu, 29 Aug 2024
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467 - Fisheries mismanagement uncovered Thu, 22 Aug 2024
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466 - The spread of rabies into Cape fur seals Thu, 15 Aug 2024
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465 - Detecting undetected bird flu cases Thu, 08 Aug 2024
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464 - Examining Nasa's new evidence for Martian life Thu, 01 Aug 2024
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463 - The human cost of the decline of nature’s carcass cleaners Thu, 25 Jul 2024
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462 - Destination Asteroid Apophis Thu, 18 Jul 2024
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461 - Hurricane Beryl’s trail of destruction Thu, 11 Jul 2024
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460 - Cleaner mining, cleaner batteries Thu, 04 Jul 2024
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459 - On the road to halting HIV Thu, 27 Jun 2024
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458 - China: Scientific superpower Thu, 20 Jun 2024
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457 - US bird flu response warning Thu, 13 Jun 2024
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456 - A humungous temporary tentacle Thu, 06 Jun 2024
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455 - Trusting AI with science Thu, 30 May 2024
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454 - The roots of fentanyl addiction Thu, 23 May 2024
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453 - Aurora Bore-WOW-lis Thu, 16 May 2024
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452 - Changing blood types and whale grammar Thu, 09 May 2024
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451 - Crossover infections Thu, 02 May 2024
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450 - An armada for asteroid Apophis? Thu, 25 Apr 2024
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449 - Unexpected black hole in our galaxy Thu, 18 Apr 2024
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448 - Bird flu in Antarctica Thu, 11 Apr 2024
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447 - Earthquake in Taiwan Thu, 04 Apr 2024
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446 - Star for a day Thu, 28 Mar 2024
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445 - Out of Africa Thu, 21 Mar 2024
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444 - Impacts of global warming Thu, 14 Mar 2024
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443 - The first stars in the universe Thu, 07 Mar 2024
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442 - One million genomes in two dimensions Thu, 29 Feb 2024
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441 - Largest ever covid safety study Thu, 22 Feb 2024
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440 - Climate scientist wins defamation case Thu, 15 Feb 2024
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439 - Particle physics v climate change Thu, 08 Feb 2024
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438 - Unethical data gathering in China Thu, 01 Feb 2024
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437 - Drilling into the past Thu, 25 Jan 2024
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436 - Swine fever in South East Asia Thu, 18 Jan 2024
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435 - Seeking supernovas Thu, 11 Jan 2024
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434 - Tackling tuberculosis in South Africa Thu, 04 Jan 2024
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433 - Following in the footsteps of ancient humans Thu, 28 Dec 2023
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432 - Volcanic eruption lights up Iceland Thu, 21 Dec 2023
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431 - The science of morning sickness Thu, 14 Dec 2023
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430 - Can carbon capture live up to its hype? Thu, 07 Dec 2023
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429 - All aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough Thu, 30 Nov 2023
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428 - Fires in the Pantanal wetlands Thu, 23 Nov 2023
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427 - Volcanic rumblings in Iceland Thu, 16 Nov 2023