Original version

BBC World Service Online

Unexpected Elements

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The news you know, the science you don’t.

The news you know, the science you don’t. Unexpected Elements looks beyond everyday narratives to discover a goldmine of scientific stories and connections from around the globe. From Afronauts, to why we argue, to a deep dive on animal lifespans: see the world in a new way.

The Science Hour

Unexpected Elements: STAP Retraction, Informed Consent, Earthquakes in Oklahoma

cropped_fracking1.jpg

05/07/2014

STAP Retraction, Informed Consent, Earthquakes in Oklahoma

BBC World Service - Unexpected Elements, STAP Retraction, Informed Consent, Earthquakes in Oklahoma

A paper claiming to make stem cells by adding acid to adult cells has been retracted

A claim that stem cells can be made quickly by adding acid to adult cells has been retracted. Plus, oil extraction and earthquakes in Oklahoma and Facebook's emotion research.

STAP Retraction
Earlier this year Japanese scientists claimed in a Nature paper to have been able to make stems cells quickly and easily just by adding acid to adult cells, but this week the paper has been retracted. Professor Chris Mason, a stem cell biologist from University College London, explains what happened. 

Informed consent
Facebook has been under fire for running a controversial 'emotion manipulation' study on 689,003 Facebook users. Dan O'Connor, Head of Medical Humanities at the Wellcome Trust, gives a short history of consent in experimentation.

Earthquakes in Oklahoma
Between 1976 and 2008, Oklahoma State would experience on average, one magnitude three quake per year. But recently there have been many more earthquakes. Geophysicist Professor Katie Keranen from Cornell University has just published research showing this is probably due to waste water from oil extraction being pumped back into the ground – at just a handful of sites. 

Frozen Testicle 'live birth first'
A sample of frozen testicle has been used to produce live offspring in experiments on mice. The breakthrough could have important implications for boys with cancer who become infertile due to chemotherapy treatments.

Born Too Soon
The first 24 hours are the most crucial in their survival for the 15 million premature babies born every year. And the stark truth is that survival depends on where in the world a baby is born. 

Janet Hemingway
The youngest woman to ever to become a full professor in the UK, has had a career at the frontline of the war on malaria. Janet's approach, as a trained entomologist, has been to fight the mosquitos - the vector - which transmit the malaria parasite.

Im-Able 
Fifteen million people a year suffer from stroke worldwide and of these, five million are left permanently disabled. Now a company has developed a video gaming system that helps rehabilitate victims of stroke. Simon Morton reports on one family's embrace of the scheme.

(Photo: Pump jacks are seen next to a canal in an oil field ©Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Unexpected Elements

STAP Retraction, Informed Consent, Earthquakes in Oklahoma

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service