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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: Behavioural profiling at airports; Babies Laughing; Cosmic Dust

The supernova SN 2010jl (large white spot near top) produced dust much larger than usually found in the Milky Way

12/07/2014

Behavioural profiling at airports; Babies Laughing; Cosmic Dust

BBC World Service - Unexpected Elements, Behavioural profiling at airports; Babies Laughing; Cosmic Dust

How effective is behavioural profiling in spotting potential terrorist?

How effective is behavioural profiling in spotting potential terrorist? Also, how babies' laughter can show how their minds work, and where does cosmic dust come from?

Behavioural profiling at airports
Airport security has been tightened recently. Passengers must be able to switch on their electronic devices to prove they don't contain explosives. We ask about the science behind spotting a potential terrorist. 

Babies Laughing	
Tiny babies are, from birth, active learners. They don’t wait for the world to come to them. Claudia Hammond explores the very latest research about what influences the developing mind of the new born infant. Dr Caspar Addyman from the Babylab at Birkbeck, University of London explains that babies really do get the joke. 

Cosmic Dust
A new study sheds light onto where dust grains that occur in the wake of an exploding star come from. Rocky planets like our earth are big clumps of cosmic dust – the small particles we see in space and galaxies. Scientists are now trying to understand how these particles of dust get bigger and turn into rocky planets. 

Anaesthesia
General anaesthetics which act to cause reversible loss of consciousness have been used clinically for over 150 years. Yet scientists are only now really understanding how these drugs act on the brain and the body to stop us feeling pain. Linda Geddes reports on the latest research using molecular techniques and brain scanners. 

Cassini mission to Saturn
Cassini-Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn. The NASA-ESA-ASI robotic spacecraft has been orbiting and studying the planet and its many natural satellites for 10 years. Adam talks to the mission's leader of the imaging science team, Carolyn Porco, about how successful it's been. 

NIME Pioneering Electronic Music
NIME, New Interfaces for Musical Expression, is an extraordinary conference and festival examining the potential of electronics in music, recently on display at Goldsmiths, University of London. Gareth Mitchell and LJ Rich report on the novel ways of making music that have been demonstrated at NIME in partnership with the Beam Festival. 

(Image: The supernova SN 2010jl (large white spot near top) produced cosmic dust much larger than usually found in the Milky Way © X-ray: Nasa/CXC/RCA CA/P. Chandra et al)

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Behavioural profiling at airports; Babies Laughing; Cosmic Dust

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