Original version

BBC World Service South Asia

Science in Action

Science In Action

Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

The BBC brings you all the week's science news.

BBC World Service

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Science In Action: Why Birds Survived Dinosaur Extinction

Magazines & Reviews

Why Birds Survived Dinosaur Extinction

21/04/2016 GMT

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Why Birds Survived Dinosaur Extinction

Beaks rather than teeth could be the reason why birds survived dinosaur extinction

Why birds survived dinosaur extinction; Maths of chameleon tongues; Stroking whales; Sniffing cars; Tiny satellites

It seems that early dinosaur precursors to birds that had beaks rather than teeth gave them the advantage to survive the meteor crash almost 66 million years ago. Seed eaters were able to survive the nuclear holocaust-like conditions.

Friendly Whales
Why are the Gray whales that visit the San Ignacio lagoon, off the coast of Baja California in Mexico, friendly enough to stroke? No one knows, but it is thought they visit the shallow lagoon to give birth because their predators, killer whales, can't hunt in the turbid conditions.

QB50
Closer to home than the moon is a section of the atmosphere called the thermosphere  that is poorly understood. A European project called QB50 plans to change this, by sending 50 small satellites, known as CubeSats, into orbit this summer. 
Most of them will sport sensors that can probe the properties of the upper atmosphere. The group building these sensors is led by UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey in the UK, which will build 14 spectrometers. These will analyse the relative proportions of different types of particles in the thermosphere. Marnie Chesterton finds out how scientists cope with the challenge of building their gadgets but smaller and lighter.

Testing Vehicle Emissions
Testing pollution levels from vehicles in the lab, does not reflect the real picture on the roads. So scientists are "sniffing" the exhaust and filming cars and buses in real life to get a better picture of pollution.

(Photo: Illustration of dinosaur bird. Credit: Danielle Dufault/PA)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Science In Action

Why Birds Survived Dinosaur Extinction

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service South Asia

About BBC World Service