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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.

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Unexpected Elements: Death of Granny whale

Discussion & Talk

Killer Whales Swim Out To Sea After Beaching In Queensland, Australia

07/01/2017 GMT

Death of Granny whale

BBC World Service - Unexpected Elements, Death of Granny whale

The world's oldest known killer whale is presumed dead, at an estimated age of 100 years.

Death of Granny whale;  Fast radio bursts; Graphene and Silly Putty; Polar Science dangers; Prosthetic eye and ethics of bionics; Dark matter

The world's oldest known killer whale is presumed dead. At an estimated age of 100 years, 'Granny' was last seen with her family in October. The scientists who've followed her and her pod for four decades announced that they believe she has died somewhere in the North American Pacific.  Darren Croft, an evolutionary biologist,  tells us about this remarkable animal and the insights that Granny and her clan have provided on killer whale social life and the evolution of the menopause.

Fast Radio Bursts 
Incredibly short bursts of radio waves from 3 billion light years away have only recently been detected. Their origin is unknown. Now scientists have found one that repeats itself, so they tuned their telescopes on this tiny patch of night sky, and have detected faint smudges of light as well as the radio waves. 

Graphene and Silly Putty
A 'kitchen' experiment with Silly Putty and graphene led to the creation of an ultra-sensitive electro-mechanical sensing material. G-putty may provide the basis for a continuous and wearable blood pressure monitor. It can also detect the footsteps of spiders.  Professor Jonathan Coleman of Trinity College, Dublin explains how its properties arise from mixing the two materials

Polar Science Dangers
In 2016 the Arctic ice cover was deemed the lowest on record and in the autumn, there was an Arctic heatwave - temperatures of -5C were recorded when temperatures of -25C would be the norm.  In a bid to understand this rapidly changing environment a team of scientists spent six months dodging polar bears and, with the ever present risk of the icy ground breaking up beneath their feet, they studied the effects of rising temperatures. 

Prosthetic Eye And The Ethics Of  Bionics 
Researchers are creating bionic eyes to help blind people see again. Neurosurgeon Jeffrey Rosenfeld, director of the Monash Institute of Medical Engineering in Australia, hopes to implant tiny “ceramic micro-electrode tiles” into the brain’s visual cortex of blind volunteers this year – bypassing the normal visual pathway. A digital camera mounted on a pair of glasses captures images which are then processed in a device about the size of a mobile phone. The resulting image is then transferred wirelessly to the tiles in the brain. 

Dark Matter
Dark Matter is thought to make up more than a quarter of the entire universe but scientists can't find it.  Despite a brief flurry of excitement the Large Hadron Collider has so far failed to make any progress, and astronomical observations have also come up empty handed.  All of which has led some people to call for a new generation of even bigger and better detectors, but others to ask a rather more fundamental question: maybe it isn't really there!  

The Science Hour was presented by Claudia Hammond with comments by James Gallagher, Science Reporter, BBC News online

Producer: Adrian Washbourne

(Photo caption: Killer Whales Swim Out To Sea After Beaching In Queensland, Australia  © Sea World Australia via Getty Images)

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