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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: Climate Change

Discussion & Talk

Climate Change

01/04/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Unexpected Elements, Climate Change

Climate change; Mars; Primate brain size; Improving Virtual Reality; European Prize for Women Innovators; Planet 9; Accents

This week, there have been new insights into the link between climate and weather.  Specifically, about how extreme weather happens but also how they get stuck, leading to prolonged heat waves, droughts or wildfires. 

Earth is certainly an active place climate-wise and it looks as though Mars may have also been a little livelier than it is now.  If you look a little closer, you can find dried out rivers where water once flowed.  New research reveals what happened to the Red Planet’s atmosphere and why it is now a cold, dry place.  We also hear how you can join in the search for the missing mysterious ninth planet of our solar system.

We meet the scientist who is trying to understand how accents either get diluted or become more distinct.  But we delve further into understanding our brains because to even have different accents we needed to socialise as a species – is that why humans evolved big brains?  Or could it be our diet?


(Photo caption: Pakistani flood survivors wade through the flood water in Khairpur Nathan Shah on September 18, 2010 © Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images)


The Science Hour was presented by Gareth Mitchell with comments from BBC Science Correspondent Jonathan Amos


Producer: Graihagh Jackson

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