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BBC Inside Science: Tabby's Star, Space 2018, Mosquito sounds, C diff and food additive link

04/01/2018

Tabby's Star, Space 2018, Mosquito sounds, C diff and food additive link

BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science, Tabby's Star, Space 2018, Mosquito sounds, C diff and food additive link

Strange star seeks an explanation that doesn't involve alien civilisation

The bizzare dimming behaviour of a distant star continues to perplex astronomers, although they can now rule out the role of an alien civilisation.

Adam Rutherford talks to astronomer Tabetha Boyajian at Louisiana State University about the wierd star that's perplexed astronomers since its discovery two years ago. KIC 8462852 has the unique habit of intermittently and sometimes dramatically dimming and then brightening. Some scientists even suggested vast alien megastructures around the star might be the explanation. After twenty months of almost continuous observation, Professor Boyajian has much more information about what the star is doing. But the big mystery hasn't gone away.

BBC News science correspondent Jonathan Amos joins Adam to share some highlights in space exploration for the coming 12 months.

Zoologists and engineers at the University of Oxford are developing an app that identifies one species of mosquito from another by analysing the sounds their rapid wing beats make. Graihagh Jackson visits Marianne Sinka at the Zoology Department to listen to her collection of mosquito songs.

Did the widespread introduction of the food additive trehalose fuel the emergence of epidemics of virulent Clostridium difficile in hospitals from the early 2000s? Microbiologist Robert Britton tells Adam about the evidence his team has gathered and published this week in the journal 'Nature'.

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Tabby's Star, Space 2018, Mosquito sounds, C diff and food additive link

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