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Factual: Science & Nature

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A weekly programme looking at the science that's changing our world.

A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.

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BBC Inside Science: Fish Farming and Climate Change, Gigantic Fungus, Robot Swarms, Gaming in Schools, Drones

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Fish Farming and Climate Change, Gigantic Fungus, Robot Swarms, Gaming in Schools, Drones

BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science, Fish Farming and Climate Change, Gigantic Fungus, Robot Swarms, Gaming in Schools, Drones

Rachel Norman says that climate change will influence what fish we can farm in the future.

Wester Ross Fisheries says over half the salmon at one of its sites have been wiped out because of high seawater temperatures. This highlights yet another damaging effect of climate change, at a time when aquaculture is playing an ever-greater role in feeding us all. Professor of Food Security at the University of Stirling, Rachel Norman, discusses the challenges of farming fish in the age of climate change with Gareth Mitchell. 

Under the ground in a forest in Michigan in the USA lives a gigantic fungus. It weighs at least 400 tonnes and is 2,500 years old. For the last thirty years of its long life, Myron Smith form Carleton University has been studying it. With modern genetic analysis he has discovered that it has remarkably stable DNA with very low rates of mutations.

In a paper in Science Robotics, biologist James Sharp and roboticist Sabine Hauert demonstrate how hundreds of tiny robots can move together as a swarm. It is not unlike the behaviour biologists see in schools of fish or flocks of birds. Dr Hauert explains how one day these robots may aid rescuers to find victims of natural disasters.

Reporter Roland Pease visits Sir Bernard Lovell Academy to meet students and teachers who are using video games in education. He speaks to Laura Hobbs of Lancaster University’s "Science Hunters" team who has been running the sessions.

The runway at Gatwick airport was closed last night as two drones were seen flying within the perimeter fence. Sussex Police have described the incident as a ‘deliberate act of disruption’. Rob Siddall, a researcher from Imperial College London, discusses the issues of drones in our airspaces with Gareth Mitchell. One solution to keeping the skies clear is to train eagles to take out drones that stray into dangerous areas.

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