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Science In Action: Oceans in hot water?

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Oceans in hot water?

15/06/2023 GMT

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Oceans in hot water?

A major El Niño is building and heating up the world. What is the forecast?

A major El Niño is building and heating up the world. What is the forecast? Also, we identify the star behind the recent supernova and find out if Betelgeuse is about to pop.

As Pacific Ocean temperatures rise, a major El Niño is looming. Experts from the European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecasting, Magdalena Balmaseda and Tim Stockdale, join us to discuss how it is heating up the world and if it could herald in a new period of climate uncertainty.

Last month, Roland stayed up all night to watch the spectacular explosion of supernova 2023ixf. Now, Dr Charlie Kilpatrick, a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University, has identified the star that blew up 21 million lightyears away. A similar star in our galaxy, the exceptionally bright Betelgeuse, has been acting strangely. Dr Andrea Dupree, a senior astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian, has been trying to figure out what is going on. Is this iconic star about to pop?

And from ageing stars to ageing flies, researchers have published a cell-by-cell map of fruit flies throughout the life of the short lived creatures, showing how they change. Steve Quake, professor of bioengineering and professor of applied physics at Stanford University, tells us what this means for us. 

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Ella Hubber

(Image: Illustration of the world map showing areas of rising temperatures. Credit: ClimateReanalyzer.org)

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