Monty the giant schnauzer won best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. And rather than thinking of all things canine, this week the Unexpected Elements team turn their attention to all things giant.
First, we find out how a giant virus could help keep our planet cool.
Next up, we discover the origins of enormous Greek characters, such as the Titans and the Cyclops.
We then find out how giant clams put solar panels to shame.
Plus, we’re joined by Professor Shinobu Ishigaki, director of the Museum of Dinosaur Research at the Okayama University of Science. He tells us about the ginormous footprints he found in the Gobi Desert, and what they could teach us about herbivorous dinosaurs.
That, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenters: Caroline Steel, with Chhavi Sachdev and Camilla Mota.
Producers: William Hornbrook, with Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, Debbie Kilbride, Imaan Moin and Noa Dowling.
The Lancet this week features a paper calling for a financially sustainable network of influenza labs and experts across Europe. Marion Koopmans was one of the 32 expert signatures, and she describes how Europe needs to learn some lessons from the model developed previously in the US. The ongoing worries around avian H5N1 would be a great example of why funding for that sort of frontline strategic science needs not to be reliant on ad-hoc, potentially political, funding grants.
This weekend, a conference is taking place in Asilomar, CA, to mark 50 years since the 1975 conference there at which scientists developed some rules and guidelines around the future practice of genetic science. The historic Asilomar conference is celebrated by many as the moment scientists first demonstrated that they could spot risks, and self-regulate their activities, around novel and disruptive technologies. Author and scientist Matthew Cobb of the University of Manchester, and Shobita Parthasarathy of the University of Michigan discuss how perhaps other perspectives on the Asilomar legacy should be considered.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Alex Mansfield
Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
(Image: Herbert Boyer (UCSF) and Paul Berg (Stanford) at a conference at Asilomar, February 26, 1975. Credit: Peter Breining/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Sudan's military led government are upset by Kenya's decision to host a conference of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces
Is there a regional power play behind Mauritania and Morocco's electricity exchange agreement ?
And what's the deadly bacteria that's making Lake Victoria turn green?
Presenter: Charles Gitonga
Producers: Frenny Jowi in Nairobi with Sunita Nahar, Stefania Okereke, Nyasha Michelle and Bella Hassan in London. and Blessing Aderogba in Lagos
Technical Producer : Philip Bull
Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
Experts say the health of millions of Africans is at stake following the suspension of much needed USAID funds. Programs that the US organisation funds on the continent are vast and crucial. What do African governments need to do to fill the gap?
Also, a new report says that the recruitment of children as soldiers on the continent remains a challenge. We hear from a former child soldier.
And a proposal for a fresh approaching in saving the African rhino, but this time, everyone is included in the conversation for conservation!
Presenter: Charles Gitonga
Technical Producer: Philip Bull
Producers: Patricia Whitehorne, Nyasha Michelle and Stefania Okereke
Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
The collapse of an illegally operated gold mine in western Mali at the weekend killed dozens of people
The world’s ‘first openly gay imam’ who was shot dead in South Africa, Muhsin Hendricks, is remembered
What can be done about overcrowding in prisons in Africa?
Presenter: Charles Gitonga
Producers: Sunita Nahar and Stefania Okereke in London.
Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga
Technical producer: Gabriel O'Regan
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi.
UK PM says US security guarantee only way to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again. Also: Using AI to detect prostate cancer and tributes paid to Paquita la del Barrio whose songs empowered women around the world.
African Union members have elected Djibouti's Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf as the next chair of the AU Commission. Mr Ali Youssouf defeated Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former Foreign Minister of Madagascar Richard Randriamandrato. What are some of the challenges he faces?
Also, why is Gambia running short on medicines?
And are tech-savvy Gen Z's really more vulnerable to cyber attacks?
Presenter: Charles Gitonga
Technical Producer: Philip Bull
Producers: Patricia Whitehorne, Sunita Nahar, Nyasha Michelle and Stefania Okereke in London. Blessing Aderogba in Lagos.
Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
When Charles "Chuck" Feeney first appeared on the world's rich lists in the 1980s, he had built a billion-dollar business selling duty free goods to tourists. But he'd also given most of his money to charity. As Good Bad Billionaire takes a short break until March, Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng revisit the story of the billionaire who wasn't. Feeney's journey takes us from Depression-era New Jersey, through the high life of the Jet Age, and ultimately to $8 billion worth of donations given to causes across the planet. The epic tale of "the James Bond of philanthropy" takes in the Korean War, the 20th Century tourist boom and the Irish peace process.
How a plea to fly a dog to the US ended in marriage. Adri Pendleton and Niklas Stöterau fell in love after he came to the rescue. Also: a son who's saved his dad's life, twice; and helping the homeless through tennis.
CrowdScience listener Dorit has a problem. She wants the tiles in her new bathroom to be arranged randomly but, no matter what she does, it still looks like they form some kind of pattern.
This has got Dorit thinking about randomness – what is it, how do you create it, why do we find it so hard to recognise, and is anything really random at all? And if nothing is truly random, does it mean that everything is theoretically predictable? Tiling your bathroom is a much more existential problem than you might have thought.
Never afraid of a question, whether big (is everything pre-determined?) or small (how do I tile my bathroom?), CrowdScience is on the case.
Anand Jagatia heads to Switzerland to meet Hugo Duminil-Copin, a mathematician at the University of Geneva who specialises in probability theory. On the top floor of an old bank, Hugo has Anand flipping an imaginary coin in a random order. Hugo explains that randomness is something that cannot be predicted by any means – so why is it so easy for Hugo to guess what Anand’s next move is?
Meanwhile, at the National Institutes of Mental Health in Maryland USA, Susan Wardle is a cognitive neuroscientist who researches how the human brain processes visual information. Can neuroscience help Dorit with her tiling problem, and is there a reason why the human brain likes to put random objects into some kind of order?
Geneva is also the birthplace of the first Quantum Random Number Generator for smartphones, and CrowdScience has persuaded some of the University of Geneva’s finest quantum physicists to hook a photon detector up to a synthesiser. Thanks to Tiff Brydges and Nicolas Brunner, we can actually hear quantum particles behaving randomly. But is quantum randomness truly random, or just a pattern that we can’t see? And could quantum physics help Dorit tile her bathroom?
Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Ben Motley
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Technical producer: Jackie Margerum
