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We meet Manette, the 102 year old who has become the Britain's oldest skydiver. Also: as the Paralympics get underway, we hear the stories of inspiring athletes including USA swimmer, Ali Truwit, who was attacked by a shark.
Presenter: Rachel Wright. Music composed by Iona Hampson.
It would be quite a superpower to regrow entire body parts. CrowdScience listener Kelly started pondering this after a discussion with her friend on whether human tongues could regrow. Finding out that they couldn't, she asked us to investigate the extent of human regenerative abilities.
Presenter Alex Lathbridge travels to Vienna, a hotbed of research in this area. He meets an animal with much better powers of regeneration than humans - the axolotl. In Elly Tanaka’s lab he finds out how she studies their incredible abilities – and shows off his new axolotl tattoo.
Why can these sweet-looking salamanders regrow entire limbs while we can’t even regrow our tongues? Palaeontologist Nadia Fröbisch has looked into the evolutionary origins of regeneration, and it goes a lot further back than you might think.
And in fact, even humans are constantly regenerating, by renewing the building blocks of our bodies: cells. New cells grow and replace old ones all the time – although, in some parts of the body, we do keep hold of the same cells throughout our lives.
However, cell turnover isn’t the same as regrowing entire organs or limbs. But can we grow new body parts in the lab instead? We meet Sasha Mendjan, who creates heart organoids using our cells’ innate ability to self-organise. How far off are we from implanting organs, grown from a patient’s stem cells, back into the human body?
Contributors: Dr Elly Tanaka, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) Prof Martin Hetzer, Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) Prof Nadia Fröbisch, Natural History Museum Berlin Dr Sasha Mendjan, Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA)
Presenter: Alex Lathbridge Producer: Florian Bohr Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Studio Manager: Bob Nettles
Every year hundreds of thousands of people go missing or are ‘forcibly disappeared’ around the world, and Africa has one of the highest number of cases. On International Day of the Disappeared we hear the testimony of one affected family, and discuss what needs to be done to effectively deal with the crisis.
As health officials from several African nations conclude a week-long summit to discuss the MPox outbreak, are they closer to delivering on plans for the rollout of vaccines? And what are the challenges of being a female stand-up comedian in Tanzania? Comedy sketch performer, Sakinah Chandoo, shares her wit and wisdom.
Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producers: Bella Hassan, Yvette Twagiramariya, Stefania Okereke and Sunita Nahar in London. Susan Gachuhi was in Nairobi. Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer Senior Journalist: Patricia Whitehorne Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
Following anti-tourism protests across popular Spanish cities and towns, we are looking for the world's most unwelcome visitor. Our panellists (and producers) are pitching their terrible tourists to see who really is the worst of them all. Some of our contenders include...
The wild boars who's unanticipated vacay to Rome has gone on for so long and caused so much carnage that researchers are putting them on birth control.
The microbes potentially hitching a ride to the moon via space probes and astronauts' poo
The multi-destination parasite who wreaks havoc as it interrails through snails (castrating them on the way), frogs (making them spout multiple limbs) and birds.
But there are some instances when tourists can be a good thing - and this is especially the case in the human body when we want to grow a baby. How is in that we are able to protect what should be an 'unwelcome visitor' from a hyperalert, hostile immune system? Our expert Edward Chuong explains.
Plus, we uncover the DNA origins of the world's most popular coffee bean, hear the freeloading activities of the male angular fish, and read out a selection of your wonderful emails.
Presenter: Caroline Steel Panellists: Phillys Mwatee & Christine Yohannes Producer: Julia Ravey Production team: Emily Knight, Noa Dowling Studio manager: Emma Harth
In 1977 astronomers recorded a brief and strange radio transmission that looked like it perhaps had even come from an alien civilization. It was named the Wow! signal – because that’s what astronomer Jerry Ehman wrote on the computer printout upon its discovery. But now a team including Abel Méndez of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo have come up with an astrophysical hypothesis.
An oil tanker which was attacked by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea last week is still on fire and may be leaking oil, the US Pentagon says. The talk now is of an agreement to salvage the tanker so a crisis may be avoided, but marine ecologist Carlos Duarte of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia explains how precious ecosystems are at risk.
A meta-analysis of Mediterranean Sea marine species reveals the profound impact of the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Konstantina Agiadi of the University of Vienna tells us how this drastic environmental event resulted in the almost complete evaporation of the Mediterranean Sea roughly 5.5 million years ago and how the resulting changes still influence ecosystems today.
Wildfires that swept across Canada last year are still burning in some parts. A new study has confirmed that they put into the atmosphere a vast amount of burned carbon, over half a billion tonnes. Only China, India and the USA emitted more fossil-fuel based carbon in that period. Brendan Byrne of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been using satellite-based observations to track the carbon release.
Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production Coordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis
(Image: The Wow! signal represented as "6EQUJ5". Credit: NAAPO)
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is on a three-day trip to west Africa. He's hoping to curb the record number of unauthorised migrants travelling by boat to Europe via the Canary Islands. But why is migration increasing?
Also why is there a delay in paying the Kenyan police deployed in Haiti?
And what does naming of a lion, after the leader of the opposition, tell us about politics in Tanzania today?
Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Joseph Keen, Bella Hassan and Patricia Whitehorne Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
An El Nino induced drought is intensifying across southern Africa and has left almost 70 million people in urgent need of aid. Countries affected include Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia. We hear about the devastating impact it's having on a community in Northern Zimbabwe.
Also the Gambian government wants to make ammendments to the country's constitution..but does it enjoy the support of all its citizens?
And the African athletes going for gold at this year's Paralympics!
Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Yvette Twagiramariya, Nour Abida, Rob Wilson, Joseph Keen and Bella Hassan in London Techincal Producer: Jonny Hall Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
In a rare move, Burkina Faso’s military-led government has acknowledged that a deadly attack has taken place in which at least 200 security officers and villagers were killed. Some reports say it could be one of the worst ever in the country. So who was behind the attack and why is the military government unable to contain the violence?
Zambia faces a maize contamination crisis as aflatoxins – produced by certain mould and fungi - kill dozens of dogs, sparking health concerns. How can communities keep their food safe?
And what sparked the massive fallout at at the top of South Africa's opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) that has led to the departure and defection of the party’s deputy leader.
Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producers: Bella Hassan and Yvette Twagiramariya in London. Susan Gachuhi in Nairobi Technical Producer: Jonny Hall Senior Producer: Patricia Whitehorne Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
The Maasai community in northern Tanzania has continued to protest against what they call forcible evictions from their ancestral lands at the Ngorongoro conservation area and a UNSECO heritage site. Why are they being relocated?
Kenya’s national carrier, Kenya Airways, has announced that it is out of the doldrums, and has posted its first net profit in more than a decade. What lessons have they learnt from the past, and is the recovery sustainable?
And Uganda proposes a new law that will require teachers to attain a bachelor’s degree to continue in the profession.
Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producers: Bella Hassan in London. Frenny Jowi in Nairobi Technical Producer: Philip Bull Senior Producer: Patricia Whitehorne Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
Jerry Seinfeld has a life-long obsession with jokes, but his smash hit sitcom turned the New York stand-up into the richest comedian of all time. Seinfeld was the most watched programme in America when it ended in in 1998, but it’s what came next that made the real Jerry Seinfeld mega rich – streaming and syndication. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng find out how transcendental meditation, a top Hollywood agent, the unexpected death of a parent and an “inability to act” all helped drive his spectacular success, before deciding if they think he’s good, bad, or just another billionaire.
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