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133 :
The Death-Ray in Your Pocket - 50 Years of Lasers |
first
broadcast:
Wed Jun 2 2010 |
9.00 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Hermione Cockburn |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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It's often claimed you're never more than 10 feet from a rat, and you could probably say the same about lasers. In the home and at the shops, throughout medicine, the military, and almost everywhere else the laser has become one of the most ubiquitous pieces of modern technology. And that's in just 50 years, not bad for a device that, after its first successful test on 16th May 1960 was immediately dubbed “a solution looking for a problem”.
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132 :
Geo-engineering the Climate |
first
broadcast:
Wed Mar 10 2010 |
9.00 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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Following December's climate conference in Copenhagen the world is now committed to holding global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees centigrade -- in theory. But without a binding treaty to curb carbon emissions, there's growing interest in "geoengineering" as a kind of insurance policy against the possibility that the worst predictions of some climate scientists come true. Mark Whitaker reports on research in key centres in Britain and the USA into ways of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the earth -- and on the massive technical, financial and political hurdles they face.
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129 :
Poppies are Red, Cornflowers are Blue |
first
broadcast:
Sun Nov 8 2009 |
11.45 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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| The fourth in our series of annual ¼ -hour vignettes for Remembrance Sunday.
It's not just how the Poppy became the symbol of remembrance in Britain - though that is a fascinating story, rarely told in full - but also a deeper analysis of why it rapidly became such a strong and enduring symbol, to the point where some fear it is becoming over-exploited. Plus a look at France's rather less ubiquitous flower of remembrance, the blue cornflower, and through these symbols an insight into the two countries' different approaches to remembering those who have died in conflicts past.
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128 :
The Plight of the Bumblebee |
first
broadcast:
Wed Oct 21 2009 |
9.00 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Louise Batchelor |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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Honeybees have hogged the news recently and surely everyone now knows they are essential to our agriculture but are dying in large numbers due to the mysterious “colony collapse disease”. What’s much less well known is that bumblebees are arguably just as important – indeed they pollinate many crops and flowers that honeybees don’t touch – and they too are in serious decline.
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127 :
Inside the Virtual Anthill |
first
broadcast:
Mon Jun 1 2009 |
9.02 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Gerry Northam |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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- 'Open Source Means Business'. A lot’s been said about ‘open source’ software, like the free web browser Firefox and the operating system Linux, but little about how thousands of programmers scattered around the world collaborate in a “virtual anthill” to create products that rival more commercial offerings. So in this programme Gerry Northam goes behind the scenes to see how it’s done – and to show how its ethos is being applied to other kinds of business, with some startling results.
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119 :
The Menin Gate |
first
broadcast:
Sun Nov 9 2008 |
11.45 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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The Menin Gate in the little Belgian city of Ypres is an extraordinary symbol of remembrance - the Last Post has sounded every night since 1929 (bar WW2) and it's the most visited site on the Western Front. This is a little cameo for Remembrance Day, following ''the Roots of the British Legion'' last year and ''the Roots of Remembrance Day'' the year before.
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118 :
Hamish Henderson - a Various Man |
first
broadcast:
Tue Oct 14 2008 |
11.30 am
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Fred Freeman |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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He's been called "the most important Scottish poet since Burns" but he's better known overseas than elsewhere in the UK. Nelson Mandela sought him out after his release from Robbin Island, Pete Seeger gamely attempted some of his Scots dialect poetry and E P Thompson called him "that rare man, a poet". This programme gives a flavour of the extraordinary life and work of Hamish Henderson.
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115 :
Peer Review in the Dock |
first
broadcast:
Mon Aug 4 2008 |
9.02 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Mark Whitaker |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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¨Peer Review¨ is supposed to be the ¨gold standard¨ of quality control for research projects and academic studies, yet evidence of its many deficiencies has been building up for over 20 years. That knowledge has been confined to the academic world until recently but now peer review’s tarnished image is being revealed to a wider audience. Rightly so, because this is no academic argument – hen it comes to medicine, inadequate peer review of proposed new drugs and other treatments can be literally a matter of life and death.
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113 :
Clair Patterson - Scourge of the Lead Industry |
first
broadcast:
Mon Jul 14 2008 |
9.00 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Hermione Cockburn |
producer:
Mike Hally |
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The extraordinary story of one man’s discovery of the global contamination of the environment by man-made lead compounds -- a story of brilliant applied science, painstaking research and a refusal to bow to vested interests. Preview picture of Patterson is copyright Caltech
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112 :
North African Short Stories (5): You Taught Me To Love Life, Father |
first
broadcast:
Fri May 9 2008 |
3.30 pm
Radio 4 |
presenter:
Youssef Kerkour |
producer:
Mark Whitaker, Mike Hally, Gillian Hush |
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Written by Arousia Naluti: what his wife’s pain in childbirth teaches a young Tunisian man about his country
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