Technically Speaking | a science and engineering discussion

Technical short: Apex predators, asteroids and couch potatoes

In an earlier episode on apex predators we had a bit of a tech fail! Here's a big chunk of speculative conversation from Antonia, Ellie and Jasmin that that follows some sort of weird logic but somehow arrives at a sensible conclusion.

How good is direct air capture?

To help tackle the climate crisis, we'll need a lot of new technology to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Ellie, Jasmin and Laura share a load of facts about the chemicals, energy requirements and land use involved in technology to capture carbon dioxide from the air. They also look at how planting trees compares to this technology and answer questions from a live audience from the Engineering Development Trust about Taylor Swift's private jet and why we're spending money on projects that aren't tackling the climate emergency.

 

Read the review article that Laura mentions in the journal MRS Energy & Sustainability.

Can we live forever?

If you could take a pill to halt ageing and become immortal, would you? Laura, Jasmin and Ellie take a look at some long-lived species, discuss just some of the science behind ageing and decide, if they could, whether they'd want to stay in their biological bodies forever or upload themselves to live digitally.

Read more about the science stories they discuss:

• Determining how long the Greenland shark lives for
• Jonathan the tortoise
• Ming the clam
• Earth's longest living organism
• Some other long-lived animals and plants
• Benefits of intermittent fasting studied by Cambridge scientists
• Genetics studies based on a tiny worm
• https://dogagingproject.org/
• https://www.quantamagazine.org/cells-across-the-body-talk-to-each-other-about-aging-20240108
• Blue zones
• An anti-ageing pill for dogs

Read some of the books they've read:

• Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secret to Longevity
• The Code Breaker

Are humans an apex predator?

We've been around for a while and we have a lot of influence over our environment but are we really better than a lion or an orca? Antonia, Jasmin and Ellie discuss whether humans the top of the food chain or whether nature still does it better than we do.

What does it take to find a new species of animal?

You might be surprised to know that new species are discovered pretty much every day. Laura and Ellie talk about how these discoveries are made and debate whether it's easier to find an exctinct, fossilised species or one that's still alive.

You can send your spare pennies to our ko-fi fund to support the podcast here.

Read about the discoveries that Ellie and the team at IFL Science have reported on including the Carlsberg beetle, a dinosaur in Utah, a dinosaur hand, the golden mole, a fossilised baby turtle that was mistaken for a plant, and Attenborough's rediscovered echidna.

The Natural History Museum publishes annual stats on discoveries.

The article from Scientific American that Laura mentions is What Makes Us Different.

How are vaccines developed?

The COVID pandemic led to rapid development of vaccines. Laura, Emma and Antonia look at the history of vaccine development, the rapid development of the mRNA vaccine, and speculate on whether future vaccines could be so quickly developed.

Read about how viruses are weakened to be used as vaccines, some mechanisms of vaccination, how smallpox vaccines were developed in the 18th century, whether mRNA vaccines could be used to fight HIV, and the recent Nobel prize for the mRNA vaccine used against SARS-COV-2.

How well is radiation portrayed in the movies?

We may not know it, but pop culture is pretty good at influencing our views. Antonia and Laura discuss several action films that rely on radiation for plot points and discuss whether these plot points could be backed-up by science. They talk about using radiation to trace chemical leaks, environmental changes and to find things in the human body. Is there any way of using radiation to trace money the way thta Batman does? Can injecting yourself with a substance protect you from radiation like they do in Star Trek? Is there any way you could use a spray to neutralise radiation like they do in Die Hard 5?

Read about some uses of radiation to trace aspects of engineering projects in this report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Read about uses in medicine and more.

Read about the use of radioiodine in medicine.

How important is methane?

It's contributing to the climate emergency but you don't usually hear about it. Laura, Jasmin and Antonia discuss where it comes from, why it's important, and what can be done to reduce emission of this gas into the atmosphere.

Jasmin's research involves methane. Check out her research profile at Imperial College London.

Antonia mentions the gates of hell firepit in Turkmenistan.

What will advances in artificial intelligence mean for life in the future?

AI is rapidly evolving and we want to know what will happen next. Antonia, Ellie and Jasmin discuss their experience of AI, what intelligence actually means, how AI works, and how it could affect their individual careers as zoologists, science communicators and analysts.

Jasmin talks about her experience with chatbots and references a study on whether people trust them.

Antonia references some opinions of experts shared by Pew Research Centre, The World Economic Forum and AI Experts as well as a video from Answers in Progress.

Ellie mentions a bot that was trained to discover new supernovae.

Are bioplastics better than fossil-fuel based ones?

Like it or not, plastic is a big part of our lives. Laura, Jasmin and Antonia discuss how different plastics are made, how bioplastics are different to ones made from fossil fuels, what is really meant by biodegradable plastics, and whether plastic can be sustainable. The discussion is also peppered with more weird offshoots than normal as real-life examples add to the conversation. Did you know that lots of clothes include plastic fibres? Ever wondered how easy it is to recycle them? Are you better off just burning them for energy? And what does the great British tradition of bonfire night have to do with it?

To find out a little bit more about the market for different types of plastic, check out this article on European-bioplastics.org.