Butterflies, Buoys and the English Channel
In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Sue Nelson goes to the Eden Project in Cornwall, southwest England and to the South Downs in southeast England to find out what butterfly research is telling us about climate change. As well as the bad news, there is good…
Antarctica, Wild Geese and Ash Plumes
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Richard Hollingham finds out that the freezing seas around Antarctica are not barren and lifeless. The Census of Marine Life is building up a picture of the richness and diversity of life in the world's oceans and has so…
Leeches, Earthquakes and Weird Sea-life
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). In this recording, Richard Hollingham talks to expert seismologist Brian Baptie from the British Geological Survey, who uses musical software to find out if earthquakes are getting more frequent. Another report comes from Plymouth…
Orangutans, Green Buildings and an Antarctic GP
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). With efforts to improve energy efficiency focused on green transport, sustainable power generation, growing your own food and reducing waste, it is often easy to forget that the very buildings we live and work in could also be made…
Spreading aliens, Arctic experience, and Antarctica
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how hikers and walkers could be unwittingly changing the landscape by spreading alien species; what it's like to work as a marine biologist in the Arctic in temperatures of minus 40°C; and exactly how stable…
Bowerbirds, a Yellow Sub and Measuring CO2
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Richard Hollingham finds out that bowerbirds are not just brilliant at making elaborate bowers, they are also good at mimicking other birds and most other sounds they hear, including human voices. He also goes to a Scottish forest…
The Risks of Following the Herd, and Banded Mongooses
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Have you ever noticed that when you cross a busy road, as well as clocking the traffic, you subconsciously follow what your neighbours do? Scientists have recently put a figure on this and worked out that people are 2.5 times…
Volcanic Ash from Iceland, and Sediment Time Machines
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland gave scientists an unparalleled opportunity for research, and why sediment from rivers like the Thames can act like time machines to bygone eras. On…
Palm Oil Plantations, Charcoal, and a Flea Circus
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Does your shopping basket contain chocolate, biscuits and shampoo? If it does, you may be unwittingly contributing to the destruction of the some of the world's pristine rainforests. Manufacturers now use palm oil in a huge…
Plastics in the Oceans and Tracking Satellites
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Scientists recently found plastics floating in some of the most remote and inaccessible seas in the world, just off the coast of Antarctica. Although it clearly looks ugly in such a pristine environment, scientists are more concerned…
Hi-tech Physics, Toxic Soils and Mussel Shells
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) was recorded at the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, England and discusses how two researchers are using hi-tech physics to study different aspects of the environment. The Diamond synchrotron is like a giant, silver doughnut,…
WWII Bunkers, Thugs and Aliens, and Calving Glaciers
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at why weathermen are using a converted World War II bunker to monitor clouds; how thug species such as bramble, nettle and bracken can be just as damaging to woodlands as alien plants; and why scientists are going to Greenland…
Noisy Coral Reefs, Melting Ice Sheets and Whale Speak
In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Richard Hollingham hears how the underwater world isn't the soundless place often imagined. From chirping, gurgling and snapping sounds from busy coral reefs to clicking sperm whales, scientists are finding that all…
Bumblebee Declines, Microbes, and Amazing Birds
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at what UK farmers are doing to protect the country's vanishing bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinating insects; how scientists are trying to figure out how many types of microbes there are on our planet and why…
Romans Recycling, Dinosaur Colour, Gravity Mission
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how the Romans recycled glass, dinosaur colour, and what Europe's gravity mission tells us about ocean currents. The height of the world's oceans can vary by as much as 200 metres. These huge differences…
Fish Poo, Dead Whales, and the Japan Earthquake
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how the famous White Cliffs of Dover could be made of fish poo (at least partially), why one researcher is so interested in dead whales, and why the Japan earthquake was so powerful and devastating. Scientists have…
Science From a Plane, and Forecasting Space Storms
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how a specially-designed twin turboprop research plane is helping scientists in a huge range of subjects from archaeology to ecology, and why a violent space storm could spell trouble for communications systems across…
The Earth's Magnetic Field, Snow, and Chernobyl
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how scientists plan to measure the Earth's magnetic field from space, why one researcher is in the frozen town of Churchill in northern Canada, and how the Chernobyl disaster still affects Northern Ireland 25 years…
Tracking Insects With a Big Dish, Australian Floods
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at how tracking insects can help scientists forecast summer storms and floods, and the role one of Europe's key satellite missions played in the recent floods in Queensland, Australia. The huge Chilbolton Facility…
Flood Defences, the Southern Ocean, and Whiter Clouds
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at why removing some man-made coastal flood defences might not be such a bad idea, what it is like studying gas exchange in the wilds of the Southern Ocean, and – in what could be the first case of 'natural'…
Rip Currents in Cornwall, and Carbon Capture and Storage
This podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) looks at why understanding rip currents at Perranporth in north Cornwall could help save lives; and how exactly does carbon capture and storage (CCS) work and how can scientists be sure that CO2 will be stored forever? There…
Cuckoos at Wicken Fen, Snow, and Radiocarbon Dating
This podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection looks at the cunning tricks the cuckoo uses to get another bird to do the parenting, why researchers are studying snow in Sweden, and discovers an improved radiocarbon dating technique. The cuckoo is a well-known cheat: it…
Barrel Jellyfish and Supercooled Water
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Scientists know surprisingly little about jellyfish.Which is why British and Irish researchers are in the middle of a project to tag them to find out things like where they go during the winter, how long they live and why they…
Lake Windermere and Walking with Dinosaurs
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). British Geological Survey scientists have completed the first full geological survey of Lake Windermere in the English Lake District since the Royal Navy surveyed it in the 1930s. Among other things, the survey will help researchers…
Gold, Storms and Dinosaurs
In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Richard Hollingham looks at where and how to find gold while Sue Nelson finds out why weather forecasters still struggle to predict sudden, violent summer storms. Other reports discover why scientists may be a step closer…
Harassed Guppies and Promiscuous Fruit Flies
In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), reporters find out what sexual conflict means for female guppies, how female promiscuity may be a good thing and why female mongooses all give birth at the same time. In an extreme example of sexual harassment, researchers…
Geoengineering, Wind and Sea Squirts
In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), two researchers talk about the technological solutions some scientists say might have to be used to tackle climate change. With average temperatures expected to rise by 2°C this century, and efforts to cut greenhouse…
Energy Crops, CryoSat-2 and Bird Bling
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Willow, palm, miscanthus and other energy crops are being touted as a possible solution to Britain's growing energy security problems. There are suggestions that they could help replace fossil fuels, plugging Britain's…
Splitting Earth, Space Weather and Robotic Dolphins
In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Sue Nelson hears about the birth of an ocean in the Afar depression in the Horn of Africa. The continental crust is being ripped apart at a phenomenal rate – one metre every year over the last five years. In the not…
Arctic Terns, Satellites and Conker Trees
A podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). As the map of Earth's gravity – as revealed by the European Space Agency's (ESA) sleek GOCE satellite – comes into sharper focus, Richard Hollingham speaks to a researcher who tells us what early results from…
Rockpools and Ocean Acidification
In this podcast from Planet Earth Online and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Sue Nelson visits the Anglesey coast of north Wales to learn what these mini marine laboratories can tell us about the value of biodiversity. The effects of climate change range from rising temperatures and higher sea levels to extreme…
Kew Gardens, Antarctica and Ancient Trees
In this podcast from the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Planet Earth Online collection, Sue Nelson reports from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where she finds out that some plants like the Snake's Head Fritillary have enormous amounts of DNA in their genomes. These plants struggle in extreme environments,…