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Science
HOME PLANET
MISSED A PROGRAMME?
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PROGRAMME INFO
Tuesday 15:00-15:30
Richard Daniel chairs the interactive environmental programme in which he and his guests deal with listeners' questions and concerns.
Call 0370 010 0400
home.planet@bbc.co.uk
91Èȱ¬ Planet, PO Box 3096, Brighton BN1 1PL
LISTEN AGAINListen 30 min
Listen to8 July 2008
PRESENTER
RICHARD DANIEL
Richard Daniel
PROGRAMME DETAILS
Tuesday8 July 2008
Earth ©NASA


Panel

This week's guests:


Science writer


marine biologist


Ecologist and Director of the Tyndall centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia TOPICS

TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH

A listener contacted 91Èȱ¬ Planet to ask = why is the earth still hot? After 4.5 billion years why hasn't it cooled down? Is this due to the original heat of the earth's creation? And if it is due to fission processes we would expect radioactive volcanic emissions. Is there possibly a new source of energy from rotation, pressure and the nature of the earth's core that we do not yet understand?

Graham Underwood explained how the earth was made up; the roles that each part of the earth played; the importance of the earth's crust in maintaining temperature and how it happens. The team then discussed what the core of the earth was made of (iron and nickel) and how the constant pressure from the earth maintains the temperature more or less at a constant level

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE

A listener called us to ask what global temperature is and how it is measured. We discussed how a complex set of figures are analysed; gathered and how an average temperature is calculated.

Useful website:

- which calculates global mean surface temperature:

INVASION OF ALGAE

Following the invasion of algae in Qingado in China - we discussed what algae was; the different species; why and how we get them and what we can do to prevent it.

Useful website:



WHO ARE WE RELATED TO?

A listener wrote to ask at what point humans and all animal life shared a common ancestor with plant life?

A discussion arose looking at the 8 kingdoms of life - pointing out how our nearest relative is in fact funghi. We discussed DNA and how our understanding of that has helped us pinpoint more exactly when the split occurred.

COOKING EGGS WITHOUT FIRE

A listener wanted to know if Mrs. Beeton's statement in her Book of Household management was correct. Apparently Egyptian shepherds cooked eggs by putting them in a sling and swinging them around until they cooked ... apparently friction with the air helps to heat up the egg. We put it to the test.

Lynn Dicks demonstrated how this might work…. And the rest of the team discussed what friction was, and how much was needed to generate enough eat to get the eggs to cook.

Needless to say it didn't work!

Useful websites:





Contact 91Èȱ¬ Planet

Send your comments and questions for future programmes to:

91Èȱ¬ Planet
91Èȱ¬ Radio 4
PO Box 3096
Brighton BN1 1PL

Or email the programme: home.planet@bbc.co.uk

Or telephone the Audience Line 03700 100 400

91Èȱ¬ Planet is a Pier Production and is produced by Toby Murcott.

The personal information you provide will be held by the 91Èȱ¬ and by Pier Productions Ltd, the independent production company which makes 91Èȱ¬ Planet. Your information will be used for the purpose of creating the 91Èȱ¬ Planet programme, and will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. For more details on how the 91Èȱ¬ deals with your information, please see the 91Èȱ¬â€™s at

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