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Description
Adam Rutherford investigates the news in science and science in the news. This week's announcement of the discovery of 8 planets lying within the habitable zones of their stars has again raised the... prospect of an earth like planet existing outside our solar system, But if we're to understand how "earth like" these exoplanets really are, we need to gain vital clues from earth's "evil twin" Venus argues environmental engineer Richard Ghail. Adam Rutherford hears about his proposed new mission to Venus - a planet orbiter to examine the surface and atmosphere that will allow us to understand why Venus has evolved so differently from earth despite their apparent sisterlike characteristics. In the more immediate future science correspondent Jonathan Amos looks ahead to some of the highlights in astronomy and physics we can expect in 2015 - from the switch on of the newly energised Large Hadron Collider, and the imminent results of the successful Rosetta mission to the comet 67P, to the long awaited flyby this summer to capture images of Pluto. Roland Pease reports on a revolutionary method of controlling microscopic objects using sonics. As we move further into nanoscale technologies - electronic, mechanical and biological, and often a combination of all three - this could potentially offer a solution to manipulating structures, many of which are quite fragile at this scale. And ten years on from the shock of the South East Asian Tsunami that was to cost the lives of over 220 000 people Adam Rutherford speaks to Dave Tappin of the British Geological Survey, one of the first marine geologists who went to assess the cause of this seismic event. What have we learned in the intervening years?
Metadata describing this Open University audio programme
Series: Inside science
First transmission date: 2015-01-08
Original broadcast channel: BBC Radio 4
Published: 2015
Rights Statement: Rights owned or controlled by The Open University
Restrictions on use: This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OU Digital Archive web pages.
Duration: 00:30:00
Note: Radio 4 version
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Producer: Adrian Washbourne
Presenter: Adam Rutherford
Contributors: Adam Rutherford; Richard Ghail; Jonathan Amos; Alan Stern; Roland Pease; Philip Basendale; Bruce Drinkwater; Dave Tappin
Publisher: BBC Open University
Production number: PEJ46000226
Available to public: no