Uncharted: The golden spike

Loading player...
At a conference in Mexico, one scientist’s outburst sparks a global quest to find a ‘golden spike’ - the boundary marking the shift into a new geological period dominated by humans, not volcanoes or asteroids. From plastics and concrete to nuclear fallout, the data they uncover reveals a planet profoundly altered. But can they convince their colleagues and the world of the extent of this transformation? Meanwhile, in a small Italian city nestled in the Apennine mountains, a series of low-level tremors raise the question: Is this just a passing phase, or a warning of something much more devastating?
3 Feb English United Kingdom Science

Other recent episodes

The Animal Employment Agency

We live in a time of automation and robotics; the machines run the factories, and AI will soon take all the jobs. And yet, even today, there are certain niche jobs where only an animal will do. Comedian and biologist Simon Watt is out to meet some of them, and…
24 Nov 26 min

Bodies

The London Anatomy Office accepts around 350 human bodies donated for medical research and education annually. You may imagine that these bodies are presevered in chemicals for medical students to study over weeks and months. And some are. But many are used - almost fresh - to train surgeons in…
17 Nov 28 min

The Life Scientific: Kevin Fong

There can't be many people in the world who've saved lives in hospital emergency rooms and also helped care for the wellbeing of astronauts in space – but Kevin Fong’s career has followed a singular path: from astrophysics and trauma medicine, to working with NASA, to becoming an Air Ambulance…
10 Nov 26 min

The Life Scientific: Dame Pratibha Gai

Chemical reactions are the backbone of modern society: the energy we use, the medicines we take, our housing materials, even the foods we eat, are created by reacting different substances together. If we zoom in, it’s the atoms within these substances that rearrange themselves to give rise to new substances…
3 Nov 27 min

The Life Scientific: Catherine Heymans

Have you ever considered the lighter side of dark matter? Comedy has proved an unexpectedly succesful way to engage people with science - as today's guest knows first-hand. Astrophysicist Catherine Heymans is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh and the current Astronomer Royal for Scotland. She’s spent her career…
27 Oct 28 min