Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about plans for NASA’s first visit to the Moon in 50 years—and the quick succession of missions that will likely follow.
Next, Eileen Roesler, an engineering psychologist at the Technical University of Berlin, discusses the benefits of making robots that look and act like people—it’s not always as helpful as you would think.
A look at the international reaction that Afghanistan’s new government is receiving, Emmanuel Macron’s meeting with Armin Laschet, who is hoping to be Germany’s next chancellor, and Milan’s Salone del Mobile fair.
A new theory to explain missing geological time, the end of leaded petrol, and the ancient humans of Arabia.
In this episode:
00:29 Unpicking the Great Unconformity
For more than 150 years, geologists have been aware of ‘missing’ layers of rock from the Earth’s geological record. Up to one billion years appear to have been erased in what’s known as the Great Unconformity. Many theories to explain this have been proposed, and now a new one suggests that the Great Unconformity may have in fact been a series of smaller events.
BBC Future: The strange race to track down a missing billion years
05:23 The era of leaded petrol is over
In July, Algeria became the final country to ban the sale of leaded petrol, meaning that the fuel is unavailable to buy legally anywhere on Earth. However despite this milestone, the toxic effects of lead petrol pollution will linger for many years to come.
Chemistry World: Leaded petrol is finally phased out worldwide
08:26 The ancient humans who lived in a wetter Arabia
While much of modern day Arabia is covered by deserts, new research suggests that hundreds of thousands of years ago conditions were much wetter for periods on the peninsula. These lusher periods may have made the area a key migratory crossroads for ancient humans.
Research Article: Groucutt et al.
News and Views: Traces of a series of human dispersals through Arabia
get the latest as Poland imposes a state of emergency on its border with Belarus. Also in the programme: the US Justice Department’s challenge to protect the constitutional right to an abortion, plus Hong Kong’s announcement to allow quarantine-free travel again.
President Nayib Bukele thinks obliging businesses to take the cryptocurrency will help with remittances, inclusion and foreign investment. So far, few are convinced.
From after-school tutoring to endless extracurricular activities, education is an increasingly cut-throat affair; we examine the costs of these academic arms races. And Sally Rooney’s new novel and the question of what makes great contemporary fiction.
We discuss worsening relations between the EU and the US and ponder whether their immediate future might lie apart. Plus: Russian influence in Belarus and a preview of Salone del Mobile.
Tyler Brûlé and the weekend’s biggest news stories dissected with panellists Christoph Lenz and Urs Bühler, plus check-ins with our correspondents and friends in Tokyo, Helsinki and London.
How New Orleans upgraded the Levee system after Katrina, how to deal with stress in your life, and new homeowners find the most heartfelt message written on wall by family before them.
We discuss the latest from Kabul as the Taliban prepares a new government for Afghanistan and look at the role of the WHO’s new pandemic intelligence hub.
Plus: headlines from the world of film and a first glimpse of Audi’s new concept car.
In some ways America has more leverage now that its forces have left; we ask how diplomatic and aid efforts should proceed in order to protect ordinary Afghans.
A global pandemic has distracted from a troubling panzootic: a virus is still ravaging China’s pig farms, and officials’ fixes are not sustainable. And the first retrospective for activist artist Judy Chicago.
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