It's billed as the last great encounter in planetary exploration. For the past nine years the New Horizons spacecraft has travelled 5bn km (3bn miles) to get to Pluto On July 14th it performed its historic fly-by encounter with the dwarf planet.

Adam Rutherford examines the first images from the New Horizon's probe and hears the first interpretations from mission leaders and scientists at the NASA New Horizon's space centre as the data arrives back to earth. Expect new light to be shed on the Solar System's underworld as first impression s reveal Pluto to be a champagne coloured body with 11000 ft ice mountains and surprisingly smooth surfaces that suggests recent geological activity

For people who grew up with the idea that there were "nine planets", this is the moment they get to complete the set. Robotic probes have been to all the others, even the distant Uranus and Neptune. Pluto is the last of the "classical nine" to receive a visit. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell discusses how this 2,300km-wide ice-covered rock was demoted in 2006 to the status of mere "dwarf planet", but as "Pluto killer" Mike Brown argues, this shouldn't dull our enthusiasm.

As Adam Rutherford reveals, nothing about this corner of the solar system has been straightforward. Little is known about Pluto's creation -but as the New Horizons probe passed Pluto for this first close up of the dwarf planet , scientists anticipate new insights into the evolution of our solar system and even earth's early history.

With contributions from mission scientists Alan Stern, Fran Bagenell, Joel Parker and astronomer Mark Showalter. Updates too as interpretations rapidly develop, from BBC correspondent Jonathan Amos and astrophysicist Chris Lintott.

Producer Adrian Washbourne.

Pluto: New Horizons

The New Horizons probe is now millions of miles past Pluto, journeying throgh the Kuiper Belt, but still sending back gigabytes of data coming in via the Deep Space Network. Its latest image of Pluto's surface was released by NASA on Wednesday, of huge mountains emerging from an otherwise flat plain, Dr John Spencer one of the lead scientists on New Horizons, a planetary geologist, discusses what's to be read into the surface images captured over the last week

A new paper just published in Nature Geoscience shows that in 2013, which was a slightly cooler summer than average, arctic ice had grown, by 41% on the previous year. The study, uses data from ESA's Cryosat 2, which incorporates not just the surface area of ice, but the all-important number - the volume Adam examines the results with Rachel Tilling from University College London.

Computing has taken a Sci fI step forward this month. Professor Miguel Nicollelis of Duke University, a specialist in brain machine interface experiments, has linked together the brains of four individual rats in order to use the computational power of their brains to carry out tasks including image processing, data retrieval, and even weather predictions. But could this have a therapeutic use in brain damage? Professor Andrew Jackson from Newcastle University, an expert in called 'neural prosthetics' examines the potential.

Across the animal kingdom, signals advertising when females are at their most fertile can be pretty striking. Humans are more subtle, though plenty of studies have shown that female behaviour and physiology does change during the menstrual cycle. A new study by Dr Robert Burriss from Northumbria University suggests that faces may be advertising a woman's most fertile time of the month. But are the traits too subtle for most people to notice?

Producer Adrian Washbourne.

Pluto's surface, Increased Arctic ice in 2013, Linking brains together, Signals of fertility

Over the last few years the Kepler space telescope has picked up many planets around distant stars, radically transforming our view of planets in the universe. The latest one is called Kepler 452-B, and it's made headlines because it's at a distance from its star roughly the same as the Earth is from the Sun, and according to NASA scientists "the closest thing that we have to another place that somebody else might call home". But how can we be really sure of the bold claims for "earth like" planets and hence the possibility of life in distant parts of our universe? Kepler mission scientist Dr. Jeffrey Coughlin from SETI discusses the criteria for calling a planet 'Earth-like' amidst the hype of this latest discovery. 



Graphene is the thinnest solid ever known - a form of pure carbon just one atom thick which gives it unusual, interesting properties: it is a great conductor of electricity, has transistor-like qualities, and is nearly transparent to visible light. All of these have earned graphene the status of being a "wonder material". A paper this week in Nature introduces another, new, impressive graphene technique which is basically the art of origami at an atomic level. Adam spoke to the paper's co-author Professor Paul McEwan from Cornell in New York to examine if graphene is it going to live up to the expectations. 



Robert Hooke, one of the founder members of the Royal Society, was the go-to guy for microscopy in 17th century London, and in 1665, he published Micrographia, a spectacular book about tiny things. It was a best seller, and marked the beginning of biology. To mark the book's 350th anniversary Adam pours over a 1st edition to discuss its legacy with Royal Society chief librarian, Keith Moore and hears from historian Felicity Henderson of Exeter University. 



Maize is a crop that is on the rise. There's an increasing demand for animal feed, and farmers are being incentivised to diversify their crop growth. These developments come, not without resistance. Maize is a crop that causes much debate, so much so that fans of The Archers will have endured the great vengeance and furious anger between Adam Macy and Brian Aldridge in recent weeks. Jane Rickson, Professor of soil erosion and conservation at Cranfield University examines why maize causes so much ire for farmers and how new research is helping to mitigate the soil erosion that's so closely associated with the crop.

30/07/2015

In the 70 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, what are the long term effects of exposure to radiation? Adam Rutherford talks to Professor Richard Wakeford who has been studying radiation for many years about his research following the nuclear bombings as well as nuclear accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima. Marnie Chesterton talks to one of the short-listed entries for the Royal Society Winton book prize, Gaia Vince for her book, Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet we Made. Other short-listed entries are:

*The Man Who Couldn't Stop by David Adam - a scientific and personal memoir of a life with OCD.
*Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology by Johnjoe Mcfadden and Jim Al-Khalili
*Alex Through the Looking-Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life by Alex Bellos
*Smashing Physics by Jon Butterworth - an insider's account of the discovery of the Higgs boson
*Life's Greatest Secret: The Story of the Race to Crack the Genetic Code by Matthew Cobb

Also, Adam talks to Zanna Clay about research into our closest relatives, the bonobos and the unique 'peep' noises they make and why they could provide clues to the evolution of human language. Roland Pease reports on one of Britain's great yet little known physicists, Henry Moseley. He died in the First World War but in just 18 months of research transformed ideas about X-rays and the atom and the Periodic Table of elements.

Hiroshima radiation, Anthropocene, Bonobo noises, Physicist Henry Moseley

As Scotland announces it ban on GM crops and with the current post of chief scientific adviser for Scotland vacant, Adam talks to the previous post holder, Professor Muffy Calder about the role of science advice to government and her reaction to news of the ban. The Earth's magnetic field is weakening which could be a sign that the magnetic poles are soon due to flip. Daniel Lathrop and team at Maryland University are trying to model the Earth's magnetic field using a large molten globe of sodium. Should we be worried if a flip is on the cards? Royal Society Winton book prize short-list: Science writer, David Adam, author of 'The Man Who Couldn't Stop' talks to Marnie Chesterton about his experience of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Adam hears about the birth of a new galaxy seen for the very first time. He talks to Chris Martin from Caltech about his latest galactic research published in Nature.

Scottish GM ban, Earth's magnetic field, OCD, Birth of a new galaxy

Why the expansion of the paleolithic brain was powered by cooked carbohydrates. Gareth Mitchell talks to Professor of Evolutionary Genetics, Mark Thomas, about the difficulties of establishing what our ancestors ate. More than half the world's corals grow in deep, cold waters, many around the shores of the British Isles. But a new study shows they are under severe threat from ocean acidification caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide. Gareth talks to Professor of Marine Biology, Murray Roberts, from Heriot Watt University about why these corals could all be gone by the end of the 21st century. This week's short-listed Royal Society Winton Prize book is Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code. Marnie Chesterton talks to the author Matthew Cobb. BBC Science and environment reporter, Jonathan Webb, joins Gareth from the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston to talk about why the grime on buildings could be a new source of air pollution and why carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could be used to make carbon fibres.

20/08/2015

Dr Adam Rutherford and guests illuminate the mysteries and challenge the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.

Hiroshima radiation, Anthropocene, Bonobo noises, Physicist Henry Moseley

BBC Inside Science

Related tracks