Podcast: Ice giants, climate diplomacy and Earth's flipping magnetic fields

by ,

In this edition: the next big mission to Neptune or Uranus, a diplomat's response to COP21 and the unsteady history of the Earth's magnetic field.

The podcast is presented by Gareth Mitchell, a lecturer on Imperial's Science Communication MSc course and the presenter of Click Radio on the BBC World Service, with contributions from our roaming reporters.

Download the complete podcast (mp3)

OR LISTEN TO INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS

News: Festival preview and a marathon for a neglected disease – We look forward to getting hands on with everything from robots to DNA at the Imperial Festival 7-8 May, and we talk to Dr Mike French who ran the London marathon, raising £52,000 for schistosomiasis treatment and research.

Mission to the ice giants – Dr Adam Masters had an unusual Easter, helping to define the next big planetary mission to Neptune or Uranus, planets no missions have visited for more than 25 years.

Climate diplomacy – Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, delivered the 2016 Grantham Institute annual lecture. In a chat with the Grantham’s co-director Jo Haigh and two PhD students, she talks about the impact of the COP21 agreement and her hopes for the future.

Flipping magnetic fields – By studying the properties of tiny magnetic minerals billions of years old, Dr Adrian Muxworthy can tell when the Earth’s magnetic field has flipped – north becoming south and vice versa.

Reporters

Hayley Dunning

Hayley Dunning
Communications Division

Click to expand or contract

Contact details

Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 2412
Email: h.dunning@imperial.ac.uk

Show all stories by this author

Gareth Mitchell

Gareth Mitchell
Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication

Click to expand or contract

Contact details

Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 8766
Email: g.mitchell@imperial.ac.uk

Show all stories by this author

Tags:

Geology, Imperial-Festival, Climate-change, Space, Strategy-share-the-wonder, Neglected-tropical-diseases, Podcast
See more tags

Leave a comment

Your comment may be published, displaying your name as you provide it, unless you request otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.