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THE MATERIAL WORLD
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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Quentin Cooper reports on developments across the sciences. Each week scientists describe their work, conveying the excitement they feel for their research projects.
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Contact Material World |
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LISTEN AGAIN Ìý30 min |
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PRESENTER |
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"For me science isn't a subject, it's a perspective. There are fascinating scientific aspects to everything from ancient history to the latest gadgets, outer space to interior decorating; and each week on The Material World we try to reflect the excitement, ideas, uncertainties, collisions and collaborations as science continues its never-ending voyage into the unknown".
Quentin Cooper |
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Burning peat forests in Borneo, and Igapó inÌýBrazil
Credit:ÌýDr Florian Siegert / www.rssgmbh.deÌýandÌýBrunaÌýBezerra
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Tropical Forest special
Quentin hears from biologists working in tropical forests across the world.
Borneo Burning
The peat forests of Central Kalimantan in Borneo are home to nearly half of the world’s orangutans, but a disastrous policy of clearing the trees to make way for rice paddies led to a collapse in their numbers. Now rice has made way for oil palms and illegal logging. Professor Jack Rieley of Nottingham University started studying the peat forests 25 years ago, and now is a leading activist in trying to preserve what’s left. And Simon Husson of Cambridge University has spent many of the last twelve years deep within the remaining forest, studying the ecology of the orangutans.
Amazon flooding
Deep in the heart of Amazonia, rivers flood the surrounding forests with up to 15 metres of stagnant water, so that some trees only just peak their tips above the surface. These drowned forests, or Igapo, are so impenetrable they’ve barely been studied. Primatologists Adrian Barnett and Bruna Bezerra are half way through a two year exploration of the region, focusing on the incredibly shy golden-backed uacari monkeys, with vice-like jaws that can break the hardest nuts.
NEXTWEEK:Ìý Memory in a digital age and space traffic control...
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RELATED LINKS
Â鶹Éç Science & Nature
Â鶹Éç Radio 4 Science programmes
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