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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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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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80 million year old Ammonite with its original colour ...
© Andrew Parker, Natural History Museum
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Fossil Colourisation
Quentin will be exploring how fossil remains of the dinosaurs is revealing information about their colouring and marking – were they striped or spotty – purple or yellow?
The development of colour and the eye to see it, over 500 million years ago, was a trigger to the biggest expansion of life on the planet – the ‘Cambrian explosion’.
Quentin is joined by Professor Andrew Parker, a Research Leader in Zoology at the Natural History Museum and Dr Phil Manning, Lecturer in Palaeontology, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester.
Symmetry
Quentin finds out about a mathematical object called the monster with more symmetries than there are atoms in the Sun and finds out why you need 100s of thousands of dimensions to actually see it.
The beauty and essence of symmetry and why it’s vital for communications and code breaking.
Quentin is joined by Marcus Du Sautoy, Professor of Maths at the University of Oxford and author of Finding Moonshine and Prof Robert Curtis, Deputy Head of Research, School of Mathematics, University of Birmingham.
Next week: Weighing up cosmic string and looking for vocanoes in Antarctica ...
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RELATED LINKS
³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Science & Nature
³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 4 Science programmes
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