144 years. That is how long we waited for the Sagrada Familia to finish its tallest tower.
Antonio Gaudi had a vision. A truly wild one. He didn’t care that the steel and engineering tricks to pull it off didn’t exist yet. They just didn’t. But now they do.
We sit down with Tristram Carfrae from Arup. He is the structural engineer who finally figured out how to stack stone without it collapsing. He calls it an impossible feat. Most people just call it late.
Then the tone shifts. Drastically.
What about the screwworm? It showed up in North America again. nasty business. We ask Tom Whipple and bioethicist Gregory Kaebnick if we are allowed to wipe a species off the face of the earth entirely. On purpose. There is science that could make extinction real. Then there are the ethics stopping it. It is a heavy debate. One doesn’t wrap up cleanly.
And while you worry about global biology. Do you know what rain is coming your way?
Four out of five of us check a weather app every single day. We trust the blue dots and the percent signs. Meteorologist Simon King explains the messy models behind those little icons. They govern your umbrella decision. But do you actually know how they work? Probably not.
Caroline Steel is also in the room. She brings the science the headlines skipped over. The stuff you need.
Science moves fast. News cycles move faster.
Production notes follow the show. Tom Whipple presents. Kate White produces. Martin Smith edits. Jana Bennett-Holesworth handles coordination.
It leaves you with more questions. Especially about the bugs. Or the clouds.
You probably won’t read the programme website. We won’t either.
