There’s an update from asteroid expert Patrick Michel about the European Space Agency’s Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety. The ESA have received permission to begin preparatory work for the planetary defence mission which will rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis, that will be passing by the Earth on Friday, April 13th 2029. And in news from the Moon this week – a massive cave has been discovered on its surface that might be a window into the body’s sub-surface, and even a ready-made lunar base for future astronauts to use. The claim was made in Nature Astronomy by a team of Italian planetary scientists, and two experts in remote sensing who have been re-interpreting radar data from a NASA orbiter - Leonardo Carrer and Lorenzo Bruzzone from University of Trento in Italy. In the magazine Science, there’s a call for a re-doubling of efforts to tackle malaria in Africa as signs grow that a leading treatment, Artemisinin, is becoming less effective. Deus Ishengoma, a malaria expert with the Tanzanian National Institute for Medical Research, is worried, having seen the transformation Artemesinin made in the past. Tiny solar-powered flying robots - an ultra-lightweight, solar-powered micro aerial vehicle capable of sustained flight is described in a paper published in Nature. Peng Jinzhe of the School of Energy and Power Engineering at Beihang University was part of the team behind the 8 millimetre robot. Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth (Image: ESA’s Ramses mission to asteroid Apophis. Credit: The European Space Agency)
I'm Rory Stewart and I want to talk about ignorance.
I will die without having read everything.
That was written in classical Latin because.
Ignorance isn't simply the opposite of knowledge, it's part of what it means to be human.
Just about every game I can think of involves ignorance.
There's no adventure without ignorance.
There's no narrative.
The long history of ignorance from Confucius to QAnon.
With me, Rory Stewart.
Listen on BBC Sounds welcome to science in action from the BBC World Service.
With me, Roland Pease.
This week we've caves on the moon, a tiny solar powered flying drone, and a call for a redoubling of the effort to haunt malaria in Africa.
If you were to interview me, five years to come, I would probably not take the interview because I'll be shedding tears all the time.
We need to come out of step up, take the steps preemptively to make sure we dont reach to a stage where we have massive children, massive people in Africa dying because the global community is ignoring its not fair.
It was just a few months back in April that science in action spent time with space scientists from around the world, planning what to do for 2029, when a major piece of space rock will come skimming close over our heads.
A chance to learn important lessons in case a future one comes even closer.
This one is the real deal.
This is an asteroid that is going to almost literally buzz the treetops on April 13, 2029.
It is a Friday, April 13, 2029.
That's because nature has a sense of humor.