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This week, there have been new insights into the link between climate and weather. Specifically, about how extreme weather happens but also how they get stuck, leading to prolonged heat waves, droughts or wildfires.

Earth is certainly an active place climate-wise and it looks as though Mars may have also been a little livelier than it is now. If you look a little closer, you can find dried out rivers where water once flowed. New research reveals what happened to the Red Planet’s atmosphere and why it is now a cold, dry place. We also hear how you can join in the search for the missing mysterious ninth planet of our solar system.

We meet the scientist who is trying to understand how accents either get diluted or become more distinct. But we delve further into understanding our brains because to even have different accents we needed to socialise as a species – is that why humans evolved big brains? Or could it be our diet?

(Photo caption: Pakistani flood survivors wade through the flood water in Khairpur Nathan Shah on September 18, 2010 © Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images)

The Science Hour was presented by Gareth Mitchell with comments from ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Science Correspondent Jonathan Amos

Producer: Graihagh Jackson