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North Korea Bomb Tests

North Korea bomb tests;Stress and cancer;Cuckoo chuckle;Can graphic design save your life;Aquaponics;AI Influence on Children;Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize

Last week, North Korea tested their sixth and largest nuclear warhead since 2006. State media claimed it was a hydrogen bomb. Scientists across the world are looking for signals to help determine how developed their nuclear programme is.

Although stress doesn鈥檛 cause cancer, experiments suggest that stress hormones might be implicated in tumour progression. A team has been trying to understand this mechanism to boost the chances of chemotherapy working. And what role does graphic design play in your health? Claudia Hammond visits an exhibition that claims just changing the colour of a cigarette packet to sludge green has saved thousands of lives.

As children go back to school, we ask how robots could aid learning. We learn why the cuckoo bird makes a strange cackling call after laying an egg in the red warbler鈥檚 nest. We also have the future of rooftop farming - aquaponics and how fish excrement should be used to fertilise your plants.

Finally, we take a look at some of the books shortlisted for the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize and tackle the big questions, like how to live forever.

(Photo caption: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un looking at a metal casing with two bulges at an undisclosed location 漏 STR/AFP/Getty Images)

The Science Hour was presented by Claudia Hammond with comments from Marnie Chesterton, presenter of 成人快手 World Service鈥檚 CrowdScience

Producer: Graihagh Jackson

50 minutes

Last on

Sat 9 Sep 2017 11:06GMT

Broadcast

  • Sat 9 Sep 2017 11:06GMT

Podcast