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The Indonesian island of Sulawesi has been battered by natural forces. First an earthquake, followed by a devastating tsunami and now a volcanic eruption. Roland Pease talks to Geologist Phil Cummins from the Australian National University in Canberra about the multiple geological factors that put the people of Sulawesi in such danger.

Could Tech Warn of Future Tsunami?
Could a complex prototype system of sensors and cables on the sea floor in Indonesia warn scientists of future tsunamis? Gareth Mitchell talks to Professor Louise Comfort from the University of Pittsburgh and she explains how this might work.

Can We Prevent Hurricanes?
Marnie Chesterton talks to Stephen Salter, Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design at Edinburgh University about his idea to ‘whiten’ clouds in order to lower sea temperature and reduce hurricane formation.

Hayabusa 2’s MASCOT Lander
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa 2 has successfully dropped a German-French observation robot and landed it on an asteroid, 300 million kilometres away, as part of a research effort that could find clues to the origin of the solar system. The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) was released from the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa 2 and headed to the asteroid Ryugu. Roland Pease talks to MASCOT Principle scientist Dr Tra-Mi Ho from the DLR Institute of Space Systems.

Loneliness
55,000 people from 237 countries, territories and islands took part in the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Loneliness Experiment and there were nine countries where enough people took part to make some comparisons. Levels of loneliness were almost the same in the UK, the US, France and India, but what was interesting was the slightly lower levels in New Zealand. This isn’t a representative sample of course, but Claudia Hammond wanted to know whether this made any sense to Dr Mathijs Lucassen from the Open University who hails from New Zealand and studies mental health in young people.

2018 Nobel Prize
The research that has earned the highest accolades in science this year includes immunotherapy for cancer, directed evolution in the lab and optical tweezers. Roland Pease has been taking a look at this year’s winners.

(Picture caption: Tsunami and earthquake aftermath in Central Sulawesi – credit: EPA)

The Science Hour was presented by Marnie Chesterton with comments from Clare Wilson, medical reporter at New Scientist

Producer: Katy Takatsuki

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