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Los Angeles is famously earthquake prone, but it is also known for its technological advancement, being close to the heart of the computer industry. Seismologists have developed a new system which uses redundant capacity on fibre optic networks across the city to detect earthquakes.

Also in the programme the end of Opportunity – the legacy of the Mars Rover designed to have a working life of just 3 months, which continued to explore the Martian surface for 14 years.

And we look at fish and coral. How best can coral reefs be encouraged to regrow after destructive extreme weather events and why fish farming may be a useful conservation tool as well as a lucrative business.

And what if there are viruses trapped deep in Antarctic ice that could wreak havoc on humans? Alex Lathbridge puts on warm gloves and meets the scientists venturing into the icy wilds. He wants to answer listener Tony’s question - can viral life exist in such inhospitable climes and if so, might it pose us a danger?

Alex meets teams who venture to the Antarctic to find out about how their work to understand climate change leads them to drilling and analysing ice cores that are tens of thousands of years old. He then visits a dynamic husband and wife duo in France who are extracting viruses from 30,000 year old Siberian permafrost and bringing them back to life. He discovers that - rather than killing us all, - their findings of novel giant viruses might contribute to medicine and our understanding of evolution.

(Photo: Los Angeles, California: Earthquake Aftermath. Credit David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images)