Weapons our nuclear triad has kept us safe for over 70 years we cannot afford to let it become obsolete in Venezuela there are calls for the immediate release of an 85 year old opposition activist after he called the president a dictator and Nigel the New Zealand gannets long love affair with a concrete bird is over the issue bill to name just one here we've got a beautiful video of him very gently striking his face and trying to get around to the sneezed You're listening to the news room. Hello I'm Rosemary Crick with the B.B.C. News a United Nations panel of experts says North Korea and nearly 200000000 dollars last year by exporting banned commodities in violation of international sanctions it also said North Korea had sent weapons consignments to Syria and me ama Simon Janes reports despite increasingly tough sanctions designed to limit the funding for North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile program a leaked report from the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee says Pyongyang is finding lucrative ways around them monitors said Myanmar received ballistic missile systems from North Korea along with rocket launchers and surface to air missiles me on Mars ambassador to the U.N. How do Swan insisted it had no arms relationship with North Korea the report says Syria received items useful for ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs the director of the F.B.I. Christopher Ray has defended the agency's work and made a bit around way of allegations of political bias Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee released a classified memo which accused the F.B.I. Of abusing its powers of surveillance reactions have mostly followed party lines but not exclusively more details from Peter Pace the senior Republican Congressman John McCain has criticized his own party and Donald Trump over this saying that drone from should stop manufacturing parties on side shows that benefit Russia over Republican responses to this have been to say that it highlights serious violations of public trust the Democrats their reaction of course very different saying that this is a shameful effort to discredit the ongoing investigations into the Trump campaign's possible links with Russia wealthy foreign nationals living in Britain who are suspected of corruption will be forced to explain how they came by their riches as part of a government crackdown on organized crime new measures will allow the author to freeze unexplained assets. Janet Yellen has ended her tenure as chair of the United States Central Bank the Federal Reserve Ms Yellen an appointee of President Obama was the 1st woman to hold the post as successor Jerome Powell will be sworn in on Monday here's Andrey Walker It is arguably the most powerful economic policy job in the world the Fed chair leads a group of policymakers who set interest rates for the U.S. And in recent years have pursued more unconventional policies notably quantitative easing or buying financial assets with newly created money to support recovery from the financial crisis your own power has been one of the Fed's governesses 2012 and he's seen as likely to favor the approach of Janet Yellen cautiously raising interest rates from their post crisis lows towards more normal levels Andrew Walker with that report Well news from the B.B.C. a Man who sold ammunition to the gunman who carried out the last Vegas shooting last October has been charged with conspiracy to manufacture and sell armor piercing bullets for which he did not have a license police said they'd found Douglas Haig's fingerprints on unused ammunition at the casino hotel room from West even Paddick killed 58 people at a music festival. Officials in Brazil have been ordered by a federal judge to return a passport to the former president Luis in Osceola to silver the leading contender in this year's election Lula has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison on corruption charges he was barred from leaving the country Eva fears that he would seek asylum elsewhere to Russians have set a new record for the longest space walk ever undertaken by cosmonauts Alexander missile skin and onto an shuttle off spent 8 hours outside the International Space Station replacing an outdated antenna However at the new one is pointing in completely the wrong direction a main out not be functioning new research has shown that the repetitive hammering movements characteristic of woodpeckers could have an impact on the birds brain it had been assumed that the birds did not suffer from head injuries Allie McConnell reports. Woodpeckers use their beaks up to 20 times a 2nd to drill into Falcon search of insects or to build nests. Mr they've been in existence for about 25000000 years and they've adapted physically to lessen the impact but despite this scientists testing brain tissue from down the woodpeckers say they detected a build up of a protein called tower in some birds in humans the protein has been associated with neurodegenerative diseases and head trauma but is not yet clear whether its presence in the woodpecker brain is a sign of damage or whether it has some protective quality. McConnell with that report B.B.C. News. You're listening to the news room from the B.B.C. World Service with me Claire McDonnell now over the last few days American political life has been dominated by one document I'm talking of course of the memo written by Republicans proposed F.B.I. Biased against Donald Trump which has now been made public on the orders of the president and the role of the memo and the implications of releasing it is only increasing the North America reporter Peter pose has the story the memo focuses on the wiretapping of Carter page a foreign policy advisor to the Trump election campaign who was put under electronic surveillance in October 26th seen it accuses the Justice Department and the F.B.I. Of using an unsubstantiated report to obtain the warrant that gave permission to spy on Mr PAGE It also says the agency is didn't tell the authorities that the dossier had been funded in part by the Democrats the memo says the author of the dossier Christopher Steele a former British intelligence agent had told a senior Justice Department official that he was desperate for Donald Trump to lose the election after authorizing the declassification of the memo President Trump said the actions described by the document were terrible I think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country and when you look at that and you see that and so many other things what's going on. A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than their Devan Yes the Republican congressman who commissioned the memo and said it shows serious violations of public trust but the Democrats say it's a shameful effort to discredit the ongoing investigations into the Trump campaign's links with Russia Steve Cohen sits on the House Judiciary Committee Trump will do anything to protect himself here for the American system of government for democracy for transparency for due process the rule of law and justice evil the truth sometimes has to be said after. The memos released the F.B.I. Director Christopher Roy sent an e-mail to his staff in which he said he stood by their show determination to do their work independently and by the book and the former F.B.I. Director James Comey who was fired by President Trump last year tweeted that the memo was dishonest and misleading Peterborough is well we stay in the U.S. Where the military is having a big rethink about the nuclear weapons it has its worried they are no longer an effective deterrent because America's enemies believe they are too powerful to be used so it wants smaller nuclear warheads still hugely powerful though equivalent to the weapon used on the Japanese city of Nagasaki in the 2nd world war the US Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan is pushing for the change which has been mapped out in its nuclear posture review or N.P.R. Since the end of the Cold War the United States has worked to reduce the number and role of nuclear weapons but the world looks different since the last N.P.R. In 2010 well this is the 1st time since 2010 that the U.S. Military has outlined its nuclear weapons plans with his assessment his own defense and diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus it essentially stems from a broader shift in American military strategy which is to see a much more threatening world the need to deter Russia China potential future nuclear war is from North Korea maybe even one day Iran the idea is not fight nuclear wars but basically to deter them by having a larger range of tools in the nuclear toolbox How are they going about this so we're talking new weapons and how do they come up with the ideas for these new weapons are they look at what other people have got is that how it works they clearly believe that the Russians and the Chinese are modernizing significantly which they are but of course the Americans are modernizing their forces to Russia are seen as having made explicit threats of nuclear targeting against particular NATO countries for example if they participate in the American. Antiballistic missile systems and so on Russia is clearly seen by NATO countries at least to be in breach of a number of key arms control treaties 2 particular things they want to develop one is basically a low yield warhead on their existing submarine launched ballistic missiles that basically means that they take some warheads off them adapt the make them less powerful so they would have less destructive power but we should run away with the idea these are still hugely destructive the other weapon they're thinking of bringing back into the American arsenal is a nuclear arms seat launch cruise missile so that in a sense they believe will give them this range of flexible options and as it were to turun enemy from using nuclear weapons at every single point in the escalatory scale critics may say developing all these new weapons does nothing to deter the proliferation across the globe has been an awful lot of criticism from sort of the arms control lobby disarmament experts one basic level people say well the idea of having low yield less destructive weapons is all very well but when somebody shoots a nuclear missile at you you don't know what's on board you respond to an attack therefore that idea of a graded response is perhaps not terribly logical. Jonathan Marcus now football administrators are usually fairly low profile figures not so Patrice Edwards son or the head of the Football Federation in the Central Africa Republic that is because he's also a senior official in the militia group which has been accused of carrying out of many abuses in that country's civil war and now more controversy as he's been given a key role with African football's governing body that's to see a death voted on during a tournament in Morocco I spoke to our Africa sports expert Nick of El in Casablanca for more while he was a former sports minister under the former president of France was bossy and he went into hiding in Cameroon when the problem started in the Central African Republic when he returned to the country he became the coordinator of the anti blackout movement a largely Christian militia been accused of all sorts of atrocities and carrying out many abuses against Muslims in the Central African Republic and as such was a lot of call for him to be taken to court and put in front of a trial in an internationally back court as part of the peace agreement but that hasn't happened yet and there are some more ports that in the country they deem the court case to has been brought against him in a national court has now been put on hold to just recently one of his fellow anti Belloc a leader Rodriguez and Guy born or who is known as general as you Lou He was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor in perpetual so he got very harsh sentence for his role in the atrocities and I saw him actually wanted to run for the president of the Central African Republic in the 2015 elections but because of the concerns over his activities with the antebellum movement he was prevented from doing so so there he was he was prevented from from running for presidency and yet he has been allowed to run for this position in the African football governing body and now he's got it so how surprising is it given everything you've just stated about him he is now in such a powerful position in African football. Well yeah I think it is very surprising indeed he's been elected as a representative for the central region of the Confederation of African football and indeed to get to his post he actually was the only one who had to go through an election to get his post he beat count and all the other candidates who took up post were elected unopposed so the fact that he actually had an election with this background and won it is a big surprise Confederation are in football haven't responded to the latest outcry but what they have said all the way through is look we've looked at the candidates we've approved the candidates he is eligible to stand so for that and that doesn't seem to be a problem I guess on himself has been speaking to reporters here in Iraq and he's been saying look I don't mix politics with sport. Adding They said look at the allegations against me were true how come I'm here I should if I were if these were true and I was in court then I shouldn't be able to be here today so he's certainly saying that he's eligible for the post and that he should carry on in the post it Carville now cryptocurrency is in essence a digital form of money that allows users to bypass banks and traditional payment methods to pay for goods and services but the value of several crypto currencies has plunged with the best known Bitcoin on course for its worst week since 2013 because it has fallen to below $8000.00 from a high of $19000.00 late last year the slump follows a number of recent incidents of fraud that appear to have shaken faith in digital currencies Our technology correspondent Rory Hatton Jones explains the extraordinary increase in the value of Bitcoin last year sparked a growing interest from criminals in crypto currency and close attention from regulators Japan's financial regulator turned up at the offices of coin check a crypto currency exchange which suffered a loss in a hacking attack demanding to check its security systems earlier this week America's Securities and Exchange Commission acted to close down what's called an initial coin offering a plan to raise a $1000000000.00 and start a new currency the regulator said it was a scam a report from the security firm digital shadows says the criminals have latched on to the enthusiasm for this new type of money the report's author is Becky pink art has because one currency has been gaining and making the news we have people all the way down to my grandmother asking what exactly does it mean can I make some money how can I get into that and so what that does is then create the type of exposure that the criminals need in order to take advantage of folks that don't really know what they're doing but again stuck into it there have been plenty of scandals surrounding cryptocurrency over the years but this time the threat of tighter regulation seems. The scaring investors the value of big Cohen has fallen by around 20 percent over the last week and it has plummeted by more than half from its peak in December to Venezuela now where there are calls for the immediate release of an 85 year old opposition activist he's Enrique artistic eater he was arrested on Friday morning our America's editor Leonardo The told me more about him he is one of the most outspoken critics of President Nicolas Maduro he's been involved in politics for a long time and he's the only survivor of the home top 3 article which was a group that seized power 60 years ago where Venezuela got rid of a very or 3 Terran president and there might have been what got him in trouble because he care if they get a record of the video now on the 23rd of January remembering this is OK's and 60 years the only verse 3 of these political developments in the video he makes references to the government now you know couple from an economic hit the limit. The. What he says that we never thought at that time in 1958 there Venezuela would go through a dictatorship there would be worse than the previous one he said The difference now is that this what he calls a dictatorship of Pres in the caller's mother who is involved in drug trafficking is very corrupt it is involved in international terrorism I am sure President Maduro would deny a lot of those allegations made in this video but what does it say about the situation in Venezuela ahead of the elections in April if they are arresting people like this 85 year old man here he's been taken from the home no one really knows he's supposed to be at the headquarters of the secret police the thing is he was one of 14 opposite. Activists arrested this week. On some the present mother will be officially announced as the Socialist Party candidate for reelection in that the opposition is weakened and they haven't chosen the ethic considered and it's more than likely their present mother will be reelected to another 6 year term what the opposition says gives them hope of change is the appalling economic situation that Venezuela has the highest inflation in the world today this poverty which the government blames on an international blockade the situation is really serious but the opposition seems too weak to counterattack Leonardo da Sam Now they called him Nigel no mates I'm talking about a lonely New Zealand Gannett's that's a type of bird who lived his life on an uninhabited island he has been found dead alongside his partner a concrete replica bird 80 of the decoys were placed on the island in the hope of attracting real birds to form a breeding colony Nigel formed a special attachment with one of them as Linda Mr from friends of mine Island explains his girlfriend was one of those stony gates and they are all different for stuff very realistic he actually built and it's just for here we've got beautiful video of him preening who are like very gently stroking his face and trying to get around to the sneezed even seeing any actual act of mating here which gave us no doubt that he was actually a boy the great thing was that we had 3 more goods come back theory recently they were in a different part of the colony and they didn't seem to have anything to do with Nigel and his skin also that was a bit sad but also hopeful because we don't know whether they're all my old or you know a mixture so been hit Nigel did have some impact because he he may have treated those . KIRK Mr. To Brazil now where a mass vaccination campaign is underway against yellow fever following a deadly outbreak of the virus South America correspondent Casey Watson has been to a town just south just outside rather of Sao Paolo thing. This has become a familiar sound in the town for a few make Asian teams blasting mosquitoes that could be carrying again a fever virus. It seems who dressed up in a gas mask the. Last weeks and they will be back with a mentor. Here at the back of the backpack isn't. It that you see it's so great that the point is. That. You always do it with the help but it is the team goes into a local school the man in charge is Mario map in hand he explains that a man died here back in December that frightened people so the making him extra effort to kill off any breeding sites go into houses check back yards and find any places that could be breeding grounds for mosquitoes Brazil is no stranger to yellow fever during rainy season the transmission of the disease is common in jungle areas especially in the north of the country what the lawn doth Ortiz is the number of cases found close to big cities such as Sam Palo and we're And the fear that the disease could spread rapidly as a result and that's why Mary Barra has been stepping up its efforts to get everyone back cemented but it's not always straightforward Monica for it goes on house visits across town when despicable many don't know the risks or don't want to get vaccinated so we have to work on convincing them and some can't get to the health centers so we go to meet them at home and. There was help the out here. When I live here. We had to have a very poor part of town work hard to find house numbers we ask around before being shown the way to Dhanam Odyssey House it will figure out. We just like the one woman who doesn't leave the house her daughter left the team about they hadn't been vaccinated and we're now going to the house a lady stopped us and said her son is a crack addict and he doesn't get out of the house and she wants nature that has protected. And our way in the city south Palo people here are worried the queues go on for hours that public health clinics where they're now getting smaller doses of the vaccines to ensure everyone is covered Dr Daniel He says the panic isn't necessary we always see that here in Brazil we close the door once the thief is in how do we know we have to vaccinate the population it's when you have dead monkeys coming dead monkeys have been appearing in the southern part of Brazil for one year and they waited too long until it really started to cause a panic but what they're doing is what has to be done that's in need populations around the forest areas and then slowly gathering and go into the central part of the town where there's no yellow fever vaccinations in border because people might travel. Here in Brazil there hasn't been a case of me and I think this is 194213 and doing their best to keep it that way. She wants and reporting the threat of the word famine is enough to send humanitarian workers scrambling into crisis mode and yet a new book by a leading expert makes clear that famine is much misunderstood the newsroom's JAMES COPNALL reports famine inspires fear and pity like little else the T.V. Images of M a C.A.T. The O.P.'s pool cost around the world in the 1980 S. Pushed millions of people to reach deep into their pockets to pay for for. Sued for those who so desperately needed it famines like that one and the one declared last year in South Sudan are often seen as a misfortune brought about by the worst nature can throw at us that's misleading says the famine expert Alex Deval there's a widespread assumption automatic Only somehow famine is the outcome of natural disaster if you do a Google Images search for example for images of permit what you tend to get is images of drought and deserts and crops in fact this is imperative for his new book mass starvation the history and future of famine divel carried out research into the causes of famine of the 100000000 or so people we believe that I didn't. Know under 15 years the great majority more than 75 percent died in Herman's that were entirely or principle caused by part all too often the political dimension to 100 crisis is swept under the carpet those T.V. Viewers tearing up in front of those pictures from Ethiopia often didn't realize the role politicians had played in creating the disaster develop use of humanitarian workers often under play the role of political leaders in creating famines because they didn't want to compromise their access to the people they want to help over the last 3 decades famines have decreased in frequency and the mortality rates in those the do take place have shrunk drastically to now he argues the challenge is to stop famines for good ferment is primarily any political or military action the verb to starve is transmitted starvation when you see someone starving or people starving on Worst someone has done to them it hasn't just. So mass starvation will be ended when it becomes politically toxic politically intolerable to inflict mass starvation or to allow it to proceed without stopping it it's a campaign develop believes the could bring in the left and the right the developed world in the developing those political leaders responsible for so much misery might take some convincing. JAMES COPNALL reporting French prosecutors have placed a prominent Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan under formal investigation on 2 charges of rape it means he's was so since a stand trial Mr Ramadan his $55.00 was questioned for 2 days by police investigators in a query that was opened at the end of last year the Swiss national denies wrongdoing Hugh Schofield reports from Paris the preliminary police inquiry into the rape allegations is now over and its findings are unambiguous there's enough evidence against Mr Ahmed and the him to be placed under formal investigation and examining magistrate will now compile a case at the end of which the most likely outcome is that the theologian will stand trial for rape and violence during his 2 days of questioning Mr Ramadan was brought face to face with one of these 2 accusers who says she was brutally raped by him in a hotel room in 2009 Mr Ramadan denies the allegations and refused to sign the police statement drawn up after the encounter with his accuser he's going to field rosery now has some of the stories from our news desk the U.S. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson has advised Mexico to protect its electoral system from possible meddling from Russia ahead of July's presidential election speaking in Mexico City Mr Tillotson said European countries that noticed Russian interference in a number of recent polls the chief executive of the animal protection organization the Humane Society of the United States has resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment Wayne Pacelle e stepped down just a day off to the charity's board voted to keep him and here in Britain the pop group The Spice Girls have confirmed their reuniting to work on new opportunities they debut single want to be propelled the Spice Girls to global fame in 1996 but they split up 6 years later you have been listening to the newsroom from the B.B.C. World Service with me Claire McDonnell we end the program with news the dentist said Woods who was the lead singer of the legendary Motown great the temptations. Has died at the age of $74.00. That's him taking the lead vocals on the track he also had a successful career but he was probably best known for the Temptations hits. Confusion and this the. Papa Was a Rolling Stone. The . Distribution of the B.B.C. World Service in the US was made possible by American Public Media producer a distributor of award winning public radio content designed to engage inform and entertain delivering the B.B.C. World Service helping Americans navigate the world around them by bringing world events cultures and issues into focus that's A.P.M. American Public Media. You know I drive junky car Hello this is Nina Totenberg when my husband and I were courting he was really scandalized by my very old Mazda 626 and when we were invited to a state dinner at the White House he said that I should rent a fancier car I refuse. To think that I could turn that car into my favorite programs go to K. Or C.C. Dot the word jeep or details. You know with the B.B.C. World Service on today sunset action we celebrate 60 years of space science with the anniversary of America's Explorer one satellite we hear of Turkey scientists on trial for signing a petition and we go to the headwaters of the Amazon that would be the capital to put to my novel mad and yon U.K. Jali and my date Shia poetry but is the beauty in danger since an action after the news. B.B.C. News with Rosemary Crick according to a U.N. Panel of experts North Korea and only $200000000.00 in 2017 by exporting banned goods in defiance of sanctions the report prepared for the Security Council said Pyongyang had sent weapons to Syria and Myanmar the F.B.I. Director Christopher Ray has defended the agency's work telling staff it will in July amid a row over allegations of political bias Republicans on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee released a classified memo which accused the F.B.I. Of abusing its powers of surveillance the Democrats have warned the president not to use the memo as a pretext to dismiss officials in the judiciary the 1st woman to chair the U.S. Central Bank the Federal Reserve has stepped down from the post Janet Yellen successor Jerome Powell is to be sworn in on Monday a man has been charged in the American state of Arizona with selling unlicensed all my piercing bullets to STEPHEN PADDICK the gunman who killed 58 people in Las Vegas last year police said they found Douglas Haig's fingerprints on unused ammunition at the hotel from where the attack a fire on a crowd new measures introduced by the British government to crack down on organized crime come into force today foreign nationals who are unable to explain how they acquired their wealth will risk having their assets frozen officials believe that more than one $120000000000.00 of illegal funds a laundered in Britain every year. To Russians to set a new record for the longest space walk ever undertaken by cosmonauts Alexander kin and Anton Shepler off spent 8 hours outside the International Space Station replacing an outdated antenna but the new one is pointing in the wrong direction A may not be operational under such published in the United States shows that repeated pecking can damage the brains of woodpecker as it had been assumed that the birds did not suffer from head injuries B.B.C. News. Welcome to Science in action from the B.B.C. World Service where we always keep an eye on the international aspects of research and discovery and peace and this week we're celebrating the 60th anniversary of America's 1st successful space launch Explorer one which reached Earth orbit in the early hours G.M.T. February the 1st 158 was a very important mission for the U.S. Fantastically it actually had some science instruments on board as well and we got some fantastic results space science born and it's attentions of the Cold War At the opposite end of the spectrum South American countries are cooperating in a multinational study of the health of the Amazon was really a true international collaborative effort so the Indian Amazon is that western part of the Amazon that is in the countries of Colombia Ecuador Peru and Bolivia and a little bit into Brazil and I visited the lab of a scientist developing a cheap simple disposable testing kit for safe drinking water anywhere on the planet. We start in Turkey where $148.00 individuals are on trial charged with making propaganda for a terrorist organization surely a serious accusation the hearings which are being monitored internationally are expected to continue till May Nicky's are mostly academics who signed a petition in 2015 opposing the government's military action in the Kurdish region of the country part of the ongoing conflict there with Kurdish militants following the attempted coup in 2016 Turkey's government became increasingly or Thora Tarion with tens of thousands in the public and private sectors arrested and sacked it was in that context that one of the accused came to court yesterday which as I've heard failed to reach a verdict in many ways what this is about is it's about frightening it's about silencing It's about taking away the will and the ability to resist so the mere fact of being put on trial makes people self police what they say what happened substantially yesterday is that my colleague came before the court only learnt on the day what the charge was so obviously she couldn't defend herself her defense lawyer argued that the case should be thrown out completely on the grounds that there was no offense and no evidence to show that there had been offense she's accused of terrorist propaganda the only evidence against her is that see signs a petition which is against humanitarian abuses This is Stephen rush a professor of psychology at Santander University who witnessed the trial of the defendant who we're not naming and who he knows through extensive scientific collaboration the court hearing Stephen told me is only part of the government's approach to the signatories $1128.00 academics signed the peace petition the 1st response of to and was to describe them as terrorists and what the petition had done was to be critical of the government in its incursions. I think the Kurds because of humanitarian abuses because of attacks on civilians because of the fear that this would only escalate the violence so they were calling for peace so early one turns that upside down and accuses them of being terrorists and then he attempts to get them sacked lose their jobs if you are dismissed I think it's important to understand it's not just you lose your job not just that you lose your pension on top of that your passport is taken away and you lose the right to use any public services or to have any benefits so one of the people I met yesterday to whom this is happened this happened to her she has a 5 year old child when the child was ill she couldn't use the public hospitals you had to use private hospitals and of course she had no money because all her means of subsistence were taken away and so there's a huge material cost on people and but there's also a psychological cost in a sense what the government is trying to do is not just to silence people it's to isolate them is to turn them into non persons people who are separated from everyone else Stephen went to Turkey out of a sense of personal solidarity for his accused colleague without expecting to be of much practical help Interestingly I was talking to the lawyer of my colleague who was on trial yesterday and she was saying when no one is there apart from a few people from Turkey the judges of roads they don't like to speak they interrupt us we have no voice but when international observers are there then they're much more polite they allow defendants to have their say they maintain at least the illusion of the rule of law and that in part I think is why academics of peace has called all organizations and individuals internationally to support them in part by sending observers to the trials that sends out a really strong message that you're not alone we haven't forgotten you're still part of an international community it also sends a big message to the regime that you can't. Was this in the top we're going to shine a spotlight on the Steve in Russia on an issue that's causing a lot of anxiety amongst academics internationally many of the things Steven said reminded me of campaigns supporting imprisoned and oppressed scientists in the former Soviet Union where 60 years ago they were engaged with the beginning of the space race one aspect of the international propaganda campaign that accompanied the Cold War the Soviet Union of course won the 1st bout with the pioneering launch of Sputnik in October $957.00 and a month later Sputnik 2 it was only at the end of January 895860 years ago this week that the U.S. Left the starting line but Explorer one as a satellite was called did more than circle the earth it made the 1st scientific discovery in space thanks to instruments on board built by the University of I was James Van Allen one of my scientific here I say don't go in it was an undergraduate there at the time and quickly got swept up by the events it was a really when Sputnik one was launched that you know it got the world's attention I can remember that very well because it had just come down here to study electrical engineering and about 4 or 5 days after I arrived in October forest 1957 Sputnik one was launched. And you know that was a middle of the Cold War and we had the Soviet object flying over the United States every hour and a half roughly I mean I've spoken to people at the time and they were disturbed but also impressed Oh yes showed that the United States was wavey in in Iraq a development so this really caught the attention of the United States that we're suddenly somehow behind in technology but the thing which I love about. More of one which is why some want to talk about it did so much more than Sputnik one what point did you become aware of explorable and what point did you start working with an Alan yourself surely after really successful Explorer one launch. By I'm. Done I will reduce office and rather boldly asked if I could have a job there and he ended up writing real letter and valued me or through the group Course based research was just expanding tremendously and at least in the United States the center of space research for a couple years was here at the University of Iowa so things were growing very rapidly and I suspect he just needed more B. Boyer and i Grettir quickly gun involved in design work on some of the earliest U.S. Satellites and with his behavior was he man a like kind of a pioneer that he actually was yeah he was a very friendly guy always coming around asking how you're doing and talking about things and the great thing about then they explore why it wasn't just successful but it made a great discovery with the Geiger 2. And L. Was expecting to study because of a craze in fact he discovered a very intense radiation belt around the Earth 2 such belts ational and quickly called the Van Allen belts and quite right too that be no expectation of their existence that quite invisible after all from us but by looping hundreds of kilometers I've brought heads in it's to our orbit Explorer one funks to find islands detect showed there were great discoveries to be made in the space age in this instance swells of ions and electrons trapped by the Earth's magnetic field as a result of a space scientist and science in action friend Andrew Coats Explorer wanted since its high status in space history. It certainly does It was the 1st space science mission really which the Americans launched and of course this was the 1st satellite which they launched as well so it has its place really in space history as a result of that but we've actually done some very useful science with it to actually discover the radiation belts of the earth which were completely unexpected that was something which really puts its name down in the historical record and just give me a picture of what these radiation belts are regions of very high energy radiation which are trapped in the Earth's magnetic field so they gyrate around the magnetic field and then they bounce between the poles of the earth and then they drift around the Earth as well so the very energetic particles and these were discovered by an instrument built by Van Allen they named after him and for me he's one of my heroes of space science absolutely he was one of the pioneers in this field there were some Russians doing work at the same time on similar satellites but it looks like Van Allen actually got the cube off for this discovery because they have nationalized the data fully And so Van Allen was the pioneer and actually the experiment she had on board was a cosmic ray detector so what had been expected at that time was that the earth was bathed in cosmic rays and what he'd like to look at the intensity of those cosmic rays and they would be coming from deep space yet from deep space or Kalac tick way beyond our own solar system from the galaxy and so these cosmic rays would be coming from there but it really is really unknown that the Earth had a very intense region of radiation belts close to it and this turns out Of course now we use the space for all sorts of things including navigation and weather forecasting and communications so all these satellites have to take into account the space radiation environment funny very interesting Sputnik one the 1st of the Russian missions went up who is a something a bit bigger than a beach ball and all it did was beat to say I'm here the 1st American satellite went up and it had a scientific instrument on board it I think that's really interesting you know maybe shows something about the difference in approach. You get something up early just to get something working in space was what was key for the Russians there and then with the Americans actually having something which would do some science on there as well because that gave his key discovery now this is all 60 years ago was all the science on the famine belts done and dusted within a few years or you still busy with it well unfortunately we're still busy with it yes we don't still fully understand the Earth's environment believe it or not I mean we know that the solar wind affects the earth the solar wind which is a stream of charged particles about a 1000000 tons per 2nd coming away from the subtle the time a plasma this interacts with the Earth's magnetic field some of these particles can get in to the magnetosphere and then they get accelerated into what we now know as the Van Allen belts but we can't do very well is forecast what in particular the outer belt of the 2 belts you know one is relatively stable the outer one is really variable and this is of course just at the point where the geostationary satellites which we rely on for all sorts of things like communications actually sit and so we need to understand that environment very well and so a lot of the effort in the field is actually to do that type of work the science behind space weather which eventually will lead us to better space weather forecasts Professor Andrew Coats from the Mullard Space science labs still studying the Van Allen Belts 60 years after they were discovered on good it after we've stopped taping his interview mentioned that although Explorer one was born amidst Cold War rivalry American and Soviet space scientists were soon visiting each other's labs Corp He suggested that eventually helped end international tension. There is another example of international cooperation in the journal Science this week a multinational collaboration to study the health of the many many rivers that flow into the Amazon Well the great river itself is in Brazil its sources often rise in Peru Colombia Bolivia and the cradle and as Amazonia gets developed because just to become word that the number of dams being built typically for hydroelectric power are harming the ecosystem there but how many Florida International University is Elizabeth Anderson spoke for the collaboration she told me was in those border regions to protect the Amazon is the world's largest river basin and the world's largest freshwater system it has more water by volume than any other system in the world and also has more freshwater fishes by number of species than any other freshwater system in the world many people think of the Amazon as this forest and this homogeneous landscape but actually ecosystems vary a lot across the Amazon basin in the Andean Amazon that western part of the Amazon in the countries of Colombia Ecuador Peru and Bolivia and a little bit into Brazil we see large changes in elevation over short distances we see gradients of rainfall and temperature and that's given rise to some of the biological richness of that region and that must include lots of small rivers of different sizes meandering I've no idea you know how far you have to walk let's say from one tribute tree to another right so the and the Amazon is actually drained by many many rivers but if you think about the very high Andes up above 4005000 meters elevation you have glacier capped mountains and then you also have some very arid areas up in the high and Amazon regions in the middle parts you have very wet conditions so you have a lot of rivers that are carrying this was. Off of the landscape these tend to be very steep systems Rocky channels fast moving lots of waterfalls or Cascades it's actually quite beautiful the landscape these are environments that fishes in that region have adapted to over hundreds or thousands of years the new concern is that there are all burgeoning hydroelectric schemes that are actually getting to the point where they could do some damage to that environment if you decide you have to go to count them C B Thank you no I'm sure well so my concern is that even though the Andean Amazon is geographically small in size it plays a really important ecological role the majority of the set a manse of the nutrients a lot of the organic matter and water that is feeding the lowland Amazon is actually exported from the Andes and so you could say that the Andes drive the ecology and the bio chemistry of downstream systems at the same time there's importance of the Andes for some of the species particularly migratory fish that live in more lowland areas most of their life but then move up into Andean rivers for spawning are feeding migrations So the concern is that when you put a dam on an Indian River that might trap sediments that might change the hydrology that might block the migratory pathways for some of these fishes the impact extends down way and to the lowlands I actually met someone who works with the energy research authority in Brazil and I asked her So how are you considering these Indian dams and some of your planning and consideration of projects in the Brazilian Amazon and she said you know we are not we don't have this kind of information and it takes a lot of effort to go and do the groundwork to collect it so I'm hopeful of a detective which. Can down the wreckage and so on the final number we documented 142 existing dams or under construction and 160 proposed dams I actually don't have any way of picturing what Hall that might do to a river system whether that's an awful lot before you're feeling well my feeling is that there's really a need for more of these regional perspectives that consider the impacts of many dams on one system in this study we looked at it in terms of river connectivity so we had to consider is what the location of these projects is within a river network are they on like a main stem or are they on tributaries and we found that a lot of the existing projects are actually on tributaries they're not on these main Andean Amazon arteries that are feeding them but we found that many of the proposed projects are going to block or fragment these main stems and so there's a lot of discussion if you are to put a dam in a river network What's the best place for maintaining connectivity I mean these dams are presumably that So provide electricity maybe water as well I don't know for communities there are other ways that communities for example mining forests clearance all clearance for agriculture are impacting the region how how would you rate the danger shall we say from damage don't want to overdramatize it compared to the other impacts there are a lot of things happening in this Indian Amazon region it's one of the regions that's being most rapidly transformed on earth right now and it's not just new hydro power dam development that's changing it's also deforestation it's also mining it's also climate change I mean the Andean glaciers are some of the most susceptible to rising temperatures we've heard a lot about the importance of Amazon rain forest conservation you see that in the news you see that in Asheville geographic you hear how the B.B.C. Rivers don't have that same kind of profile there aren't. Hala season most Amazonian countries or or even most countries worldwide that protect this free flowing aspect of rivers you know of course you know the very name Amazonia defines the whole region in terms of the river not in terms of the form as a as a recovery at the Riverside that's how I think about it but there's really really a need or there's really a huge opportunity for pushing a new frontier in environmental conservation in the Amazon and focusing on on Rivers says as a key part of that Elizabeth Anderson and from preserving water to detecting water or other water pollution mine is of all famously put a canary in a cage down the pit shaft before entering it themselves to see if the air below was poisonous if the canary stopped singing they knew there was trouble zoom forward to the 21st century and substitute bacteria for birds and water for air and you have an approach to seeing if your next drink is safe the bacteria don't sing of course but the ones I've been to see do make electricity unless they're being poisoned this is the basis of a water testing kit being developed at Bath University by engineer Mirella De Lorenzo and they were far less high tech than I was anticipating. This is the time you guys. Said Make sure your piece of fish and I know the challenges yes slightly. And these 2 black marks on it so the back story yes these are the 2 other traits carbon based energy underwhelming in a way but the trivial Circuit made of black conducting ink on the paper was just the start one of the electrodes was active coated with smart bacteria drawn from a sewer Mirella had a beaker of the stuff to dis is our serious but tedium so that's basically sludge than the vision is just as. Taking a show you got a peek at the super PAC and his clothes and this is what I you know when I was most take a I'll keep well away so the sun I can tell that sludge Yes this is something very very brakes or something but any time but you don't hear so then what we do. Is see this electorate here so the wonder is down we put it in contact with dissipation as we call this electricity and so you just dipping yes but never tried it yet filthiest water you could find. Yes And just to be clear this is the detection this is actually the manufacturing process this is still manufacturing we're now what we're doing is we're building. What we called the biosphere off but tree. On to the surface of the. Process that can take a day to get a really good colony to grow what struck me was that the electrically active bacteria really like the anode if it's connected to an electrical circuit they just turn that Quantic Dana into a current Now of course you don't want to put a dirty electrode like that into your drinking water but you can always take a small sample here and a half to one contaminated and one clean and then you just watch the voltage. Here's the both age that this generated by the sun versus time so this is with one electrode get into the yeah the electrical because ya know where devalues him a bacteria goes Andy counter to the other that is exposed and then you've got the wires which going through basically the asphalt region Yes OK So what we're doing on that is a solution as you can see is a nasty one. So imagine that this is some foot of water that we want to test for we take our sun say. Taking out you dipping into this sun when taking thing on this. Because you don't know what yes what's in that. Solution for mother and that's poisonous Yes. OK So can you can see you know the saying as dropped it's absolutely plummeted. And it was instantaneous and his dipping down to what we're doing now it's just drinking in just the top quarter again. And that the next he's coming back. To see you know the callers said Disick no surface when we're thinking about practical application of this there will be a computer the one being I caused this problem but we are aiming in the future to have an option as mushrooms I'm going to run something out to have done so this is a very nice and clear signal that can turn into a burning message on hours mushrooming say there's something wrong in the water and it's just because the bacteria that's one reason to have to say look T.D.'s be nice to me really has tested the bacteria with simple toxins hormones heavy metals pesticides and gets good results each time in fact because they respond slightly differently to each contaminant a single test kit might be able to show what's wrong inside the water but we were also wanted to be cheap and that meant using simple materials John that Johnny who just walked into the lab was Janet Scott professor in Boss center for sustainable technologies. That were inspired by the other solutions that he started with I have a dream because so you needed to be able to support a bacteria and some sort of electric to say this and you want something that could be disposed to bring yet another piece of material environment paints cheap biodegradable paper conducting carbon ink and an artist's print set to put them together so this is just a very typical suit screen made for doing occupants so you get a kind of template stencil I guess is right what exactly it just has this check a pattern of shall we say L. Shaped savory and each of these is one of these stands. So in with a thick tough sheet of blotting paper out with a conducting and just kept squeezing it through the cut holes in the stencil. Of everything except the area that we want to print we're just taking some of this B.P. Carbon containing the testability to the crust on the surface dollar put on it on getting into the mouth. And then we take the squeegee we have we'll just pull. Me the 3 towards something you really have to squeezes to back again but this is basically the same as pretty good teacher it is I didn't take up to continue to shoot you would even use the same type of sweet and hopefully when we left it up. To we have and they have all in a matter of seconds you have a set of electro double sided fuel cells and this is something that could be done in a village or not to industry there's nothing in it that is technically complex or need special clean rooms or anything similar you just need an average 18 to shift in same facility as you just did the clever that is the way the kids formulate it and then the women really gets back to resisting. Janet Scott and Mirella De Lorenzo who in the spirit of this edition is about to board a plane to Colombia where she's planning to conduct a range of experiments developing other sustainable pollution detectors next week comes on some action will have the case of masses lost and found satellite more international detection work but for this week that's it for me wrote a piece and producer Fiona Roberts you can find links to more on everything plus our past podcasts at B.B.C. World Service dot You're listening to the B.B.C. World News on K. Or C C to Southern Colorado's N.P.R. Station broadcast sun 91.5 F.M. From our studios in Colorado Springs Colorado you can also hear cares you see in the following communities 88.5 F.M. In West Cliff and Gardner 89 point one F.M. In LA Hunter 89. Point 9 F.M. In Lyman 90 point one F.M. In Manitou Springs 91.7 F.M. In Trinidad and Raton New Mexico 94 point one F.M. In Walsenburg and 95.5 F.M. In Lake George and Hartsell 95.7 F.M. 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