It's a record breaking heat that there's been little rest pite Brendan O'Connor is from the Rural Fire Service in the village of Bo moral failures of wars I was just far everywhere you go you are surrounded constantly are far. Cores were destroyed by. Haiti for foreigners Yeah sure Spike you know life just exhaustion we're just dropping of never witnessed anything large in the 20 years or so far far polling stations have opened in Croatia for the country's presidential election 11 candidates are running in the 1st round of the contest is Vulcan's correspondent going to Lowney Croatia's president plays a largely ceremonial role but the head of state can be the international face of the country and next year Croatia will hold the presidency of the e.u. Based the European Capital of Culture and aim for full pulling supremacy at Euro 2020 the international spotlight may have attracted the large field of candidates including the incumbent Kalinda grub aka tart of a church main challengers of former Prime Ministers or a Milan of a church and a nationalist folk singer middle. Voters in Uzbekistan are taking part in the country's 1st parliamentary election since the death of its former strongman president 3 years ago President. Took over from the autocratic Islam Karimov in 2016 this to measure has overseen the liberalization of the economy fostered greater media freedom and released a number of high profile political prisoners news from the b.b.c. . Negotiators from the Philippine government and the country's companies rebels have recommended both sides adhere to a Christmas season far following talks in the Netherlands there's no word yet on whether either side will agree to the suggestion the Philippine president for regular Tatay began peace talks with the militants when he came into office over 3 years ago but they broke down the following year the small communist insurgency has been trying to overthrow the government in Manila for 50 years. The British supermarket chain Tesco has halted production at a chinese supplier that's been accused of using false prison labor to make charity Christmas cards is Michael Brewster when a 6 year old girl in Britain open a Christmas card bought at Tesco she found a chilling message written inside the note scolding capital letters said foreign prisoners at a jail in Shanghai were being forced to work against their will and asked whoever opened the car to contact human rights organizations at Tesco spokeswoman said the supermarket chain was shocked at the discovery she said the Chinese firm it only recently been audited and there'd be no indication that he'd have broken a Tesco rule that bans the use of prisoners to make its products a deadline today for North Korean guest workers to be repatriated on the un sanctions looks likely to be missed as thousands remain employed in China and Russia sending people to work abroad has long been an important source of income for Pyongyang which takes up to 90 percent of their wages despite long hours and low pay opposing overseas is seen as desirable for those living inside the repressive state American Airlines is to offer passengers non-binary gender options when they make right bookings customers will now be able to designate their gender as you or x. Rather than male or female by calling the reservations number babies Ynys. Hello there I'm Ed Butler welcome to in the ballads from the b.b.c. World Service today on the show as we approach the end of 2019 we're going to be looking forward and back to 2020 and to the year that's just gone by with it's up he evils that may of course continue to resonate in the year indeed the years ahead to discuss all of this we have 3 experts on that Professor Meredith Crowley she's a reader in international economics at the University of Cambridge good trim both director of the brutal institution economic think tank in Brussels and professor of the Chicago Booth School of Business he is a former i.m.f. Chief economist and a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India let's start 1st with Hong Kong where it is Crowley I guess none of us would have imagined 12 months ago the scale in the depths of Beijing sentiment that took hold you know when I think one of the interesting things is the rare moment of bipartisanship you saw coming out of the United States this year was when both houses of Congress voted a bill that essentially gave a voice of we support to the people in Hong Kong right as Donald Trump was trying to finish his negotiations over a trade deal with China but I think throughout the year the stress in Hong Kong was putting a sort of pressure on us China to go over the trade war and when the Congress both Republicans and Democrats you know essentially passed a bill in support saying Hong Kong autonomy is a special status should be preserved there was a moment when it looked like the progress the u.s. And China to made in the trade war truce might be thrown into disarray but. I think going forward we have a view that what started out as Donald Trump's concerns over a commercial relationship with China has expanded in the u.s. . To include both political parties having a larger concern about the Chinese economy and its relationship with democracy in Hong Kong this is going to be a big one probably for the year ahead isn't it we don't really know it doesn't seem terribly clear what precisely will satisfy the protesters themselves on the street so vehement and violent is there antipathy towards their own homebrew government there in Hong Kong but it does raise the specter of when this political calculus may shift in Beijing and it decides enough's enough we're going to have to to move in to ensure stability in this highly cherished region. Well yes indeed we do not know whether and how this will escalate but I think 11 thing is very clear if they had was to happen it's not only u.s. Congress that that vote pretty you know almost unanimously that this would be completely unacceptable it's also the European Parliament that has made it very clear and has also passed a bill that essentially says that if this escalates any trade negotiation and investment relationship negotiation between the e.u. And China will be debt so I think in the end China will be extremely cautious because the cost will be actually quite significant Professor Graeme Rajan I mean that is a key issue isn't it we all of us perhaps teetering on the brink of something very serious if this trade war as collates further this is the one between the us and China and a low we've had talk in December of you know a breakthrough there really is very little substance to that at the moment it doesn't look like we're still at the bottom of Mt Everest when it comes to this ongoing negotiation I think what we're discovering is that what the us wants and what the Chinese are willing to allow are 2 very very different things and of course there is a whole big issue. That we're discovering that we really don't have anywhere is of enforcing a serious agreement between 2 of the largest economies in the world I mean the Chinese the u.s. Wants them to agree to a bunch of things in terms of how they treat companies how they treat intellectual property and so on and also what kinds of industries they will support going forward into the future because the u.s. Is very watered about Chinese dominance of areas like artificial intelligence drones chip manufacturing and so on in the future but in any kind of agreement in these areas the Chinese want to make sure that doesn't pose it constraint on their future growth they happy to do things in ways that are more palatable to the west but they certainly don't want to give up all these technologies now there is a narrow area of agreement but the stumbling block there is what kinds of structures do we have to enforce those areas of agreement the Chinese are unlikely to agree to the u.s. Treasury being both plaintive as well as judge jury and the executive or in any kind of agreement and so really we are in a situation where we really don't have the multilateral institutions to enforce an agreement between 2 of the largest players in the world marriage is probably what we're talking about here is like the honoring of patents and intellectual property protection and so on isn't it and those are things that who on earth is going to be the policeman governing all of that in the future well until this week for the last 20 years the policeman had the World Trade Organization which had at in the past quite an effective dispute settlement system and if the u.s. Feels China isn't defending an intellectual property appropriately or if they're forcing technology transfer the u.s. Is just going to come back with a if you don't fix this we're going to throw in another tariff and you know it's become much more of a hard nosed power play type. Dispute settlement system which I don't think it's necessarily a good thing for the world No indeed going to evolve I mean this takes us back to the politics and I mean I think the assumption had been going back a few months that trump facing re-election in 2020 would be thinking you know what we probably got to fix this by this election year because we don't need this in the background undermining the u.s. Economy but he seems to be doing the opposite right now in in rhetorical terms anyway doubling down and talking of a new offensive against the European Union Well I think inherently Donald Trump is unpredictable and all those in Europe that are hoping there in the election year he will just be quiet and was sort of trying to filibuster him post-election hoping for a 4 Democratic president I think they they were mistaken I think we can see of course even now we can see an escalation and as long list on a Triumph years that it that it plays to his base I think he's just going to push it through here but I think it seems to me the the real issue because of the china is to what extent the e.u. And the United States shouldn't work together on the reasonable demands of the China while agreeing to drop the unreasonable demands and my worry is that the United States has really put up a number of unreasonable demands including basically the demand to develop less quickly on the technology side and basically trying to achieve and secure American technologically leadership and it seems to me that is an unreasonable demand because China is a rising economy and it has the right to develop what I think is inacceptable is the Chinese practice in terms of state subsidization the us always and so on and so forth and on these issues it seems to me we we should be working together with the United States to come to an agreement and to force China into ideally a mighty letter a framework Ok Well look I'd like to move to the elections themselves now the presidential elections in the u.s. In 2020. We will of course have Trump facing impeachment before that in front of the Senate Meredith I guess one full cause we can confidently make is that impeachment itself will not get through the Republican dominated Senate it doesn't look like it will I think the question is going to be what this public trial does in swaying the views of Americans and it's unclear because I think that we've got this larger problem of the information that Americans are receiving through various news sources doesn't seem to be influencing their opinions very much so it's unclear how the u.s. Voting population will respond to this impeachment and what kinds of facts are revealed throughout Professor Arjun I mean this is a focusing program I know you are an economist so I'm not going to ask you is going to win the u.s. Election next year but is it possible to say now some 10 or so months before that vote who is the favorite I mean whose camp would you rather be in well I have I have absolutely no idea what I would like to emphasize is how important the u.s. Presidency is I think one of the things we see I mean we talked about Hong Kong and the views of the Chinese about how the u.s. Would see it but I think if you go across the work when you look at some of the nationalist movements that are emerging a lot of them gain strength from the fact that the United States is not necessarily commenting on them adversely as it used to in the past and therefore the populist nationalism that you see emerging has got free rein so I would argue that if in fact we have a change in the u.s. Presidency it will make an enormous difference not just in matters like trade but also in the political environment across the world you're listening to in the balance on the b.b.c. World Service with me Ed and Mike. Professor Graham Rajan Meredith Crowley also alongside them going from both of the brutal institute we're looking ahead to 2020 and $1.00 thing we do know is going to be on the agenda again is breaks it Britain's departure from the European Union a reelected conservative government in London is pushing full steam ahead for the political deal by the end of January and a full trade deal with the European Union by the end of the year or the old merit of travelling I think it's possible to get a trade deal done in 11 months the question is what it would contain and so I think a comprehensive trade deal is very unlikely it took Donald Trump 2 years to renegotiate the u.s. Mexico Canada agreement and that was after they already had a very well established draft text so you know less than a year for the u.k. Seems very ambitious and I think difficult I think if they don't have a very comprehensive agreement if they limit it to certain areas like trade goods maybe a little bit of trade and services it will be more likely that they can get it through my best prediction is that you know we will have a breadth it but that there will still be some negotiations going on to make more substantive the longer lasting agreement is that you know is it your instinct. Yeah I entirely agree I think I would at 2 points if the u.k. Wants to start the road down to deregulate its own economy I think the instinct here on this side of the channel in Europe would be no way we can agree on a comprehensive deal and the other point is if the u.k. Was to sell its crown jewels to China and really start entering into an intensive phase of negotiations and even an opening up towards China that's very comprehensive think the e.u. Will also be extremely reluctant to come to a conclusion with the u.k. So the the you really wants the u.k. As a strategic long term partner and not as a competitor. Well I mean it sounds as if the worst case scenario seems to be disappearing as a likelihood around breaks in the European Union regular i'm rajin this is another reason perhaps for moderate optimism in more general macroeconomic terms I mean one thing we haven't yet discussed on this show is the more general state of the global economy a year ago you were here speaking to me meditating on the potential risk of a global downturn in 2019 bond yield curves What kind of turning the wrong way when they that never really happened the stock market has actually been amazingly buoyant in the last few months well we were much more worried in orchestra and September and then with some of the noise on trade going away as well as the Federal Reserve turning fully back to accommodation that has taken off some of the risk off the table it is clear that the central banks have lost any appetite for normalizing in the near future they probably want to until they see inflation staring them front and center so that risk has been taken off the table what does that leave us that leaves some of the issues we've talked about trade but also geopolitical risk let us not forget that something drastic in Hong Kong or in some other parts of the world in Saudi Arabia could come back to hurt the rest of the world Meredith it's the 1st decade I was reading since the 18 fifty's that the United States has not had a recession the 1st decade I mean that's that's kind of wow isn't it it is and I think the risks remain I just don't see new coming up immediately there is a lot of political uncertainty I think with the Democratic side in the Us election it's not clear if that's going to become a more leftist government or a more moderate centrist government but I think even in the us i one of the things that looks clear is I think whether you get a Democrat or Republican in the White House next the u.s. Has shifted its gaze in word and so that. That's something also that's kind of looming on the longer term horizon of 2 or 3 years out that there's less interest in engagement with the world and that could lead to more political risk abroad the one area climate change we haven't yet touched on and Rajan you've written about this recently it's an extraordinary area at a time when as we mentioned where all governments appear to be kind of pulling in the drawbridge is there not really speaking to each other as they used to of course the world is clamoring it would appear the people on the street so many of them are clamoring for more engagement when it comes to international agreement on climate Absolutely and we need action on climate change now the problem of course as you just pointed out with governments looking to make their countries great again but not looking to what what suits the world we have 2 big issues in front of any climate agreement one the countries that are willing to take action through things like carbon taxes are worried that the rest of the world will not follow suit if I reduce the amount of coal plants for example in Europe but China continues building called plants then perhaps the action itself is being vitiated So is it actually what is it then just the cussedness of individual politicians countries that have just sucked this door out against doing climate action that is just undermining everything I mean you know we've got willing governments in Europe but nowhere else is that what we're saying not just that I mean I think if you ask Americans for example a fair number would say yeah we think it's an important issue but everybody else should also be doing something there so I think there will be more support for a global agreement but of course the poor countries say we're not the guys who put the carbon in there why do you want us to take stringent action which limit our own growth so we need to resign. These And this is what has in a sense toward climate change in action so far going to involve what we just overstated the importance of public anger we just need to sit and wait until the current generation of politicians disappear. No I don't think so I mean we can't sit and wait I mean this problem is urgent needs to be resolved by our generation and not by the future generations the e.u. Is now trying to push forward a very ambitious agenda of course there would be lots of opposition within Europe on this as well but I think one key element is how to deal with exports and imports and term the exports of the European Union already contain less c o 2 than the imports another it's we consume more carbon dioxide then then we produce and an additional takes domestic Tech Support of course increase that imbalance so one has to find ways of adjusting for intensity of imports and exports at the border and so this carbon board adjustment is one way of trying to also achieve more global leverage I mean you're saying that if the e.u. Takes a stand it will set an example to the rest of the world it's more. It's more than an example I think it's old saw a clear cost it's almost like a tariff unless you really make your production as efficient as it stands mystically you will find it very difficult to do to compete in the European market and so in that sense it provides a financial incentive also for other countries that do business with Europe to adjust at the border of course it's going to be extremely controversial and especially the poor it emerging economies will claim that it's unfair and will try to jeopardize that at the w t o but I think this is going to be one of the big debates and trade actually next year another debate in trade maybe the Pan African Free Trade Agreement Professor Rajan it formally comes into being in July 2020 of course it's been in the making for some. Time aiming to create a 3 trillion dollar market can we be that optimistic around Africa's prospects with free internal trade Well we have been getting more and more optimistic this is a young continent and there are increasing examples of businesses that are successful across multiple countries in Africa so I think this is a very very welcome development I think there Africa may in fact be the continent of the future but it's sick extremely important there some of the things they have done very well reducing the amount of conflict etc continue because that creates the environment for for commercial growth and there are some examples of new businesses in Africa which often offer a lesson to some of the other emerging economies for example M.P.'s which is the mobile payment structure in some parts of Africa have actually been translated into India and for an example which in fact is increasing inclusion in India today India itself of course has seen slightly reduced forecasts for growth in recent months I mean are you bullish about India's prospects it it's got of course its prime minister Narendra Modi's been reelected this year and tensions appear to be growing ethnic a in parts of the country I mean does that have an economic risk attached to it do you think rather Am I don't know really under out really has and I have been advocating a refocusing on economic development and economic growth rather than focusing on the political agenda which the government has been following and I'm hopeful over the medium term India will regain the fast growth that it has been known for Finally it has been a generally prediction free look ahead I think today I've been very gentle in all 3 of you can I as I always do ask each of you to make a tangible forecast small or big if you will for 2020. Anti contra Well I think one of the big made major trends that will drive also 2020 is artificial intelligence and the tremendous progress we're seeing in computing power in machine learning and the way that will reshape our economies all services a service sector our daily work life balance our daily work and how to deal with that and find a way of ensuring that everybody still earns good salaries and is not going to be crowded out of the economy I think is one of the big mega trends and mega issues to watch out for marriage is crowning So I think the big trends I'm expecting going forward one we already mentioned carbon boarder taxation I think that's going to come down that's going to be pushed further in Europe and I think one thing to keep in mind is that does open up opportunities in developing countries that have recently brought a lot of hydro electric on line so as we think about putting taxes on things entering the European Union according to how much carbon went in it opens up some space for producers in Africa to get in there with some of this new hydro electric powered manufacturing and then I also think in the other the strategic realm I think we're going to see a continued decoupling between the u.s. And China in terms of these high tech worlds I think the u.s. Is going to continue to push this issue of wanting to segregate its advanced technologies from from those in China more Professor Arjun What are you looking forward to in 2020 I'm afraid I agree with Meredith them the disentanglement between the u.s. And China increasing over the next year hopefully we will see you know some shift in leadership which will reduce that process but but I think Kratz and Republicans are very keenly aware of the dangers of China I would wish that they would find another way into. Reacting with China rather than trying to suppress it as far as other predictions go I do hope and I do believe that would be much more pressure for action on the climate and this is where the pressure from young people I think will be extremely important the older people are much more cynical young people much more idealistic and I think action on the climate requires enormous duals of idealism but it would be well worth it but that's it I'm afraid and all we have time for for today's program my thanks to Professor Roger m. Rajan in Chicago professor emeritus Crowley in Cambridge and to go in Brussels this is the end of this edition and indeed this series of in the balance I do hope you've enjoyed every twist and turn of all the shows that we've been bringing to you you can hear them of course refuse them in podcast form via the b.b.c. Website we will of course be back in February 2020 for a new series Do join us then. The b.b.c. World Service is very possible by American Public Media as the largest station based Public Radio organization in the u.s. A.p.m. Offers award winning content to audiences everywhere the b.b.c. World service connects audiences to the world from international news to arts and culture programming listeners hear global stories and perspectives not heard anywhere else. It was going on a date at least 4 times a week wow yeah it's in the last few years several experts and a lot of science later we bring you a happy ending his name is Mike I like dice of him is going to say got you proud and I just was crazy about him guess my needs would have happened without you how crowd science from the b.b.c. World Service can change your life coming up after the names with. B.b.c. News for Jerry's mate preliminary results in Afghanistan's presidential elections suggest victory for the incumbent on traffic County officials say he's secured just over half the vote in September's poll now only avoiding a 2nd round but his main rival Abdullah Abdullah has already rejected his old and is expected to appeal the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended his government's record on tackling climate change as the country experiences numb precedented bushfire season Mr Marson conceded global warming had a part to play in fueling the fires but reaffirmed his support for fossil fuels a British supermarket chain has halted production of the Chinese have player accused of using force prison labor to parent charity Christmas cards the decision follows the discovery of a handwritten message inside one of the cards which said foreign prisoners in Shanghai were being forced to work against their will negotiators from the Philippine government and the country's common as rebels have recommended both sides head to head to a Christmas ceasefire they suited joint statement following talks in the Netherlands there's no word yet on whether either side will agree to the suggestion . People in Croatia are voting in a presidential election with 11 counted standing in the 1st round a nationalist folk singer and a former social democratic prime minister are among those standing against the incumbent Kalinda grab our tower of h. The French president tomorrow my car has described his country's colonial control over West Africa as a grave mistake he was speaking during a visit to Ivory Coast He also announced that the c.f.a. Frog will be replaced and a deadline today for North Korean guest workers to be repaired repatriated on the United Nations sanctions likely to be missed as thousands remain employed in China and Russia. Hello and welcome to crowd science the show that takes your science questions and travels the globe to find answers is 3 years now since we started doing things like flying into hurrican. Or tramping through the jungle looking for rats. On both adventures sparked by your queries. On our extensive back catalog is available on the b.b.c. World Service website and I want to mark a 3rd birthday by asking a question of our I can crowd science change your life from reading some of your e-mails it turns out the answer is yes to the. Thing to think about very wise our show investigates everything from astronomy to zoo or logy and some of you have contacted us in the most extreme of circumstances might listen to Kelly I was evacuated for Hurricane Irma and I was in a hotel room in Charlotte North Carolina waiting to see us going to happen to my house and I thought What the heck operate these guys and see what they can dig up and at the end it said and in your questions and I said well you know how nice would it be if we could avoid this and so I sent an e-mail on my phone you know beyond the story there's there's another story. That last voice was listener Michael and Michael you're right there were always moving stories beyond the ones we hear I like to think of what we do is a mutual learning experience I take you with me as I try to understand stuff which means that questions from you lot are often just the start of a conversation sometimes after an episode of crowd science listeners get in touch which brings up new stories this episode is a chance to hear some of those. I've already said we cover a universe of subjects here. And they range from the silly to the serious some are a matter of life and death and that's where we're going to start we're returning to a story about memories and what happens when we lose them at the still to the year we heard this story from listener Grady I was driving from my home in Salmon Idaho to Pocatello for final exams at university. It was quite cold beautiful blue sky. And on my Yamaha motorcycle doing about 75 miles an hour the engine was running perfectly. And I was coming up to a wide sweeping left hand turn. Started the bank for the turn and immediately felt and heard a sound below me and looked down and saw the kickstand of the motorcycle and it was down and sparks were shooting off it I looked at the speedometer saw the sparks and knew that I was going to die within the next few seconds. I was still you know conscious in control for some time after that and that's there's a gap that I have tried many times over the years to remember that and I have never been able to. If you listen to that episode you'll have followed us is on I tried to hunt down Grady's last seconds it turns out that for many reasons his memory of the crash probably wasn't made Grady is absolutely fine and back on his bike but his story sparked a flurry of e-mails from other listeners who'd had similar experiences one of Fame Zach lost more than just memories I suppose I should talk a tiny bit about what happened Yes Yeah Ok about 2 years ago I was on vacation with my partner Sarah. And we were driving from. Northern Spain down to Barcelona and at a junction with poor visibility we were struck by a truck and she died and I was in a coma for a while and I can remember everything up until. About an hour or 2 before. What was it about listening to Grady story. That chimed with that missing hour feels particularly significant because that's the last hour of Sarah's life and I wanted to remember the last thing that she said The last thing I said to her. And what happened. But I also was afraid that if my memories came rushing back at any point I could at something along the lines of post-traumatic stress disorder and so I don't want that. It seems like there's a conflict between part of you that kind of wants that missing memory you say it's about an hour. An hour or 2 you know. You just have no memories . Of you wants that back and then part of you grateful that you don't have it back yeah I would say when I was listening to the program there was one part that resonated in particular that to keep a memory requires 2 parts of the brain to communicate with one another and then an accident like Grady's or mine interrupts that conversation. I suppose the way I had visualized it it's an imperfect metaphor is a v.h.s. Library and I just watched the tape and I'm about to put it back on the shelf and I drop it and I can't find it anymore and so it's not on the shelf anymore I've seen it but it's not there and do you think that those memories that missing hours going to come back I assumed that yes it was going to come back at some point I would will it into existence existence and would be successful and there would be good things about that that I would get these treasured memories back and solve the mystery of exactly what happened but also I would have the unintended consequence of being afraid of driving so you thing was. Kind of that your body is protecting you but basically at some point in the future when your body decides that you're ready for it it will let you have that memory back that's kind of how I had imagined it before I had listened to the part just Ok Now you mentioned connections and in that program we found that the memory of our listeners crash probably wasn't even formed in the 1st place this is consultant neurologist Dr Suzanne what kids as usual to a bang your head the soft parts of the brain have very vulnerable bit so that's the front and the 2 sides of the temporal areas now to a lot of the registration of memory is done by the Media Temple cortex the hippocampus the entering of cortex if that the area around it's associated network is not functioning you cannot register new memories the other problem with brain injury is not only do you have damage to bits of the brain so individual is called a contusion which is the big bruise to a bit of the brain but the brain does its thinking by sending signals between different areas but as you move your brain rapidly some of these connections are disrupted so where the damage isn't dreadful but your connections are no longer working properly the pain line that's gone dead so you can't send your memories along the lines of It can't be stored but it's not completely damaged what you establish the connection again the network from work and you can get your memories registered so it's not so much that you forgotten something or can't access the images or sounds it's more that they're just not there I imagining it like something should be a little model train track in your brain that needs to be connected in order to have the memory of. Travel round it and that gets broken but your brain fixes it again later I'm going to ask how do you feel about the fact that your memory is almost certainly not there do you even believe that. Kind of conflicted honestly it's liberating in the sense that I put a lot of pressure on myself to remember and. This idea that I can means that maybe I don't have to try so hard. But obviously now means that never know what Sarah's last words were or my last words to her and there will always be a question mark over what happened in the moments leading up to it. When something like that happens to make during the last words. That's a nice way to put it. Actually I do. We're in northern Spain part of the reason we were there was because she knows that I love the book The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway where they go around northern Spain drinking yeah kind of in fishing and bull fighting and everything like that and she was reading my copy of that book and in the last page of that book which I have highlighted for whatever reason this section of the last page last line even this woman says to the main guy Jake Brett is the woman and she says to Jake we could have had something beautiful. And then he responds Isn't it nice to think so. And I suppose. Those are the last words. Can I ask if the crash affected your memory in any other way. Not really I always had a pretty good memory. And I still do. I suppose it's changed my approach to memories where I didn't take photographs that often take them more often where I didn't write down what had happened in the day I sometimes diary a bit. So I want to keep a record because I've discovered Well one how fragile memory is and to. Have sometimes you really do want to go back and revisit moments. Thankyou designed for sharing. From keeping loving memories alive we see. Stay with the subject of love and move to finding new love and the science of romance can science possibly have anything to offer on the mysterious irrational precess of falling in love well yes yes it can we've covered everything from how a dog makes you love it to how to mend a broken heart and a couple of years ago we heard from this couple. For number of years ago. The fall used to be very rare 26 have to 60 what. She got. She remembers all of the. Government. Started meeting in restaurants and then I started going to his room his he had a little apartment. So my friends had nor does the little girl in the more dislike of the 2 work because I never introduced her to them because she was secretive Yes that was Rita and Previn Sachdev and they've come a long way since those secret restroom wrong debuts they've been happily married for 45 years and they have a daughter Chevy who is also a radio presenter and is on the line from Mumbai Hi Marty how are you and more importantly how are your parents we're all just fine thank you very much and can you remind us why we were talking to them because they were the headliners of a crowd science episode where we on 3rd listener Erin's question about whether technology affects the way we fall in love and Aaron was feeling pretty disillusioned with internet dating at that time I went on several dates actually one that went super super well for today it's and then he literally disappeared meeting people in person seems to have is that more of an honest a factor whereas online it just didn't seem. So genuine she wanted to know if there's any science to show that all of the swiping right is making it harder to make romantic but here on crowd science we like to check back in with listeners once in a while and I wanted to know if Erin was still such a skeptic highchair really so Aaron the last time we spoke you were in a new pretty serious relationship with someone you met in real life so my 1st question is are you still together we are not actually very sadly very quickly after that we ended things oh yeah it was so. Big and romantic you know meeting Alex in Paris but I don't think that it was actually sustainable I think we very much met in a very romantic way and I thought that that was you know amazing at 1st and then when it came right down to it just as your parents spoke about how it's very different when you are meeting somebody and falling in love with them but then you know live with them day in and day out and they're not on their best behavior as they used to be you just kind of see that entirely different part of them and that was like No No No Have you met someone else I have. Interesting. His name is my new Where did you find him online or offline we did meet online oh my goodness. Changed your views on internet dating Well yeah this is very ironic I was really just against online dating but I moved to Philadelphia literally knowing not a single person and the friends that I was making at work they weren't really like offering up friends to introduce me to so I just said well I guess the only thing to do here is to go on a dating app but I did specifically chose to go on hinge which did connect people based on I believe 5 degrees of separation and so I said you know at least like focus on trying to find somebody that has maybe friends in common with me and maybe that will go. Better do you think it changed the way you fell in love that you were doing this online. It takes more time we weren't texting very often at all and I wasn't sure that he was interested Finally I was like look I do want to meet you I hope you want to meet me as well this is the date that I have available I don't have time like that like I'm just going to move on anything you've heard yearly and he just said Ok well let's meet on a Thursday will grab drinks and I locked eyes with him as soon as I got in the pub and I just went crazy about him. But had you had to meet a lot of frogs before you kissed your prince so many so many. So you remember Dr Helen Fisher who was on our show you know she had a similar piece of advice and she was like basically use the Internet as a tool to take it offline quickly and then limit yourself to a certain number focus on them try to see if there's something and if it isn't then move on and so one of the things that I say to people who are Internet dating is after you've met people pick one of them and get to know this person more because there's a great deal of data showing that the more you know somebody the more you like them and the more you think that they are like you you feel like you have to coax your brain into giving somebody a better shot that's very well said yeah you know there's a huge brain regions linked with what we call negativity bias because for millions of years that was adaptive I mean let's say you and I and your friends and my friends are all living together on the grasslands of Africa and it's a 1000000 years ago and then suddenly some person that we don't really know says something to us is threatening adaptive to remember the threatening comment and not all the nice ones so you've got to overlook that focus on the positive get to know . Person and after you've met by and people stop and get to know at least one of those people more and then you've got the internet licked and was going on dates at least 4 times a week while. Yeah it's exhausting. I must've been a relief to find somebody finally and be like Ok I can stop with the dating apps now so much that's an interesting part of my story I think with my kids that I was shocked at how honest he was genuinely interested would ask me questions and after we did start getting very serious I said it was just amazing to me that you were just nice and genuine and he said well those are pretty low standards if that's really what you're looking for. Well you were I don't know it would shock you how difficult it is to find that in somebody Jerry can I ask about your dating life yes go ahead. That's a very coy Yeah so if you go. When we originally did this episode I was on a quest and I was going to try online dating and the truth is yes I am now dating somebody we've been together for 2 years oh right after that episode actually no no way so well congratulations Well thank you very much but that's the twist in the tale so I met him offline after spending a year pretty much intensely trying online dating and meeting a lot of really nice guys along with a lot of not so nice guys and. I met my partner through common friends it was totally circumstantial and he doesn't live in the same city we're in a long distance relationship and I am that person who even when I was doing online dating have set my so current for and meeting people at like 8 miles because I considered further than that long distance Yeah but but after having done a lot of online dating I feel like at least what it did going through all the. Experience is a meeting the proverbial frog's was that it helped me raise my standards or figure out where my standards were oh like what Mike told you realize what was working for me and what wasn't working for me and when I met him it was like it was there I knew that he is special and he's different. Long distance that it sounds like you guys do you have to depend on a bit of technology to keep in touch. Actually quite heavily we we do meet a lot of my jobs flexible so I go over quite a bit so of course there's all the travel planning and ticket booking that happens online but we also spend a lot of time on text or phone calls and we talk several times a day am really interested are you experiencing any kind of technical glitches that every lake letting you down in your relationship. So much so it is so annoying when the network or our voice over IP like disconnect and we have these times where he's on the call and he's making a joke and I thought you were going like what I said this like what by which time you know the joke is not funny because we've been shouting at each other it's just so sad really typing but it is true it does make for a great story after the fact. And I just interrupt to say Arun Shourie both sound like you've got great guys someone should invent a sort of a dating app where when women are finished with someone that is actually great they could just kind of put him in for recycling Yeah I think that's like I guess idea he's not for me but he's great you know totally have done that for Yeah no they were such nice guys I met and they were just not right for me but reaction dot com . Or something I just got lucky meeting Mike there was nothing like that was amazing and stood out about his profile necessarily I'm just glad he took the chance frankly Well listen Aaron and Chevy I'm sensing a degree of luck in you both meeting your current partners but I'd also just for the purposes of this show like to claim full crowd science responsibility yet. You know. They are just a little fit we're going to join you for agreeing Yes yes Marni America this would have happened without you. Guys worry I need to go and marry you. If I can summarize from champion air and falling in love may be dumb luck but perseverance is key like the sporting mantra says the more you practice the luckier you get it works for dating to. This new sheriff contacted us nearly 3 years ago to ask why he found it so hard to quit smoking we found some of the world's experts in nicotine addiction and uncovered all sorts of info about how nicotine hijacks the brain's reward system so that you end up needing it to feel good and we also came up with a bunch of tips on things like making it easier to kick the habit so has it made any difference yeah and smoking or did you try and give up sand but unsurprising as we found out from Professor Nia Bender which in our program I think it is probably the most addictive drug that we have based on the fact that 25 percent of people who experiment with cigarettes become regular smokers and the vast majority smoked day early. Which is different than alcohol or her or cocaine where many people try those drugs and stop when you look at people who use alcohol or her or her cocaine and cigarettes many studies have shown that the drug they have a hardest time quitting is nicotine having listened to the crowd science what kind of things to cherish try I tried to decrease the amount of smoke so I managed to make it like 3 cigarettes a day sometimes 2 sometimes 4 and something like that but then it started again lately it was my greatest progress in my life quit for 33 weeks. Cold turkey we have some friends living together and we did this challenge we decided to put some money for each cigarette we smoked so that worked and we stopped I started feeling really strong mentally and it's really good when you quit but some things happen I don't know it's a very strong addiction the friends that we've been like quitting together I asked them Did you have some triggers and they said no but in my experience it's totally different and it's a nightmare did you have a particular trigger was there anything that made you start again lots of triggers some of them are psychology right when they're finished doing something you really want to smoke then you want to start something you have to smoke when you weight people or when you have to wait some or that's a trigger to I call it itches you know if your body which is you're want to do that but sometimes you have you try to resist that feeling and it goes right yes sometimes yeah if it doesn't go you do have to do this you can't touch it you can't . But if you smoke it goes. I love sheriff talking about his brain which it feels like every listener that we've had on today's program and in fact every listener who e-mails us in is in some way scratching an itch we've heard tales of love loss of triumph of failure and of the complexity that makes up the weird wonderful species that we are humans and of course the science underpinning our behavior how we function which of course is sort of why crowd science exists to quote my favorite author Kurt Vonnegut Tiger got to hunt bird got to fly man got to sit and wonder why. Why why. Thanks for you curiosity which has been challenging the crowd science team for 3 years and do you keep those questions coming in Crown science b.b.c. Don't you k. Is the e-mail address for me money Chesterton produce America Peters and the rest of the crowd science team thank you very much and goodbye. To the north pole production is in full swing and Santa is just about to go over his list dream nice nice nice. The rioting the lights and inspires and that makes Morning Edition a perfect pick for this holiday season bringing you stories on science and the arts extensive election coverage and of course the latest news as well keep us on your nice list listen every day from n.p.r. News and weekday mornings from 5 to 9. This is Connecticut Public Radio n.p.r. And n.p.r. 81 married in at 90.5 w.p. K t w p k t h d one Norwich 89.1. 88.5 w r l i Southampton at 91.3 and w n p all dot org. On from our own correspondent after this bulletin how the face off in Hong Kong looks from Taipei under China's shadow there is still division and suspicion in this young democracy critics accuse President saya of exploiting the Hong Kong situation president sighs d.p.p. Meanwhile warns of Chinese infiltration via social media to influence voters a dial m.-f. Of the picture perfect Cayman Islands the welds 2 largest cruise lines want to redevelop the port in the capital Georgetown and build a bear think that the lity and large concrete p.-a for their growing fleet of ships the proposal would mean destroying large swathes of prized coral reef and an expedition to Antarctica a walk down the ladder and into a dazzling world of white and below the light is refracted into rainbows as it says off the ice all that and a treasure hunt with a French truffle pig on from our own correspondent after this bulletin of b.b.c. World news. The baby seniors Hello this is Jerry Smit officials in Afghanistan have declared preliminary results in the country's presidential elections which suggest victory for the incumbent Afghani his main rival has already rejected the outcome the u.n. Has called on the earth or it is to deal transparently and thoroughly with complaints from Kabul his show of Sharifi according to the elections commission the incumbent President Mohamed Nasheed ever anyone the outright majority with just over 50 percent of the vote his main rival Abdullah Abdullah was 2nd were less than 40 percent Mr Abdullah has already said he won't accept the results calling the ballot fraudulent a total of 14 candidates competed in this election others including former warlords Goodwood in Hekmatyar each took less than 4 percent of the turnout candidates have 3 days to lodge complaints against the results 3 independent elections Complaints Commission final results will be announced after complaints have been address the Australian Prime Minister's Goldman.