Vagrant birds are those that appear in locations where they are not usually found. They might have been blown off course by a storm or have been affected by changing weather patterns due to climate change. Although a treat for birders, these visitors can also have a big impact on their new environments as Victoria Gill finds out when she heads to Burton Mere Wetlands on the Dee Estuary with Dr Alexander Lees, reader in biodiversity at Manchester Metropolitan University.
As former Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives his testimony, we hear the latest from the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry with BBC Health Reporter Jim Reed.
A new study reveals that, contrary to a commonly-held view, the brain does not have the ability to rewire itself to compensate for the loss of, for example sight, an amputation or stroke. This is despite what most scientists believe and teach. Moreover, the assumption that it has this ability has led to all manner of erroneous treatments for amputees, stroke victims and other conditions, the study suggests.
We’re joined by the study’s authors, Professor John Krakauer from Johns Hopkins University and Professor Tamar Making of the University of Cambridge. We’ll also hear from one of Tamar’s key case studies, Kirsty Mason, an amputee from the age of 18 who advanced the scientists’ experiments exponentially.
Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Hannah Robins and Louise Orchard Editor: Richard Collings Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.
TB vaccination to replace culling in badgers; Neil Shubin on the wonders of evolution
Biology of the new coronavirus
Banning lead shot for hunting; UK Fireball Network and Extremely thin gold
The Big Compost Experiment; Using AI to screen for new antibiotics; Science of slapstick
Coronavirus questions; HMS Challenger and ocean acidification; Sean Carroll's quantum world
Ordnance Survey - Britain's 220-year-old tech company; Launching synthetic voices and personality test
Solar Orbiter launch; Mutational signatures in cancer; paleo-oncology
Coronavirus update, Typhoid Mary and 200th anniversary of the first sighting of Antarctica
Coronavirus outbreak in China; Genetic diseases in Amish communities and getting an Egyptian mummy to speak
Reproducibility crisis in science; Aeolus wind-measuring satellite; electric cars
Australian bush fires; Veganuary and LIGO
The hidden history in our DNA - Part 2 - Travel and Culture
The hidden history in our DNA - Part 1 - Sex and Disease
Ten years of Zooniverse; what happened to volcano Anak Krakatau and visualising maths
Earliest hunting scene cave painting; animal domestication syndrome
Global Carbon Emissions; Parker Solar Probe and simulating swaying buildings
What's the problem with palm oil and should we be supporting sustainably grown oil? Virtual reality skin
Noise pollution and wildlife; No till farming; Cornwall's geothermal heat
Soils and floods, Air pollution and ultra-low emission zones, detecting the drug Spice
Fracking moratorium; Bloodhound; Big Compost Experiment; transit of Mercury
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