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.
Time Travel in Science and Cinema
Ethiopian genome, Coral nutrients, The hunt for gravitational waves, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Write on Kew festival at Kew Gardens, Preserving global biodiversity
Listeners' Science Questions
Pluto images, Space elevator, Insect migration, Imagination app
Homo Naledi, New spacesuit, Quantum biology, A possible cure for motion sickness
El Nino, Sphagnum moss and peatlands, Inside Cern, Measuring air pollution with iPhones
20/08/2015
Scottish GM ban, Earth's magnetic field, OCD, Birth of a new galaxy
Pluto's surface, Increased Arctic ice in 2013, Linking brains together, Signals of fertility
Pluto: New Horizons
Intrusive memories, Silent aircraft, Nuclear fusion, Pluto
Aphid-repelling wheat, National Institute for Bioscience, Global map of smell, Parrot mimics
Malaria drug, Listener feedback, Imaging the singing voice, Classifying human species
Stars, Fracking, Ice Cores, Drunken Chimps
Origins of life, Earthquakes in London, Frog plague, Ancient pollen
Self-adapting robots, Artificial intelligence in medicine, Ageing healthily
El Nino, Echolocation, Seasons, Snakes
Seasonal Variation in Immunity, Chemosynthesis, Role of the ISS, Storing Digital Data in DNA
Listeners' Science Questions
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