Where next World Wide Web? Space rocks and worms episode artwork

EPISODE · Mar 21, 2019 · 31 MIN

Where next World Wide Web? Space rocks and worms

from BBC Inside Science · host BBC Inside Science

30 years ago Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web as a way to let physicists share their papers and data on a distributed network. It's changed a lot since then and not all for the better. Dominant technology companies monopolise our data and many, including Berners-Lee are worried about the growth of state sponsored hacking, misinformation and scamming. One solution is to re-decentralise the web, giving us more control of our information and what is done with it, but at what cost? Founder and director of Redecentralize.org, Irina Bolychevsky and technology guru Bill Thompson discuss the future.BBC Space Correspondent Jonathan Amos has news on some space rocks this week. Ultima and Thule, make up a bi-lobe comet out in the far reaches of the Solar System in the Kuiper Belt. Ultima-Thule was visited by the New Horizons mission in January. More data is being analysed and giving scientists insight into how these two planetary building blocks collided and merged and also on how it got its strange flattened shape. Another rock seems to be a rubble pile. The asteroid Ryugu is currently hosting the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa 2 spacecraft and landers. Jonathan explains to Gareth what stage the missions' audacious sample collect and return is now at. And there's a shock discovery by spacecraft OSIRIS-REx from asteroid Bennu. The NASA spacecraft analysing the asteroid has observed it shooting out plumes of dust that surround it in a dusty haze. It's a phenomenon never seen in an asteroid before.Back down on Earth and under the surface of the earth are the earthworms. As any savvy gardener will know, earthworms make a big difference to the health of soil and plants. What isn’t as well understood is how changes to the soil - like climate change and the intensification of agricultural practices - have impacted on the all-important worm population. In fact, scientists don’t even know what’s down there, wriggling underneath the surface. To find out, farmers recently undertook to the first worm survey in the UK. Finding that 42% of fields had very few or completely lacked key types of earthworm, the results suggest that over-cultivation has led to poor soil health in significant amounts of farmland. Producer: Fiona Roberts99% of users are being tracked by the algorithm.If you are part of the 1% who demands pure, untracked intelligence, you just found the bypass. Get the raw feed now. No trackers. No BS.🔴 INITIALIZE DIRECT DOWNLOAD⚪ GET THE UNFILTERED STREAM

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Mar 21, 2019

Embed this episode

NOW PLAYING

Where next World Wide Web? Space rocks and worms

0:00 31:38

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

No similar podcasts found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of BBC Inside Science?

This episode is 31 minutes long.

When was this BBC Inside Science episode published?

This episode was published on March 21, 2019.

Can I download this BBC Inside Science episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!