Do you know what a painless heart is? Dr Mitch Lomax is a sports scientist at the University of Portsmouth. She helps actual Olympic swimmers get faster. She explains how most of the muscles attached to our skeletons work: Tiny fibres use small-scale cellular energy, which, when all these fibres work in concert, turns into…
This week we have a special programme on Afrofuturism and tech innovation. It’s a subject often covered in science fiction, but what makes Afrofuturism different from standard science fiction is that ancient African traditions and black identity are steeped throughout the story. This programme is available on the Digital Planet Page and is available now until Wednesday…
Now being produced in India, CORBEVAX is grown in yeast, similarly to several other widely available vaccines. The technology used to make it is far simpler and more readily available than that used to produce mRNA vaccines. In theory, CORBEVAX could be produced cheaply in large quantities and go a long way to addressing the…
What is your solution, are you working from home or travelling to your office? As millions of us have had to stay away from our workplaces during the pandemic. This programme is available on the Health Check Page and is available now until Wednesday the 12th of January. It will also broadcast on Sunday the 9tth of…
Welcome to Discovery, the weirdness of water, this is part 2 of a 3 part series with presenters Hannah Fry & Adam Rutherford. Part 1, Water do you understand it? Zooming in and out of water is available for you to follow the whole series. This programme is available NOW on Demand on the BBC Discovery…
In the past philosophers and scientists have argued about the nature of animal minds. But, Does your pet care about you? Darwin thought they differed from us only by degree but Descartes believed they were merely machines made of flesh. This programme is available on the Health Check Page and is available now until Wednesday the 5th…
Digital Planet takes on a Technical review of 2021. Gareth Mitchell, Angelica Mari, Bill Thompson and Ghislaine Boddington look back on 2021 and some of the stories that were covered. This programme is available on the Digital Planet Page and is available now until Tuesday the 4th of January. It will also broadcast on Sunday the 1st…
UPDATE 16th February 2022. James Webb Space Telescope sends back the first test image. On February 11, NASA released the first composite images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. Each of the 18 bright white dots is the same Ursa Major star reflected from Webb’s primary mirror segments to its secondary mirror and Near Infrared Camera…
Paul Weller talks about his teaming with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a special concert featuring songs from his career, which stretches back to the 1970s. Also, we hear from Robert Plant who has teamed up again with Alison Krauss, 14 years after their first album. Plus music from Green Day, Neil Young, Juice Wrld…
A study from Hong Kong university shows the Omicron Covid Variant replicates 70 times faster than two earlier variants of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Virologist Malik Peiris explains how tests using cells from the windpipe showed a dramatic difference, which supports observations of increased transmission. This programme is available to hear On Demand now and is also available…
On 26 November 2021, WHO designated the variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE). This decision was based on the evidence presented to the TAG-VE that Omicron has several mutations that may have an impact on how it behaves, for example, on how easily it spreads or the severity of…
DART is a space mission designed to hit a distant asteroid and knock it slightly out of orbit. UPDATE 30th September 2022. NASA’s latest mission, DART hit the headlines this week after the space agency’s satellite successfully collided with a far-off asteroid. This program is now available ON-Demand by visiting the Science in Action Page, it will be available until Thursday…
Volcanic eruptions are known to influence global climate systems, even leading to the planet’s cooling. However, local weather conditions can also influence the timing and ferocity of volcanic eruptions. This week’s show is available to hear On Demand now and is also open on-air and online at 91.5 FM and 102.5 FM this Sunday, the 12th of December…
PIX instant payment limits to reduce kidnappings. Last year the PIX instant payment system was introduced in Brazil. It currently has 112 million registered users – that’s 62% of the population. It’s proving incredibly popular and is allowing the 40 million unbanked people in the country access to electronic payments. This programme is available NOW…
IoT devices like smart speakers and networked heating controls are increasingly being used by perpetrators of domestic violence – for instance by changing the temperature the heating is set to or the music that the victim listens too, remotely. This programme is available NOW OnDemand at the Digital Planet Page and is available now until Wednesday 1st…
Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, and also some of the noisiest. Up close, a healthy reef teems with trills, whoops, buzzes, hums and snaps made by the diverse lifeforms that inhabit it. This programme is available NOW on Demand at the Discovery Page and is available now until Tuesday…
New antiviral pills to treat Covid are coming thick and fast. Pfizer has just announced their new antiviral Paxlovid in the same week UK’s MHRA was the first country in the world to approve Molnupiravir – Merck’s pill launched last month. So how do the two antivirals compare? This programme is available on the Health Check…
We’ve reported before on the programme about the massive energy consumption of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which is based on blockchain technology. Now we’ll be looking at some of the other environmental impacts of blockchain. This programme is available on the Digital Planet Page and is available now until Tuesday 16th November. It will also broadcast…
An international team of scientists has launched a global hunt for rare people who may be genetically resistant to SARS CoV-2 infection. Individuals who’ve been exposed to the virus living in families where everyone else in the household got infected, who repeatedly tested negative and didn’t mount an immune response. Claudia Hammond speaks to immunologist…
Digital Planet is looking at green technology during COP26. “green technology (also green tech): Technology whose use is intended to mitigate or reverse the effects of human activity on the environment. Firstly, we discover the green credentials of your favourite websites with the Green Web Foundation. Can we really make the internet more environmentally friendly? Also, we’ll…
Just a few days before COP26 opens in Glasgow, the World Meteorological Organisation reported record greenhouse gas levels, despite a fall in CO2 due to pandemic restrictions. The UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report also revealed that current country pledges will only take 7.5% off predicted greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, well below the 55%…
False information online has left one in five girls feeling physically unsafe. This is according to The Truth Gap, a new report by Plan International. One in three say false information is affecting their mental health, leaving them feeling stressed, worried and anxious. Others reported concerns about bogus events advertised on social media placing them…
Research by the World Wide Web Foundation is asking about the digital gender gap and what’s the cost? The foundation has found that the gender gap for internet accessibility has cost countries billions of USD in lost GDP. In the 32 countries studied a third of women were connected to the internet compared to almost…
In December 2020, China’s Chang’e-5 mission returned to earth carrying young rock samples from the moon – the first lunar samples to be collected since the American Apollo and Luna missions to the moon in the 1970s. Laboratory analysis has revealed that these are the youngest samples of rocks to be collected from the moon….
An international team of researchers has discovered that an outbreak of Ebola in Guinea in February this year was the result of the re-activated Ebola virus in someone who’d been infected at least five years ago during the earlier large Ebola epidemic that swept through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. This means the virus can…
Emotional Breath this week on Science in Action we take a look at a study that focuses on how the exhalation of breath determines the emotional response. Cinema viewers, watching The Hunger Games, were monitored to see if researchers could tell the emotion of the crowd by measuring certain markers in their breath and looking…
Electric Police and Phuket get ATV Police Patrols for Beaches. The ATVs are to be funded by the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation – along with 29 million baht for more security cameras around the island and an extra 32 million baht for 80 powerful light stands to illuminate the dark area at beaches and at…
Updated 11 July 2021. The Student Government of Chulalongkorn University (SGCU) has posted an open letter, requesting a review of the decision to grant an honorary doctorate of science degree to business tycoon Dhanin Chearavanont reports The Nation. The student club said the university’s regulations on granting an honorary doctorate degree, BE 2555 (2012) should…
Paul Oakenfold International DJ is one of the most celebrated record producers and trance DJs of our time. Phuket Island Radio is delighted to have Paul as one of our International DJ’s in our weekly show schedule. With a career spanning 35 years, it is no wonder that he has been voted No 1 DJ…
Phuket International Hospital held a press conference for the 5th Run for Health Run for Charity Mini Marathon with trophies from H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. This year’s theme is “RUN for the New Me”, which means to get started and become a new one with better health. The event is expected to foster the…
This week as part of our weekly EDU-tainment programme we visit the global consumer electronics and technology show in Las Vegas and the British Library looking at 150 years of newspapers. Global Consumer Electronics and Technology Show At this year’s CES, the global consumer electronics and technology show in Las Vegas, the Zigbee Alliance launched…
This week BBC Click is Tracking Naked Mole-Rats, looking at Twitter as a broadcasting platform and fighting poaching. Tracking Naked Mole-Rats with Julie Freeman We head to the Utopia Treasury in the Great Arch at Somerset House in London where Julie Freeman has a hybrid artwork looking at a colony of mole rats (which are…
Our congratulations go out to Jan Frodeno Ironman World Champion 2016 and 2015 after meeting Jan at the 2009 Laguna Phuket Triathlon and having won the gold medal in the 2008 Bejing Olympics Phuket Island Radio are delighted to follow the continuing career of Jan. TOP 10 Pro Men – Finish 1 8:06:30 Jan Frodeno2…