Late summer storm on southern UK coast.
Gold, storms and dinosaurs
11 January 2010
In this week's podcast, Richard Hollingham strikes gold - literally - while Sue Nelson finds out why weather forecasters still struggle to predict sudden, violent summer storms.
We'll also be hearing why scientists may be a step closer to getting rid of the American mink from the Outer Hebrides and how to run away from a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Banks may have collapsed, shares plummeted and currencies faltered over the last couple of years, but if you put your money in gold, you could have made a tidy profit - the metal recently reached its highest value ever.
Great news if there's a gold mine nearby, which funnily enough isn't as unlikely as you might think.
As well as going gold-panning, Richard visits Northern Ireland's only gold mine and finds out why there's such a market for Northern Irish gold.
Listen
Click the play button above to listen now.
Also, Sue Nelson meets cloud expert Dr Andrew Russell from the University of Manchester. Andy talks about the work he's doing to make forecasting storms easier.
Finally, find out what scientists are doing to understand why some Antarctic penguin colonies are growing, while others are declining.
As always, download and then tell us what you think. You can email us at editors@nerc.ac.uk or if you're on Facebook or Twitter, comment there - see the links below.
Keywords:
Antarctic,
Atmosphere,
Europe,
Geology,
Hazards,
Natural resources,
Polar,
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