Episode description

Nearly a year ago, the top of a mountain on the Greenland coast broke off and slid a thousand metres down into the Dickson Fjord. The impact created a tsunami that started two-hundred-metres-high and sloshed between the cliffs for nine days, producing a global seismic signal. But it was so remote, only now are the details becoming clear. We hear from Paula Koelemeijer, Wieter Boone and Søren Rysgaard.

The decline of the ancient inhabitants of Rapa Nui was unlikely to have been caused by a self-inflicted population collapse, thereby rejecting a contentious theory of ‘ecological suicide’. Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas of the University of Lausanne discusses her team’s findings which shed light on the population history of the island formerly known as Easter Island - one of the most remote inhabited places in the world, around 3,700 km west of South America and over 1,900 km east of the closest inhabited island.

A newly identified species of wasp that attacks and lays eggs inside an adult fly has been discovered by Logan Moore and colleagues from Mississippi State University. Around 200 species of parasitoid wasps that target the fruit fly have been discovered to date - they lay their eggs in living creatures - all of which have been shown to target their hosts during vulnerable stages, such as when larvae or pupae. Until now, no wasp that attacks and develops inside the adult stage of a fruit fly host has been described.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production Coordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis

(Image: Copernicus Sentinel Data (2023). Credit: European Space Agency)