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Trilobite dinner

What did a 465-million-year-old trilobite eat for dinner? And how can we possibly know? Also, looking for signatures of life in space rocks using AI.

What did a 465-million-year-old trilobite eat for dinner? And how can we possibly know? Archaeologist Per Ahlberg has used x-ray to peer into the guts of one ancient scuttling creature and worked out what it what was munching on in its final moments.

From life in ancient earth rocks to potential life in space rocks, mineralogist and astrobiologist Bob Hazen has been training AI to spot signatures of life on Earth. He now hopes to use this tool on space samples.

We also ask experimental particle physicist Jeffrey Hangst how antimatter, the last mystery of the universe, responds to gravity - was Einstein's theory of general relativity right?

And the antiviral Covid medication, Molnupiravir, may be causing the virus to mutate. Theo Sanderson discusses how he figured this out and how concerned we should be.

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Ella Hubber
Editor: Martin Smith
Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: Fig. 1: Bohemolichas incola (Barrande, 1872). Credit: Kraft et al)

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27 minutes

Last on

Sat 30 Sep 2023 16:32GMT

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  • Thu 28 Sep 2023 19:32GMT
  • Fri 29 Sep 2023 04:32GMT
  • Fri 29 Sep 2023 08:32GMT
  • Fri 29 Sep 2023 12:32GMT
  • Fri 29 Sep 2023 19:32GMT
  • Sat 30 Sep 2023 16:32GMT

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