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Mystery blobs

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Manage episode 446764971 series 1301463
Content provided by BBC and BBC World Service. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by BBC and BBC World Service or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

White blobs have been appearing on the beaches in Newfoundland, Canada. They’re kind of doughy-looking, and smell of vegetable oil. As yet, officials are not sure what they could be. Of course, this got the Unexpected Elements team intrigued, so we decided to dedicate the programme to the weird world of blobs, slime and bizarre things that wash up onshore.

We hear about the fabulous hagfish, which produces copious amounts of snot-like slime to defend itself from predators.

But what makes slime so slippery in the first place? And why is ketchup so hard to get out of a bottle? And what makes quicksand so difficult to escape from? It’s all down to fluid dynamics. Professor Daniel Bonn, from the University of Amsterdam, explains the physics behind all these sticky situations.

Also this week, we find out more about a shipment of bath toys that tumbled overboard, and how they have helped scientists to decipher ocean currents.

Plus, we discover more about the restoration of mangrove forests, how flowers can cause weird dreams, the size of the biggest black forest gateau and a species of plankton and how it floats.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Camilla Mota and Phyllis Mwatee Producer: Emily Knight, with Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, Eliane Glaser and Noa Dowling Sound engineer: Gareth Tyrrell

  continue reading

419 episodes

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Mystery blobs

Unexpected Elements

230,137 subscribers

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Manage episode 446764971 series 1301463
Content provided by BBC and BBC World Service. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by BBC and BBC World Service or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

White blobs have been appearing on the beaches in Newfoundland, Canada. They’re kind of doughy-looking, and smell of vegetable oil. As yet, officials are not sure what they could be. Of course, this got the Unexpected Elements team intrigued, so we decided to dedicate the programme to the weird world of blobs, slime and bizarre things that wash up onshore.

We hear about the fabulous hagfish, which produces copious amounts of snot-like slime to defend itself from predators.

But what makes slime so slippery in the first place? And why is ketchup so hard to get out of a bottle? And what makes quicksand so difficult to escape from? It’s all down to fluid dynamics. Professor Daniel Bonn, from the University of Amsterdam, explains the physics behind all these sticky situations.

Also this week, we find out more about a shipment of bath toys that tumbled overboard, and how they have helped scientists to decipher ocean currents.

Plus, we discover more about the restoration of mangrove forests, how flowers can cause weird dreams, the size of the biggest black forest gateau and a species of plankton and how it floats.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Camilla Mota and Phyllis Mwatee Producer: Emily Knight, with Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, Eliane Glaser and Noa Dowling Sound engineer: Gareth Tyrrell

  continue reading

419 episodes

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