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Parameswaran
Yet another brilliant podcast thanks to Ediacara Biota, Melwyn and his expert panel. Am I allowed to say this? - Listening to Richard Corfield with his innovative way of explaining for the listeners made me go back to Uni again; I wish!
Seth Messinger Ediacara Biota
Mr. Jones - I'm not sure how many Americans listen in, but I certainly do, and I agree that in light of the program (see - Yankee spelling) on Ediacara Biota that a discussion of intelligent design would be interesting.
John Atkin Ediacara Biota
For me one of the most enlightening "In our time" so far - Ediacara are described in my daughter's textbook but we now really appreciate their importance - thanks.
seth / biota
why is the 4.5 billion yr clock set at three?
Alan Jones Ediacara Biota
As ever an excellent programme. I knew very little about the subject and can now say I know something. It might be worth looking at Intelligent Design in one of your future broadcasts. Having read the newsletter it might be a stimulating discussion. Although I'm not sure how many Americans listen to IOT. I look forward to the new series.
Tom Milner-Gulland - Ediacara Biota
The fact that bacteria are phenomenally adaptable, such as to become – for example - extremophiles, surely shows that Darwinian theory is in some sense incomplete. What is the driving force behind their evolution if there is no eradication of prototypes and unadaptables? The hypothesised evolutionary mechanism/'survival strategy' of ‘Here’s an entire ocean, go and do what you like, because there is no competition’ is not remotely Darwinian.
Keith Budden-Cambrian predators.
I think part of the reason that evolution argument gets lost is the language. "They decided to burrow down to avoid predators" instead of-those that were adapted to burrow had an evolutionary advantage in avoiding predators. Like wise "those that decided to form a 3rd skin" instead of- When a mutation occurred of a 3rd skin this allowed further mutations involving internal organs to be viable and improve chances of survival. I appreciate that the programme needs to be at a level that can be understood by me, an Engineer with little knowledge of biology,but Intelligent Design(The created by a mad scientist theory)will negate science, given half a chance, and appears to be putting the USA way behind the rest of the world, making them a backward nation in science.
Fiona Campbell - ediocara biota et al
Just wanted to agree with everyone who said this was a great programme to go out on and so glad to see from Phil Tinline's note that IOT will be back. It's about the only programme with any intellectual meat on radio. I wish there were more like this so that poor Melvyn Bragg and your researchers wouldn't have to mug up on the whole intellectual, literary and scientific history of the world. I thought Melvyn Bragg's newsletter was particularly good this week, as it gave us more genuine information about the content of the programme and - pace Lord Bragg - less centrality to the ducks (important thought they are...)
Verina Glaessner: The Ediacara Biota
What an excellently judged programme: well chosen guests enabled revealing connections to be made between palaeontology, Biology, stratigraphy and Darwin, ipse. A huge area of scientific development deftly negotiated, and at the bottom of it all the 'simple' ones, thumbprint shaped, sans, it seems, just about everything, yet ingesting an algae blanket in a very different world - for such a long time...until disaster struck!Odd pronunciation shift though. It used to be ediacara emphasis on 3rd syllable. Now on 4th and dignified with the term biota. Also unexplained. Surely not political correctness. Many thanks.
tina negus on the ediacaran biota
As the "schoolgirl" referred to obliquely by Martin Brasier, in your programme, I would like to congratulate Melvyn Bragg and guests on an excellent programme, and to praise the BBC for continuing to give us unusual programmes of minority interest, in this otherwise tabloid age. The direction of the discussion by Melvyn Bragg was well done, and the information given of high standard and as far as is possible, described in a way accessible to most people with some scientific knowledge. I thought that more emphasis could have been placed on the earlier non-discovery of Precambrian fossils, by the simple fact that nobody had looked in the right place. The quarry-men in Charnwood Forest had also noted what they thought were organic forms, indeed called the site in question the "Ring Quarry" from the appearance of the disc-like holdfasts of Charnia on the bedding planes. but they were not educated men - what did they know? Just as when I reported my find of Charnia in 1956, I was told that there are no fossils in Precambrian rocks, and when I insisted that it WAS a fossil, then the rocks you found it in were NOT Precambrian - a truly circular argument! the other point which could have been made clearer, was that although Darwin was troubled by the apparent lack of Precambrian life-forms, he had no time-line available to him, no concept of 635 million years, which came much more recently.
Anthony Maynard, The Ediacara Biota
Nice programme, though I could have done with just the tiniest mention of where in the calendar the evolution of plants fitted, to complete the picture.I wonder if anyone these days knows of 'LARVAL FORMS and other zoological verses' by Walter Garstang, Professor of Zoology at Leeds from 1908, with an introduction by Alister Hardy, published by Blackwell in 1954. Two tasters:-1. From THE INVAGINATE GASTRULA AND THE PLANULA:-A giddy little Gastrula, gyrating round and round,Was thought to show the way we got our enteron profound:A little whirlpool in its wake maintained a tasty store,A pocket sank to lodge it all, and left a blastopore.As a larval epigram this description earns a prize,But as sketching adult ancestry can only win surprise,And when you note all early orders fixed upon the rocks,You feel a slight embarrassment, the first of many shocks...2. From THE ORIGIN OF CNIDOBLASTS AND CNIDOZOA:-'Tis odd that Enterozoa should with Coelenterates begin,With differentiated cells and a diplothelial skin,For the Gastrula is clearly by a Blastula preceded, And pelagic monothelial sires for this are sorely needed!'Tis also true that Haeckel, when he looked around for one,Could only "Magosphaera" find, which none else had done!He then appealed to Volvox, which the serious dearth reveals,Since both are quite incapable of taking solid meals!&c.
John Carlisle : Ediacara Biota
This was THE most brilliantly explained and entertaining programme you have done. The three experts were masters of narrative as well as their fields, and complemented each other so well, i.e. did nt compete. You have got to get them back
Alan Quinn Ediacara Biota
I have 2 comments to make.I object to the use of the metric system in your programmes (it is clearly now BBC policy generally to eliminate this aspect of our heritage). Your audience at this time of the day is likely to be mostly retired. Indeed people over 40 are fully comfortable with the Imperial System.There was a moment of delight early on when one of your contributors spoke of a specimen being 2 inches across, but, thereafter, it was metric.Your producer may claim that these are the units of science but you are talking to the general public not at a scientific conference. Even if the listener can 'translate' the measurements, it causes a brief loss of attention and, thus, often the next key word or so are missed. ("Two inches" is immediately conceptualised).At least set the 2 systems side-by-side - if you must.A second point is about the content of the programme. I usually enjoy the programmes (although today's topic was an odd choice - this life form formed no part of the evolution tree)but today's, which Melvyn Bragg found so enjoyable, was, frankly, a ramble. It might have answered his his questions but, as a listener with no chance of preparation, it was structureless and far from instructive. I have a degree in chemistry and would expect to be able to follow a 'populist'(?)broadcast on a scientific topic, so that I have a reasonable grasp of the essentil points by the end. I did not!
Alan Quinn Ediacara Biota
Testing!! Sumissions not working this morning. Very annoying.
Ediacara Biota
Great programme thanks. My mother popped in just as IOT finished and as she has a (somewhat archaic) biology degree I mentioned how interesting it had been. "So what have they learned?" she asked. "Well...........not enough" my reply unexpectedly formed itself. I suppose I could have said that biologically speaking we are either usurped or eaten on this planet! The problem is that knowledge - and discovery - come with an exponential deficit ie. "the more I know the more I realize I don't know". I was somewhat gutted to hear that it's weeks until the next programme.....and my kitchen just won't be as clean. During this morning's programme, with a certain parity, even poetry, I finally tackled the new life forms in the recesses of my fridge - don't want those evolving, do I. Ah well, 'til September then. Enormous thanks to Melvyn and the In Our Time team for so many wonderful programmes over the last year and for the superlative series on Darwin. Also thanks to all the other listeners who send their synergistic responses. Warmest wishes and I hope you each have a thoroughly lovely summer. Jane
Richard Walder
Ediocara BiotaI really enjoyed this week's programme. In particular oxygen's effect on life in the early oceans and atmosphere.I chanced upon a wonderful book by Nick Lane simply titled 'Oxygen' "The molecule that made the World". His wide ranging book charts the rise of oxygen from a toxic Venusian atmosphere to the steady levels we have today. He also shows how increased levels produced giant insects and how this molecule affects human aging.I am sure this seemingly arcane subject would interest an audience of both arts and science fans.Many thanks for a wonderful series
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