Material World - 15/07/2010

Dr. Richard Pike, the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry joins Quentin in the studio with an update of the latest news from the BP oil situation. The first ever All Party Parliamentary Group on Life Sciences is being set up at Westminster. The founder of the group, Penny Mordaunt MP Portsmouth North is in the studio to tell us why such a group is important to universities, industry and voters. Six of Italy's top seismologists could face charges of manslaughter after failing to give a warning before the deadly earthquake that struck the central Italian city of L'Aquila on 6 April 2009. The indictment has outraged experts around the world, who note that earthquakes cannot be predicted and who say that the Italian government neglected to enforce building codes that could have reduced the toll. Quentin speaks to Professor Ian Main from Edinburgh University about why it is impossible to predict earthquakes. And we return to So You Want to be a Scientist finalist John Rowlands and catch up on his noctilucent cloud experiment so far. The producer is Ania Lichtarowicz.