Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: The World, the Universe and Us
Episode: Weekly: New human cases of bird flu; Sail away to Alpha Centauri; Sea slugs hunt in packs
Description: #259More people in the US are getting bird flu. Though numbers are small – just five new cases, all mild – every new case is a reason for concern. How and why is it being transmitted – and how is it being monitored?What if you could make a sailboat that’s pushed not by wind, but lasers? Breakthrough Starshot is a mission attempting to send a spacecraft to our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, using such a lightsail. While lightsail designs have been too expensive and unworkable so far, a new prototype is looking promising.Climate...