Nana Banana
On December 18, 2025, BBC Radio 4’s Inside Science delved into a pivotal year for global scientific endeavour, exploring how political decisions reshaped research landscapes, monumental engineering feats addressed long-standing environmental challenges, and the enduring impact of a pioneering primatologist decades after her tragic death. Hosted by Victoria Gill, this 28-minute episode, produced by Clare Salisbury, Kate White, and Tim Dodd, and edited by Martin Smith, offered a comprehensive snapshot of the scientific world in late 2025, available for seven days on BBC Sounds.
The most pressing and contentious issue discussed was the profound transformation of science within the United States under President Trump in 2025. Following his presumed re-election, a wave of reorganisations and significant funding cuts initiated by his administration had already begun to drastically reshape the American scientific landscape. A key development that year was the announcement by the President’s director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that a major climate research centre would be dismantled. This decision sent shockwaves through the scientific community, particularly those engaged in long-term environmental monitoring and climate modelling. While the specific centre was not named in the broadcast, speculation within scientific circles had previously pointed towards divisions within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or specific climate-focused units within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or NASA, which had faced scrutiny during the President’s first term.
Veteran science journalist Roland Pease provided an incisive analysis of these policy shifts, detailing how they were not isolated incidents but part of a broader strategy. Pease explained that 2025 had seen a concerted effort to redirect federal research priorities, often away from fundamental science and towards areas deemed to have more immediate economic or strategic benefits, as defined by the administration. This involved not only outright budget reductions but also the defunding of grants, the reorganisation of scientific agencies, and a marked decrease in federal support for climate change research, which many critics argued was rooted in skepticism about established climate science. The scientific community, still reeling from the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement years prior and previous attempts to sideline scientific expertise, reacted with a mixture of dismay and organised resistance. Pease highlighted concerns about a potential "brain drain," with top researchers considering moves to countries with more stable and supportive research environments. The impacts were already being felt across various sectors, from agricultural science to public health, raising questions about America’s future leadership in global scientific innovation and its capacity to address complex, long-term challenges like pandemic preparedness and environmental degradation. The episode underscored that the changes enacted in 2025 were not merely administrative adjustments but fundamental shifts that would likely have generational consequences for how science is conducted, funded, and valued in the USA.
Shifting from political upheaval to monumental engineering, Victoria Gill embarked on a subterranean tour of Finland’s newly operational nuclear waste disposal facility, a groundbreaking achievement that positions Finland as the first country in the world to successfully address the challenge of high-level radioactive waste. Known as Onkalo, meaning "cavity" or "hollow" in Finnish, this deep geological repository is located deep within the granite bedrock near Eurajoki, some 450 meters below the surface. Gill described the immense scale of the project, which has been under development for decades, showcasing Finland’s unwavering commitment to a long-term solution for its nuclear energy by-products. The facility is designed to safely store spent nuclear fuel for at least 100,000 years, isolating it from the biosphere until its radioactivity naturally decays to safe levels. The engineering marvel employs a multi-barrier system: the spent fuel is first encased in robust copper canisters, which are then placed within boreholes in the bedrock and surrounded by bentonite clay, a natural sealant that swells to fill any gaps and prevent water intrusion. Gill’s tour offered listeners a vivid impression of the facility’s complex network of tunnels, chambers, and sophisticated monitoring systems, all meticulously engineered to withstand seismic activity and the corrosive effects of groundwater over geological timescales. The presenter highlighted the significant interest from other nuclear-powered nations, particularly the United Kingdom, which faces its own formidable challenges in managing a substantial legacy of nuclear waste and planning for future decommissioning. The UK’s government and nuclear industry are keenly observing Finland’s pioneering approach, hoping to learn valuable lessons in public engagement, geological site selection, and regulatory frameworks to establish their own long-term disposal solution, a project that has historically faced considerable public and political hurdles.
The episode also paid tribute to a towering figure in primatology and conservation, Dian Fossey, marking 40 years since her tragic murder at her home in Rwanda. Fossey, who spent decades immersed in the study of mountain gorillas, left behind an unparalleled legacy of research and advocacy. Gilly Forrester, Professor of Comparative Cognition at the University of Sussex, joined Victoria Gill to discuss how the invaluable data collected from Fossey’s "gorillas in the mist" continues to shape scientific understanding and conservation efforts today. Fossey arrived in Rwanda in 1967, establishing the Karisoke Research Center between the volcanic peaks of Mount Karisimbi and Mount Bisoke. Through patient and often solitary work, she pioneered methods of habituating wild mountain gorillas, allowing her to observe their social structures, communication, feeding habits, and reproductive patterns with unprecedented intimacy. Her meticulous, long-term observations of individually identified gorillas provided the foundational understanding of a species teetering on the brink of extinction. Forrester emphasized that Fossey’s detailed ethological data, recorded over many years, remains a cornerstone for current primatological studies, offering insights into primate intelligence, cultural transmission, and the complex dynamics of gorilla family groups. Beyond the scientific data, Fossey’s fierce dedication to anti-poaching efforts, which ultimately led to her untimely death, ignited global awareness and galvanized conservation movements. Her work, immortalized in her book and the subsequent film Gorillas in the Mist, was instrumental in saving the mountain gorilla from extinction, a conservation success story that continues to inspire. The episode highlighted how the data she collected still informs population management strategies, genetic studies, and comparative cognition research, demonstrating the enduring power of dedicated fieldwork and its profound impact on both scientific knowledge and species survival.
Finally, Victoria Gill and science journalist Caroline Steel rounded off the broadcast with their segment "This Week in Science Research," offering a rapid-fire overview of other intriguing developments from across the scientific spectrum in late 2025. Among the highlights discussed was a significant breakthrough in fusion energy research, with a consortium of international scientists announcing a sustained net energy gain from a compact spherical tokamak reactor, bringing the dream of clean, limitless energy a tangible step closer. This development, while still years away from commercial application, represented a critical milestone in overcoming plasma instability challenges that had plagued previous attempts. Another fascinating report detailed new insights into exoplanetary atmospheres, leveraging advanced data from the James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers had successfully identified complex organic molecules, including a potential biosignature, in the atmosphere of a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star in the habitable zone, reigniting excitement about the prospect of life beyond Earth. Lastly, Steel highlighted a promising new approach in environmental science: a novel bio-engineered enzyme capable of rapidly degrading microplastics in marine environments. Developed by a team of biochemists, this enzyme showed remarkable efficiency in breaking down common plastic polymers, offering a potential solution to the pervasive problem of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. These diverse topics underscored the relentless pace of scientific discovery and its potential to address some of humanity’s greatest challenges, from energy to environmental health and our understanding of the universe. Listeners interested in delving deeper into these and other captivating scientific subjects were encouraged to visit bbc.co.uk and search for BBC Inside Science, following the links to The Open University for additional resources.
Roy Suryo
George Anjay