Resulted in a deal to try to stop the Turkish offensive the Kurds feel they've run out of options and their best chance of protection now lies with President Assad and his Russian backers Tunisians are celebrating on the streets of the capital as exit polls predict a landslide victory for the independent candidate that carries Saeed in the presidential runoff election jubilant supporters of gathered in central Tunis to sing and wave flags meant to side the former law professor campaigned on what he called the values of the Arab Spring uprising he thanked young people for his victory and promised to build a new Tunisia. The old what today we will attempt with all our strength to build a new Tunisia for the people came out in December of 2010 and January of 2011 to achieve by the statement This is what we want and today you will achieve what you want opposition parties in Hungary uniting behind a center left Challenger have managed to see the incumbent mayor of Budapest Ishta Vandeleur gag a carriage Shoney's win is being seen as a major defeat for the right wing prime minister Viktor Orban and his videos party which had backed Mr Tyler Nick thought reports from the Hungary in capital Gehrig a car Chinee are told 44 year old political scientist is the new mayor of Peter passed he won close to 51 percent of the vote ahead of its trend Talaash who trailed on 44 percent this is a surprise victory for 6 opposition parties ranged from left to right who put forward joint candidates across most of Hungary to challenge the domination of Victor or bands 3 days party in his victory speech getting a car attorney told cheering supporters that he would take you to past back to Europe and that the result was the 1st step in changing the whole of Hungary. Talks are begun between the government of Ecuador an indigenous groups aimed at ending almost 2 weeks of anti austerity protests there taking place behind closed doors in a school outside the capital Quito the discussions were delayed for a few hours over security as is and requests from indigenous groups that they should be broadcast live this is the world news from the b.b.c. Thousands of Haitians of marched through the streets of the capital Port au Prince to call for the resignation of President as you've never Modi's men and women wearing white dots to music blasting from trucks carrying sound systems Haitian opposition leaders and their supporters been calling for Mr Murray's to step down angry at fuel and food shortages sharp currency devaluation and corruption allegations he has denied wrongdoing. The e.u. Is chief negotiator on BRICs it will show Bernier has told diplomats that both sides had offered concessions on the contentious issue of the Irish border from Brussels is Adam Fleming Michel Barnier said he could rewrite the original backstop for the Irish border to clarify that Northern Ireland remains part of the U.K.'s customs territory in legal terms even if e.u. Customs procedures applied in practice the u.k. Solution is to track goods from Great Britain to determine if the end up in Ireland that's opposed by the e.u. Is unworkable but there's one area where Brussels seems to have softened they're prepared to keep talking until the eve of the summit of e.u. Leaders on Thursday despite saying previously a revised deal had to be ready a week in advance. Hunter Biden the son of former Vice President Joe Biden is stepping down from the board of a private equity company backed by China in a statement from his lawyer Mr Biden says he believed he acted appropriately in his business dealings in Ukraine and China President Trump called for China and Ukraine to investigate the Bidens earlier this month. The women's world marathon record been decisively broken by the Kenyan runner Bridget cuz guys she knocked more than a minute of the previous best time completing the Chicago Marathon in 2 hours 14 minutes and 4 seconds the previous record had been held for 16 years by the British athlete Paula Radcliffe b.b.c. News alone welcome to World Business Report I'm Phillip hamesha on the program today Poland's controversial Lauren Justice Party has increased its share of the vote and may take a parliamentary majority mama we have reasons to be happy was a if they got part there's no golf put on top because despite a strong front formed are going to just we managed to win and all signs point that it will stay like this. And as October 31st looms ever closer we explore the preparations companies in Arlon the making to cope with the uncertainty of what practice it may or may not offer. But let's start in Poland where exit polls show that the nationalist Lauren Justice Party increased its share of the vote enough to give it a majority in the lower house of parliament addressing his supporters the lore and Justice Party leader or welcome the early results started Bill our national woman or hue on d.v.d. Got our main strength credibility in keeping our word must last it could be more difficult in the 4 years that are ahead of us than it was during the 4 years behind us we need to keep up her credibility we need to make everyone have no doubts that what we are doing is both good real and responsible. Jaroslav Kaczynski there and he was very pleased that they took 43.6 percent of the vote which allowed them to thrash the next highest party in the country's civic coalition they only took 27.4 percent Law and Order also called the Pearce or p.r.i. S. Promoter a socially conservative nationalist agender and has clashed with the European Commission over migration and its attempts to gain more control over the judiciary so I spoke to the B.B.C.'s Warsaw correspondent Adam Easton and asked him what the atmosphere is like in the city tonight somewhat subdued in terms of the immediate reaction in the party of the governing law and Justice Party its leader yes rocketing Ziggy his tone wasn't as celebrate Sharee as the exit poll would seem because that exit poll of course gave his party the largest share of votes 43.6 percent I think that's no party has won a higher percentage of votes since communism ended in 1930 years ago and their share and their share of the vote has been going up in each of the elections that they've heard certainly in the last 2 and that is also a fact I think that he is no longer the public face of the party he is still the leader of the party but actually the prime minister and the press. Wouldn't that he hand-picked were younger more moderate faces of law and justice Mr Kaczynski himself lost about 7 or 8 elections in a row until he did that but it's certainly true in this election I think was that vote is repaid their faith in the fact that his party made concrete electoral promises many of them to do with the economic sphere such as a very general swell fair benefits program that's child benefits that's also higher pensions free medicines for senior citizens abolishing income tax for almost all 100 people under the under $26.00 raising the minimum wage because it actually carried out many of those promises that it made in the previous campaign people have given it a vote of trust come here food all of these promises that he's made up until this point yes there's some skepticism about the minimum wage whether that can actually if they can raise it that high to almost double that that would make it one of the highest minimum wages in Europe that will clearly have an impact on inflation clearly have an impact on wages make it very difficult I think for certain sectors such as restaurant sectors hotel sector there was a lot of skepticism about the previous level of promises and most of those have been carried out that is because long just as has presided over a period has been lucky enough to preside over a period of pretty impressive economic growth about run about 5 percent per year and also that it has improved one thing it's done differently it's actually be proved v.a. T. Collection and clamp down on the 80 invaders somehow the other political parties responding to their inability to p.i. Us not very well open to this point if in brief the main opposition party which is . No the Civic Platform in these elections rejoined a splinter party that broke away some years ago and big name itself civic coalition said to write more liberal more socially liberal and also more liberal in terms of economic policy generally speaking but it has apart from you know banging there were more pro Europe of the P.I.A.'s piece it's acronym in Polish law and justice is turning goes towards all for a Terran ism and telling us towards the the east we want Poland to be in the heart of Europe it failed miserably to actually present a coherent vision of what it wanted apart from that that we're and P.I.A.'s the Polish government has had large amount of negative press internationally speaking for some of the what it would call reforms of its justice system and various other parts of the economy which the European Union has looked and said Hang on a 2nd this is getting a little bit too or Thora Tarion for us so clearly that hasn't been decisive even that wasn't decisive clearly and I think economic issues and the welfare program proved to be much more important and also socially conservative values traditional Roman Catholic values it's fair to say that Poland relatively speaking to west in many Western European countries in the u.s. For example is more socially conservative when it comes to gay marriage when it comes to abortion so peace embodies that traditional Roman Catholic teaching and I think that still has an impressive electorate in Poland and I'm Eastern in Warsaw. That sound is the famous countdown clock from the long running British came sure the same name it's also sound the mate will be ringing prime minister promised Johnson's ears as we count down to the October 31st breaks it date frantic negotiations Mick. With frantic obstinacy as all sides try to hammer out a deal or not as to their political leanings from Mr Boris Johnson has said that he can see a way forward to reaching a deal with the European Union in all of our interests his words not mine before BRICs it is due to happen but he also warned his cabinet that there was still again his words a significant amount of work to do none of this helps real people. Those who are not just those who are in the u.k. But also those elsewhere in the European Union who may be affected Allison cows or is the co-founder of East Coast biscuits and daughter in law of Republic of Ireland and she's been trying to prepare for breaks it including the challenges of getting commodities like flour from the u.k. Different food regulations supply chains across from France to Britain Arland and then go back again to tell me more like most businesses are dealing with the u.k. And in Ireland we have to really look at our entire supply chain we're in the food business the company has these cars because so we're manufacturing biscuits so for example we're taking our flour in from the u.k. The flour this produced in Ireland is that we produce here is and it's unsuitable for Biscuit Flour so we would source our flying from the mill in the u.k. Our sugar is actually coming in via the u.k. Into into into Cork we think we might be able to divert that to 2 European supplier and that would be good our chocolates coming in from France were Ok on that but much of the rest of the products that we're using within our operation are coming via either the u.k. Or through the u.k. From Europe so we literally have to go back and trace the journey of every ingredient that we use We're producing 90 different recipes so you can imagine that means a lot of a lot of ingredients and it is a business person sitting with the team putting all that effort in and then trying to motivate people to make it happen and to do it well and then to sort of realize and of course the team realize you know we're hoping it's going to be a waste of time so that that is a very difficult and I have ready business to be and that is incredibly frustrating a very stressful for you there will be people at home though sitting there listening thinking why do you have to change British suppliers to European ones just because of the breaks a situation can't you just agree prices in advance or hedge or use some kind of contract or financial instrument to help you out here so there's 2 to pick 2 aspects of play here so the 1st is the current. See we've seen the. The volatility of sterling as as it's been over the last number of years now so that's that that brings a lot of uncertainty the business but the main issue really is around tariffs so the tariffs that will come in on flour coming into Ireland from the u.k. If they're to be placed at w.t.r. Levels and that's all we can bank on at the moment because if there's no deal which is what the worst case scenario is it would be tariffs I mean we would take in a number of tankers that you know the very large tankers you see on the road similar to petrol tankers and we take in bulk supply of those clearly is not petrol it's flour for each one of those that comes through our factory gate to to begin the process of baking we would be charging additional for a half 1000 euro in tariffs so that's the real reason why we have to start looking at mitigating our supply chain that's an absolutely enormous increase in tariffs that what what would you like to see happen from here clearly the business aspect is hugely important for our economy as we'll have a major shock if her heart breaks it happens in fact our budget has just been announced foreign minister for finance this week and he presented it as a as a Briggs a budget and in the context of very little money to spend but the 2nd aspect which is equally important perhaps more so in the context of history is the requirement to maintain a frictionless trade on the island of Ireland and no border you know we need no customs on checks on the island of Ireland and we also need no tariffs because that tariff situation I think will be very damaging for our economy will equally be damaging for the u.k. Economy and. Work both ways so not only our flour and other products coming in will be subject to tariffs but our product going into the u.k. And we sell about 50 percent of our output to the u.k. If we could get to a transition period with an agreement that that sees an agreement to to continue as it is in terms of trade. That would be a huge step forward Alison Kauser co-founder of East Coast biscuits they're the biggest u.s. Banks are expected to kick off the ending season this week on a sour note due to falling interest rates central banks have been cutting their rates they've made it harder for banks to make money from the difference between what they charge bottle was and what they pay out to save as it may all be enough to cause the sector's 1st year on year ending Special Ed Klein in a brown 3 years so choose day brings the 3rd quarter profits from Citi Group Wells Fargo and j.p. Morgan Chase Goldman Sachs and Bank of America they'll be coming out with their profits on when state so I asked independent economist Michael Hughes to explain a little bit more it's quite likely that the large banks that are reporting this week will record a quarter on quarter and indeed a year on year decline in their own ings which will be the 1st such decline since 2016 but it looks inevitable that the net interest margin are bound to be squeezed when you've had the Fed cutting interest rates in July and again in September of banks generally a leading indicator for the economy or a lagging indicator for it because it could go either way given that they're loaning out to businesses and to consumers it is I think it lot depends on the statements that they company these figures because if you start to see default rates going up if you start to see problems within the housing market then those can be lead indicators of worse things to come for the economy as a whole law which the mortgage side of the equation looks pretty buoyant because people are able to refinance their mortgage at quite low long term interest rates so mortgage activity and housing activity generally doesn't look too worrisome as yet but the default rates for companies and indeed for small businesses is something that would be quite sensitive for the markets to understand and if there are any negative comments about that that I think that would be taken very badly for the market as a whole something. You also keeping an eye on is global trade balances we have the World Bank and indeed the i.m.f. Meetings this week and they come out with updated economic forecasts for the next 2 or 3 years or so and one of the things which I think will stand out is that the current account imbalances that. Have been quite large in years gone by I'm a very large if you go back to the financial crisis of 2007 and 8 when you had a current account surplus is of 10 percent in China and very large surpluses in Japan but you have deficits now the parts of the world those differences in current accounts are usually a indicator of pressures within the financial sector and so the fact that the forecasts that I suspect we will see this week will suggest that those imbalances have reduced substantially and indeed are likely to reduce further implies that the risk of great major financial crises in the year or 2 ahead may not be as big as some might have been fearing and indeed the markets clearly have been concerned not just by the fall in banking earnings but also on potential financial risks that may be coming into the system is why the ratings in the stock market or something like 30 percent lower than the stock market as a whole so those sensitivities may actually be eased somewhat if we start to see better economic news ahead independent economist Michael Hughes John is president Xi Jinping is issued a stern warning against dissenters protests continue in Hong Kong saying that any attempt to divide China will end in and these are his exact words crushed bodies and shouted bones the strong words have sent a shiver through the international media in the situation in the territory of is of course having a knock on effect on its economy Hong Kong to be tell sector is heavily reliant on tourism for instance and flight bookings to the city have collapsed I spoke to Jamison Wong. He's Asia Pacific business development director of travel consultancy forward we have seen you know remarkable impacts that has stemmed from the the protests we are tracking a drop of 53.3 percent of mainland Chinese travelers between the 1st of July and the 20th of September we also tracking a decrease of 58.2 percent in terms of for bookings for travel between 24th of September and to the 30th of. Now you mentioned the a drop of more or less a 3rd from mainland China so Chinese people even are avoiding going to Hong Kong because of the current situation I mean it's not only limited to Chinese travelers . You know as a matter of fact we look at international travel to Hong Kong it's the same situation you know between the 1st of July and 23rd of September what we have seen is a minus 14.5 percent year over year growth while for bookings for travel. Between the 24th of September all the way through to the of the He's also currently minus 25.2 percent behind what does this mean for some of the airlines involved are they also getting hurt by this. You know d.l. Lines tourism businesses they have all been impacted by that but a protest one of the things that we've seen is that the airlines are hurting I mean that's that's that's that's no surprise so you see the shot impacts every day they're cutting fares just to get people to fly. Similarly on the longer term we also saw things starting to see the airlines cutting back on their capacity we've China Southern Airlines cutting their more seats now is or does it may seem some other places may be benefiting from this because well Hong Kong is a sort of retail tourism destination there are other ones in the region too are there any places that you see already beginning to pick up some of those lost tourists going to Hong Kong. Yes there is definitely displacement I could think of some of the usual suspects Japan Korea Thailand Singapore dollar with Thailand right now one of things that are happening is we. Have the appreciation of high but we're also starting to see. Travellers being pushed to some of the. Countries for example Cambodia Vietnam and Myanmar So you know we're starting to see displacement displacement from Hong Kong to the rest of the region Jebus and long before. There were diversity crops up more and more frequently these days and one of the professions has been slightly slower to respond is one close to the heart of world business report it's a columnist for those taking a levels in the u.k. That's the exams that hugely taken at 18 years old economics is chosen by fewer than one in 10 pupils and by boys correctly in excess of girls but a new push begins this week Professor Sarah Smith head of the School of Economics at the University of Bristol and chair of the royal economic society's women's committee told me if you look at who's studying economics then the future of economics is looking predominantly male and disproportionately privately educated so economics has been growing in popularity as an a level subject taken by about one in 10 students overall which is great but if you compare boys and girls one out of 6 boys studies economics and one out of 17 girls . Girls because it's not because the schools are offering it to the bullies or because the do silly to choosing it or because there were still quite a few schools that are either all boys schools or all girls' schools and so they just choose their subjects different That's right so there's sort of 2 reasons they want as you said you are more likely to be offered the subject at all boys' schools so state grammar schools for example 80 percent of all boys' schools offer economics and about 50 percent of girls school so you know obviously that might reflect what students are choosing but it's very much in economics that's for boys and not for girls and then also I Mean Girls in less likely to choose economics even where it is available so when you talk to them they're sort of basically just less interested in the subject which is fine everyone has to you know love economics but what we're concerned that they're making their decisions on the basis of not a very full understanding of what economics is about so most people don't run into economists in their everyday lives they aren't taught it certificate throughout the curriculum so they're making choices you know age 16 without necessarily really knowing what about the subject so if you if you are 15 to 17 year olds to say what's economics about they basically say it's about money so they have a very narrow understanding of economics is as a subject and I think that may well influence the choices that sort of boys and girls are making there what we want to do in the campaign is really give students a much broader you know a more realistic view of you know what economics is which is you know it's a social science subject it's about money but it's also about you know people making choices and those choices might relate to governments having to think about climate change or individuals thinking about employment or growth and development obesity you know really important issues and I think if we can convey this to suit and. Then you know I think it may be something that has much broader appeal than it currently seems to there is a challenge in offering economics there's a shortage is currently a shortage of economics teachers so if you want you can actually even train to be an economics teacher how do you get economics teachers to the gist of magically appear well so you can train as a business teacher or drug a few teachers so and then teach economics or you could be an economist who's trained as a math teacher and teach economics but it is challenging I think when you have economics taught in schools not necessarily by people who've been trying to teach economics with a campaign what we're going to try and do is really really bring you know a snapshot of economics into schools not you need to a level economics students but also students who are not doing a Konami might not have the opportunity to do economics but really you know get them to think whether economics might be might be interesting for them because students who do take economics go on to have among the highest financial returns of any degree subjects so it's this but not studying economics students are missing out on something which you know can lead to very well paid careers and also it's important because economists occupy so many keep positions of influence though there are economists in every single government department here revising on policy there economist at the Bank of England who are setting interest rates and shaping you know monetary policy in determining you know what's going to drive the macro economy you know because economists are in these very important positions of policy influence we think it's absolutely crucial that they reflect the society that they're trying to shape you know if we have economist advising governments on minimum wages on trade policy on climate change you know it's really important that those economists are reflecting you know all you know or all parts of society so we need women we need States good educated students we need ethnic minority students to be to be trained as economist so they can go on to help shape the country's future really. Professor Smith there at the University of Bristol Well that's all we have time for on this edition of World Business Report You've been listening to the latest business news and opinion you can find out more on the b.b.c. News website I feel about. Here on the b.b.c. World Service we explore a shared Di lemma does humankind have a God given dominion over the natural world that is the story that for the last 2500 years has shaped western thinking is man on moral duty for us to prevent animal suffering in life you are a human being but in the next life the dog or the cows are we here to cultivate and stew into the our climate forum is actually on our plates it's in the food industry as we witness the destructive impact of people on the environment for writers explore our attitude to other creatures continuing with journalist 3 Vidana if we know animals assented beings how can we ignore the ways they farmed and killed episode 3 the animals in the philosopher's Dominion at b.b.c. World Service dot com. You're with the b.b.c. World Service the science of action office we've been sucked into Nobel excitement but why wouldn't we when we get to hear about the strange way scientists stumble upon their prize winning discoveries from the beginning and never thought it would be a planet I really thought it was a bug somewhere something must be wrong could be the cause in it other stars it can be anything in a software but I was a big surprise and it ended up with is a fantastic discovery of the 1st planet orbiting a star planets bearings big and small salamanders and maze that starts in action in a moment. B.b.c. News with Stuart Mackintosh the Kurds of northern Syria say they've done a deal with President Assad's government in an attempt to stop the Turkish invasion of their territory the statement said the Syrian army would deploy along the border to help the Kurdish led Syrian democratic forces earlier the United States ordered the withdrawal of its remaining troops from the region to New Seasons are celebrating on the streets of the capital Tunis says exit polls predict a landslide victory for the independent candidate Chis side in the presidential runoff election Mr Saeed The former law professor campaigned on what he called the values of the Arab Spring uprising he's rival the media magnate Bill Karoly was only released from prison days before the vote opposition parties in Hungary uniting behind a center left Challenger have managed to unseat the incumbent mayor of Budapest van Talaash gave a carrick Shoney's win is being seen as a major defeat for the right wing prime minister Viktor Orban and he's fit as party which had backed Mr Turner last thousands of Haitians of March through the streets of the capital Port au Prince to call for the resignation of President no movies Haitian opposition leaders and their supporters have been calling for Mr Murray's to step down angry at fuel and food shortages the shop currency devaluation and corruption allegations talks have begun between the government of Ecuador and indigenous groups aimed at ending almost 2 weeks of anti austerity protests there taking place behind closed doors in a school outside the capital Quito the discussions were delayed for a few hours. Rescuers have been working through the night in Japan to try to reach people affected by floods and landslides triggered by Typhoon Haiyan this Japanese media reporting that 35 people were killed by the storm which brought wind speeds of over 200 kilometers an hour b.b.c. News welcome to Science in action from the b.b.c. World Service I'm really in peace it's that time of the year where we get to look back and take stock of breakthroughs that got us to where we are the week the Nobel Committee's in Sweden hand out their prices so I could I mean one of the obvious news that the last Hugo and Danny don't know Ben she me you me and something that John would be good enough am Stanley Whittingham aka i keep your chin up for the big league of elites You mean you win by 30 years and how salamanders may have the secret to fixing dodgy knees we searched for those same components that the Salamander has we looked at 3 of the top ones that a bunch of the different limb regenerating animals have and we have them too. Perplexed you should be over the 3 Nobel Prizes in science it was the ones for physics and chemistry that particularly caught my attention this week perhaps because they go with stories I've been following for many years it was back in the monkeys I was midway through in making a series on the planets which was going to end with speculation that planets orbiting other stars may be discovered within the decade when news came in from Geneva that 2 Swiss astronomers had just done that and 51 Pegasi b. Was not what Michelle my or his student d.d.a. Kello were expecting funny planet was not part of my Ph d. My Ph d. Was 2000000000 strong and that would later lower detections the big surprise is nobody would have expected we would find a planet orbiting a star in 4 days and. And then I kept focusing on that star trying to understand what was going on and try to find out what is a bug because from the beginning and never thought it would be a planet I really thought it was a bug somewhere something must be wrong could be because you need other stars you can be anything in the software but I was a big surprise and it ended up with this fantastic discovery of the 1st planet orbiting a star this story of da accidental discovery of exoplanets for me really tells you a lot about the nature of good science well in 94 we have the instrument ready because it's the beginning of the progress my supervisor felt all know that Germany is there so I can relax because going to take us to find the planet I can go in sabbatical so off we went to pick a nice place of wine so I went to i gave me the key of the instrument practically as you know to continue the program start the program and just have fun you couldn't believe for me it was great because it was the end of the ph d. And it was a way to get there and finally I've been working so hard for the instrument of the processing so it's fun I get my toy and I can play with it and then into law I start to observe the 1st time this famous $51.00 Peg and pretty early on something weird happened because all the stars are supposed to be stable because there is nothing of beating on the stars I mean or they are something may take some time to find it after a couple of measurements their star was not stable at all and this should not happen because when you start a program practically all the objects would be stable or there must be good reason why it's unstable so I start to focus on that start trying to find out why is the star not stable and I start to be scared as well because I had built instruments had designed the software and software was supposed to be good and I wasn't supposed to see a star that Barry's And of course I didn't say anything to Michelle if they've been too shameful I mean after 24 years working on the data and then you supposed to know what you're doing especially when you're supposed to have been you know I so just stay quiet and keep focusing on that stuff and every 2 months I used to go there and I think it became worse and worse because the star was about bringing all the reactions. One day I don't remember exactly when I decided Ok fine Batista Garry's So maybe it's real so let's try to figure out what exactly is going on and I'll be doing that in November and January until I get something which is pretty much stable and had a solution that would be fine and I say oh cool that's a planet if you complete the mass of the planet there would be half a tribute to and then I found secure enough to send an e-mail to my aunt who was a fax because an e-mail wasn't working that well at the time so it was a fax I sent with a graph and I said Michelle I think up on the planet Michelle fantastic answer oh yeah why not why not indeed Well partly because the system kilo male found was so unlike awesome the system this looked like a Jupiter but in a most Curie like orbit it's the way they demolished conventional ideas in astronomy makes this Nobel Prize so well deserved he is a planet hunter at least accounts and I got the really great thing it's like not just finding these planets and opening a whole new field of discovery new worlds you know everything but they also taught us that we're missing a piece of the puzzle in how a planetary system forms and we still know that the planets that are closest on where it's really really hot can only be made our rocks but planets can move they can migrate that was the missing piece because it didn't seem to happen in our solar system and we think it's because we have to 2 giant planets Jupiter and Saturn guarding against such movement but we see it in all other solicits And so the big gas ice ball still form far away from the hot star if it's a difference all of this them but then they can migrate inwards and they could throw planets out of 12 at it or the planets the smaller ones get formed later is that we finding this pot pourri or the diversity of planetary systems out there that open our eyes to how limited I would say a few words where we were just thinking about the same pool of one our own solar system and 2. Eyeing to deduce of course everything from that one sample we now have 4000 exoplanets you've contributed to that catalogue but it isn't just stamp collecting is it now I think the and mazing thing is in this thousands and thousands of planets that we've now confirmed going around other stars other suns we finding the 1st ones that are just the right distance and not too big so small enough to be a rock and to me that has the most fascinating thing to search for to figure out whether or not these could be habitable worlds and whether we are alone in the universe that's always been the obvious question in the moment. And may all found this thing we're all saying Ok where is the life that could be lost but there's more to your search than just looking for Life isn't there Oh absolutely but how do you understand the planet how do you figure out how and earth works how it Jupiter works how Saturn works right if you could find young earth young Jupiter is young Saturn's older Saturn's older earth you could piece together how our planet works how rocky planet works how a gas ball like Jupiter works and by looking at other solar systems and other planetary systems we can do exactly that we can have a glimpse into the future what's going to be in store for these planets and we can also figure out where they came from it basically tells us how our own planet and the ones that rounded evolved through time what's in that great glimpse of looking into the future and the past at the same time while just staring at the sky and you sort of I'm sort of slightly controversial question I have few which is that this in many ways for me is the least physics see of the physics prize in a long time it's very observational it's not physics like discovering microwave background of the universe but you think this has definitely got a place in the physics prize I think it definitely has because if you think. About planets they are in that it and this astrophysics environment made of stars made of microwave background made of all of this and the physics of how a planet works how an atmosphere works whether or not you can have life when something all of this is really fundamental in our understandings of physics these observations are also based on intrinsically complicated instruments on the physics of the movement of everything in the sky and so to me it's absolutely it's an astrophysics discovery and you know we might not have cool words like black holes and dark matter but we do have brave new worlds that there Lisa counts and I got director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University the physics prize this year was on it like there were 2 for the price of $1.00 both about outer space one of the tiny objects astronomers struggled to pinpoint but the other about the very creation of space the events of the Big Bang 14000000000 years ago astronomical observations that revealed the cosmic microwave afterglow of the Big Bang have been rewarded in the past and the ones that reveal the dark energy filling the cosmos but the intellectual framework was put together by cosmologists like Jim Peebles who's this year's 3rd laureate John eleven's book how the universe got its spots its title from those observations of the Big Bang Janet thanks for joining us. I have known of Jim peoples all my journalistic career but I've I've never interviewed him and I don't actually think I ever realized he was this important Yeah Jim is kind of an icon in cosmology he's revered really in the subject and loved he's just discovered of wonderful very tall very curious very engaged person so he's been incredibly influential to the field now a mention of those spots of the universe and this cosmic microwave background that was just. One of the ingredients that led him to his ideas about the Big Bang it's a pretty big ingredient it's true those spots are as subtle point so the universe began in this hot fiery primordial soup we don't exactly understand what caused the initial cascade but it was theorized by people like Jim peoples in the very beginning that that word that like oh it should still be around us this hot path of light although 14000000000 years years later would be very cool and he began to kind of. Consider how he might look for such a thing and he was kind of scooped in a funny way. Do you know about this. Well it is a fascinating story so back in the sixty's there was a group of scientists working for Bell Labs that were trying to get a clear radio signal and they were using these radio dishes and no matter where they looked they kept getting this this background detection and it wasn't coming it was in New Jersey it wasn't coming from New York City it was coming from the center of the galaxy it was literally everywhere this was Penzias and Wilson and they wrote a very conservative paper. After ruling out pigeon droppings where they were clearing out the pigeon droppings and shooting the pigeons away eventually rumors they actually had to shoot the pigeons and they deduced they could not find a terrestrial source for the signal and what they had done is inadvertently observed what some people have called the most important thing ever which is the light left over from the Big Bang and Bernie Burke who was an mit professor at the time said you know these guys like Jim Peebles have been talking about that they're trying to figure out a way to observe the light from the Big Bang maybe that's what you saw and they have a very conservative line at the end of their paper that this might have cosmological significance So you're saying. People could have even won the prize alongside them . Well yes so the. They won the Nobel Prize the serious student but they had an incredible prediction of how hot the light would be that we're very close and of course since it's one of the most important observations we've ever made in the universe that we are surrounded in every direction by the light left over from the Big Bang and the spots in the talk of your book those were sort of discovered later on then they sort of saw imperfections in this watch of radio waves Yes And Jim was really instrumental in thinking about that in understanding that these tiny tiny variations in hot and cold spots in the light actually are like an archaeological record of the universe they kind of have fossil imprints in some sense of the shape and size of the universe and and that one could extract details about the large scale structure of cosmologists just by looking at these tiny tiny hot and cold spots and they're sort of the birth point all of. I never quite know how to put this but you know as it were the fact that we have galaxies and stars can be sort of traced back to these tiny tiny imperfections Yes we're really following the entire evolution of the past 14000000000 years by looking from this light left over from the Big Bang to the galaxy formation and you're even able to do some things like there's dark matter by looking at these fossil records and that's a really interesting thing I looked back at some papers Jim peoples and others who wrote from h. When I was back there 30 years ago and what's interesting for me was at that point so much was open about you know whether you have dark energy what the dark matter could be doing and so on and yet in a sense that roadmap that he was lying out worked perfectly in fact back then it was probably a very unpopular idea I mean dark matter and dark energy as constituents of the universe were only widely accepted fairly recently passed you know 2030 years and back when Jim was exploring this he was so open minded and so open to what the universe was telling him that he took it much more seriously than others did and that was also allowed him to keep forging ahead when other people thought it was a dead end and there's one other aspect of his work I talked about ingredients another ingredient for the recipe that he helped him understand the Big Bang was the way that the elements were formed and you could actually work out as it were the temperature of the in the density of the stuff that was originally there in the Big Bang Yeah. And that's I guess one of the important things about going nucleosynthesis is that it was able to predict the most abundant things like hydrogen and helium and also a very accurate prediction of trace elements like lithium tiny little bit in that huge span was an indicator that they were really on to something thanks very much Yanna. Now that lithium created in the Big Bang makes an interesting link to the chemistry prize because. It is those a 14000000000 year old atoms none of been made since that power our portable electronics and our electrical cars it's all too easy to take lithium ion batteries for granted but taming the chemistry of lithium so it could be bottled up in a cell was no easy matter which is why 3 pioneering chemists were picked out for the Nobel one of them drunk good enough was on science in action last year after I visited his Texas lab where he still works and I did a the I didn't know what you were going to be years ago to be able to do with the battery that we provided. Though I don't know what the car motive actors or the harvesters or the for most other going to do I just take one day at a time. After all at 95 how much more can you expect. Up up up up 97 John Good enough is reportedly the oldest laureate to be recognized by the Swedish Committee among those in or of his contributions and those of the other 2 laureates is Clegg grey of the Family Institute and she was about to have dinner with John when I caught up with her the lithium ion battery takes 2 materials that you make there in the thumb anomic States and then you charge and discharge the battery and you make these highly reactive forms of oxidized Living Color dockside reduced graphite it's only because the whole chemistry works that this thing works for the years that we need for the cations So all of that had to be optimized as well as a huge amount of material science it goes into science I mean chemistry and physics and Angie and engineering rather Yeah no they absolutely do and I think that the neighbor prize chose 3 people who did some wonderful transformative science but then it was that community that come together to get all the other bits to work and so that it was them sort of put together by Sony who took the. Back to light and combine the cell together I talked to John a bit about this when I met him is a huge delay given the way the technology is developed but his work was the early eighty's you're seen as if it was mid eighty's and Sony $91.00 but it was probably around a suspect 2000 that most of us started to get lithium ion batteries in our pockets I think it was coming in early a member this only developed the with him about for the camcorder because that was the power it was the Kano yet it was the kind that was the power hungry device that needed that you always for going away to many primary batteries and so that was what them motivated in like 20 x. Company to actually do the engineering to put to get the South together because they needed it and so it was that sort of coupling with the the portables industry that enabled the investment to create that batteries or the pantry companies like the graphics and Duracell's you know that wasn't part of their business model everybody else was blind when I gave buy stuff for fabricating a discharge battery the battery companies in Europe ignorant of America said well for you doing forget it it's not interesting. It but so happened that there was a Japanese chap who was aware that they were looking at carbon they said well yes I can use a river the carbon as a discharge arrow did I can take a good movie just charge cathode it up altogether the way the 1st lithium ion battery so so the corporation that. We've got something to work with and develop a product so the lithium ion battery was really responsible for the portable electronics revolution without the battery I would only you wouldn't have a small phone it wouldn't have the whole way that we communicate globally and we just rely on being able to look at devices we wouldn't have batteries for Internet of Things senses and said there are so many applications but it's also what's exciting is that connection with the global issues like now the move towards electrification making big a bachelors for cars even bigger batteries for quick storage and so that's also a strong message that the Nobel Prize gives that we need to do the really good chemistry in order to make the changes possible to enable these devices one thing which are to form and I spoke to John because he felt that it was a new job a very harshly Dom and he's much more ambitious for what can be done with batteries in the future I agree because the challenge of making a battery that is the size of this room this cavernous room that we're sitting in is phenomenal so how do you take something that's the size of a little double a battery and scale it up and that requires chemists and engine is a material scientist and thinking about ways that we do in a sustainable fashion if we're going to have monster batteries for the grid they can be Coble based difficult to last longer so how do we shut down all of these tight reactions that would kill a typical battery and it's something that involves everybody it's not just one person sitting in the lab possibly like it was done. 30 years given the lithium ion battery has demonstrated that that's what we need to do so if you're listening to songs in action on your phone or tablet raise a glass to Stanley which again Acura Yes You know John good enough but also to Clay Grey he still looking for the next breakthrough and lastly salamanders nice and dinosaurs I learned this week that the oldest known disease is osteoarthritis apparently science has been found in dinosaur fossils now our flesh heals if it's injured but the cartilage that lubricates the joints doesn't get repaired in the same way and wear and tear eventually gives way to debilitating and deeply painful stiffness though Virginia Kraus and her team at Duke University of discovered some cartilage does have some capacity for re growth and for the salamanders be patient the traditional thinking has been that cartilage is like a monolithic structure it's all rock it just sits there and it just wears away over time with age and we do know that people get increasing amounts of this kind of arthritis austere arthritis with age but it turns out that deep down in the cartilage the cartilage is that all the different sites in the body are quite different even though they share a lot of similar constituents they're different and what we discovered was that their natural repairability also differs according to what the joint site location is does that mean that in some joints the Copley sort of more youthful than elsewhere exactly I like to think of the ankle cartilage as a house that's under constant refurbishment whereas the hip the hip cartilage is like a house that is sort of derelict nobody has been taking care of the plumbing the electrical circuits the roofing and the knee is somewhere in between and so this all has to do with a repair process that it turns out is no. Actually occurring in these different joints at different rates according to the location of the joint is this way your work connects to sell Amanda's it is so we wracked our brains for a couple of years trying to figure out Ok it's amazing number one that there is this repair response but why is it differing according to the locations and why is it the best at the ankle and why is it that you hardly ever see really severe ankle arthritis and so that's when we started thinking about the Salamander and a couple of years ago an inspiring paper came out that showed that there are these particular types of molecules called micro r.n.a. These very small molecules that we have a couple 1000 different ones that are master regulators of all kinds of processes and they were able to pinpoint some of these that seem to be shared across all the animals that are able to regenerate their limbs so that got us thinking Wow Could it possibly be that that same mechanism is somehow playing a role not a full role because we don't you know regenerate a limb and people but could it be playing some role here because we know that the salamanders are able to regenerate their feet better than they can regenerate their elbows or their shoulders or their hips Is it too crude to say that if you drilled into Mali ankles you might find some of these micro are amazed that you also find salamanders of ironically so when we searched for those same components that the Salamander has these micro are they we looked at the 3 of the top ones that a bunch of the different limb regenerating animals have and we have them too but it would be different for example in my knee or hip Yes so there's less in your knees and even less in your hips of the ankles have more of them than these other 2. You cite do you know what these micro R.N.A.'s do I mean it's I think them these are tiny little sort of messenger molecules that turn on or turn all of the genetic and protein processes but what is really hard to catch Get your head around is the fact that micro Arnie's tend to turn things off so why would something that turns off a process even be thought of as being involved with regeneration it turns out that they turn off things that are turning off for a generation is like saying that break cables Exactly so the you do find these micro R.N.A.'s in people we do produce them and if they were working at full steam then we might not get so much I'll also authorized this and possibly if they were working at whatever steam they've got right now we might have osteoarthritis one or a couple of years old Ah so what's the next step I'm not quite sure what you do with this kind of knowledge because if we're not making them there's presumably good reason we're not making them it's probably just an evolutionary holdover that we do not making them at the hip because you know an animal that maybe trying to escape a predator or if the foot gets chewed off you know they can regenerate that and live to run another day whereas if they get chewed off all the way up the limb maybe they're going to bleed and they're not going to survive so there has been an evolutionary selection for trying to regenerate as well as you can the end parts of the limbs the end part of the tail so you can escape but still survive so it's probably just a consequence of that biology that we've inherited at least part of it and so we think that with this knowledge and a new way of thinking and a new paradigm that there's a possibility for a repair using natural components that simplistically these things could be injected into the joint to actually boost. Repair natural repair when you need it like after a bad injury or as you're aging in there are signs coming on that you're developing this process for journey across the details of those investigations were published this week in Science advances there's a link to that only song selection web page which is b.b.c. World Service dot com You can also find links to prosecutions and the podcasts that I'm running please the producers Julian Siddle and we'll both be back next week now on the b.b.c. World Service our investigation into the global trade and selling citizenship continues event to watch a passport office visa free travel to $125.00 countries the typical use case is a wealthy Chinese individual $155000.00 will hear from those born against the country's controversial passports passports to paradise at b.b.c. World Service dot com slash documentaries. And in 30 minutes health check with Claudia Hammond Today we hear about the women who lost slapped punched or shouted out by medical staff when they're giving birth and more on the part of a woman's body which doesn't often get openly discussed the vagina this time what group will stick you with its nice with its name on the b.b.c. World Service the world's media station. B.b.c. World Service It's 1 o'clock g.m.t. This is all of a convoy with the news from Kurdish forces in northern Syria say President Assad has agreed to send the Syrian army to stop the Turkish invasion as a 1000 u.s. Troops leave what does this mean for the balance of forces in the area the windows out of this look like green Islamic state group and the government also on the newsroom Hungary an opposition wins control of the capital Budapest the 1st election setback for the nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban an English woman beats the Scots at their own game being crowned champion porridge maker and women specially came out to see this fairy tale of Princess Prince William and Princess Kate were also receive a very enthusiastic reception in Pakistan following in the footsteps of Diana Princess of Wales that you can Duchess of Cambridge visit Pakistan 1st a round up of our top stories. Nooners with the b.b.c. News the Kurds of northern Syria say they have done a deal with President Assad's government in attempts to stop the Turkish invasion of their territory a statement said the Syrian army would deploy along the border to help the Kurdish led Syrian democratic forces earlier the United States ordered its remaining troops to withdraw Chris Buckley is in Washington having made the decision to leave northern Syria United States is wasting no time it wants the majority of its troops withdrawn in days rather than weeks the Pentagon appears increasingly concerned that American soldiers could get caught in the middle of a fight and Syria descends further into instability Turkish forces are moving deeper into the country than the us expected and on the ground alliances are shifting the Kurdish led s.d.f. Which once kind of America as an ally says it's not reached an agreement with the Damascus government to work with the Syrian army against Turkey at the border between the countries to museums are celebrating on the streets of the capital as exit polls predict a landslide victory for the independent candidate carries sunny day in the presidential runoff election was designed to form a law professor campaigned in what he called the values of the Arab Spring uprising he thanked young people for his victory and promised to build a new Tunisia opposition parties in Hungary uniting behind a center left Challenger have managed to unseat the incumbent mayor of Budapest is one Talos get a gay culture Sean says when is being seen as a major defeat for the right.