Series 5: Prog 16: 26/07/09

This week, we hear about the importance of fungi from a Cardiff mycologist. There's news of the biggest telescope in Wales, which has recently arrived in Powys. We discuss Google's plans to bring out an operating system for home computers. There's also a trip to Techniquest in Wrexham.

Fungi to be with

Martha Crockatt who is a research associate in the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University, recently dressed up as a mushroom and spent an hour on the famous empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, which is currently being occupied by members of the public, who are being given one hour to make their mark. Martha decided to use her hour - which was at 3 o'clock in the morning during heavy rain, to promote the importance of fungi. She talks to Adam about the often underrated role of fungi.

Google plans

Technology journalist Bill Thompson joins the programme to discuss the plans that have been announced by Google to launch their own operating system next year. Bill discusses how much of an impact this may have on home computing and how Google Chrome will differ from Microsoft Windows.

Sporty science

Adam visits Techniquest at Glyndŵr University in Wrexham to hear about their "Sporting science" series of events for the Summer holidays.

Big telescope

Jay Tate of the Spaceguard Centre in Powys tells us about the recent acquisition of the biggest telescope in Wales, which will be used eventually as part of the search for potentially dangerous near Earth objects.

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