Gold, storms and dinosaurs

In this podcast from the Planet Earth Online collection and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Richard Hollingham looks at where and how to find gold while Sue Nelson finds out why weather forecasters still struggle to predict sudden, violent summer storms. Other reports discover why scientists may be a step closer to getting rid of the American mink from the Outer Hebrides and how to run away from a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Banks may have collapsed, shares plummeted and currencies faltered over the last couple of years, but gold has recently reached its highest value ever. As well as going gold-panning, Richard visits Northern Ireland's only gold mine and finds out why there's such a market for Northern Irish gold. Also, Sue Nelson meets cloud expert Dr Andrew Russell from the University of Manchester. Andy talks about the work he is doing to make forecasting storms easier. Finally, the reporters find out what scientists are doing to understand why some Antarctic penguin colonies are growing, while others are declining. This podcast is dated 11 January 2010. NERC is a part of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) partnership of research councils.