This week Alok Jha meets the historian Dava Sobel, author of the worldwide bestseller Longitude to discuss her latest adventure into science history A More Perfect Heaven, How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. Alok and Dava discuss the little-explored relationship between Copernicus and his follower and friend Rheticus and how Copernicus deftly balanced his brilliant astronomical insights alongside his place within the Catholic church.
Guardian Science correspondent Ian Sample joins Alok to look at two of this week's big science news stories: an analysis of Australophithecus sediba in South Africa and why these early humanoid remains may be an important link in the evolution of Homo sapiens.
Ian and Alok also discuss a recent survey of attitudes to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.
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