BBC Inside Science - What can the UK learn from China on renewable energy?

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This week, renewables overtake coal as the world’s biggest source of electricity. China is leading the renewable charge despite its global reputation as a coal burning polluter. Zulfiqar Khan, Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University and Tsinghua University in Beijing and Furong Li, Professor in the department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath explain what China is getting right and what UK science can learn.

The 2025 Nobel Prize winners have just been announced. The prize for physics has been awarded “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.” But what does that mean? Science journalist and author Phil Ball explains how the winning quantum engineering experiments in the 1980s laid the groundwork for devise used in today’s quantum computers.

Comedian Josie Long finds escapism in extinct megafauna. She speaks to Marnie Chesterton about her new stand up tour ‘Now is the Time of Monsters’. And Managing Editor for the new Scientist Penny Sarchet brings us her pick of the week’s most important new scientific discoveries.

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Clare Salisbury Content Producer: Ella Hubber Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Published on Friday, 31st October 2025.

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