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Insight, wit and analysis from writers around the world, introduced by Pascale Harter. In this edition:

The lurking peril of Chernobyl's pines
It was in 1986 that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. Two hundred thousand people were living in the 80 towns and villages around the plant when disaster struck. Today, just seven are inhabited – barely - and there's still an exclusion zone around the most affected spots.

In some respects, life is returning to the area, with agriculture and forestry affecting the look and feel of the landscape. But even these positive developments bring new risks of their own, as Patrick Evans found out on a recent visit.

The closest thing to Mars - on Earth
Pauline Davies has also been searching for signs of life, in the northern Atacama desert in Chile. She was travelling with other earth scientists, looking for microbes that survive some of the harshest conditions on the planet. And amid the natural wonders, what she found was that even some humans had made their homes there.

From political prisoners to amibitious young miners, people have been hard at work in this bare, arid land for decades - and some even prefer it to anywhere else.