The Sun is the hardest place in the Solar System to reach. But by the time the next edition of Science in Action is on air, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will have swooped through the scorching corona layer of the Sun, re-emerged, and be readying itself to relay the details of magnetic fields and particle storms to the team. NASA Helioscience deputy manager, Nicky Rayl, reveals all about the mission and explains why the Parker Probe’s future looks bright.

And a trip half a billion years back - and then some - to the dawn of complex life here on Earth. Microfossil hunter Shuhai Xiao, from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, has been compiling a single statistical database to better understand evolution during the so-called ‘boring billion’, why subsequent changes on the planet triggered a new diversity of species to emerge, and how the interplay between biology and geology has paved the way for modern life as we know it.

Presenter: Roland Pease

Producer: Alex Mansfield

Assistant Producer: William Hornbrook

Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: Solar Activity Captured in H-Alpha Filter. Credit: Manuel Romano/NurPhoto via Getty Images.)