{"podcast":{"title":"Oxford Sparks Big Questions","slug":"oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721","podcast_index_feed_id":420721,"rss_url":"https://oxfordsparks.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/2/2/c/f/22cf91023fb4a322/Big_Questions_Podcast_pink_HIGH_RES.jpg","author":"Fiona Jones","episode_count":100,"summary":"'Will my bacon sandwich kill me?', 'Is vaping better than smoking?', 'How do you become an astronaut?' - just some of the Big Questions we ask some of the brightest minds behind Oxford science. Join us in each podcast as we explore a different area of science.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-18T00:18:10.275517+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721"},"episode":{"title":"How can robots investigate underwater volcanoes?","slug":"how-can-robots-investigate-underwater-volcanoes","published_at":"2025-04-30T11:41:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/how-can-robots-investigate-underwater-volcanoes","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721","url":"https://oxfordsparks.libsyn.com/how-can-robots-investigate-underwater-volcanoes","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/oxfordsparks/OX-Santorini-v2.mp3?dest-id=790107","summary":"What do you do when the subject of your research lies deep beneath the waves? Send down an underwater robot, of course! We chat to volcanologist Sofia Della Sala about her recent fieldwork expedition to Santorini, where she used a Remotely Operated Vehicle, or ROV, to search for hydrothermal vents in the Aegean Sea. These vents - which are like hot springs on the sea floor - could provide vital insight into the volcanic and tectonic activity in the region.","meta_description":"What do you do when the subject of your research lies deep beneath the waves? Send down an underwater robot, of course! We chat to volcanologist Sofia Del…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":836,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/episodes/how-can-robots-investigate-underwater-volcanoes/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/oxford-sparks-big-questions-420721/how-can-robots-investigate-underwater-volcanoes.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}