The Naked Scientists Podcast
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In the news, scientists seeking to make measuring animal welfare a top priority on farms. Machines seeing the original chemicals in the bodies of fossilised animals. And why superglue might be the key to superior plastic recycling. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
The UN high seas treaty hopes to turn the tide on the biodiversity crisis in the ocean. Will it work, and will protecting 30% of the high seas be sufficient? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
How doctors in the US have "cured" a woman with HIV, does Venus have volcanoes? Reexamining 30 year old probe footage has got scientists wondering, and signs that an artificial sweetener can affect the immune system... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
What happens when you put a space scientist interested in looking for alien life, a geologist studying some of the earliest life on Earth, a psychologist, and a linguist in a radio studio? Well hopefully a really interesting conversation and answers to some of science's - and your - big questions, because that's the line up for our Naked Scientists "ask us anything" QnA call-in this week: you supply the questions and we'll provide the answers. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
Take a daily brisk walk and take 25% off your mortality rate, the northern - and southern - lights and why they've been so pronounced of late, and have scientists discovered the world's first Roman sex toy? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
The news is awash with the destructive side of these geological processes, but are there aspects of these events that can help us learn more about our planet's inner workings? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
Are we any closer to a contraceptive for men, will a 4 day work week pay for itself, and how cretaceous caterpillars helped scientists work out when plants first opened and closed their leaves... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
Today, we're asking whether UK science minister George Freeman's ambition of an operational fusion energy plant by 2040 is realistic. Scientists have their say as to whether or not this possible and, if not, when we can expect to see fusion on grid... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
In the news this week, a UK toddler with a rare genetic disease is saved by gene therapy: we explain how it works. Cockatoos wow scientists by taking a toolkit along to solve a problem. And a 55 million year old penguin fossil... And it's a whopper that weighed in at 150 kilos! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
With over a billion birds dead and signs that the influenza virus is now spreading among mammalian species in the wild, are we at risk of another pandemic, just as we thought Covid was over? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
As Turkey battles against the clock to find survivors of the recent Earthquake there, we look at what triggered the magnitude 7.8 quake. Also, how modern day codebreakers have unlocked secret correspondence penned by Mary Queen of Scots from exile in the 1500s, and the overlooked threat of indoor air pollution: we worry about what we breath in on the streets but we're potentially encountering air just as bad in our own homes... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
Scientists and governments are working together to turn farming, one of the foremost causes of global emissions, into a future-proof industry. We'll hear about the UK governments new sustainable farming scheme which rewards farmers for eco-friendly practices, scientists working on reducing reliance on harmful and costly fertilisers for grain crops, and the food formed of microbes which might soon feature on supermarket shelves... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
Brain implants grown in a lab wire themselves into the nervous system. Artificial intelligence joins the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. We take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch 2023. And are sugar taxes actually effective ways to fight the obesity epidemic Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
Much of our daily lives is made possible by the placement of objects orbiting our planet. From GPS, to weather forecasts, even your bank's ATM wouldn't be able to function without a timecode from space confirming when your transaction took place. So we're going to explore whether the increasing numbers of satellites up there is a problem, how we can use them to spot potential disease outbreaks before they even happen; why space weather is a threat, and even how one company are planning to forge metals aboard satellites and make things in microgravity for use back here on Earth! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
The plan to pay people to dial down their electricity use, the bacteria eating plastic in the ocean, and why antidepressants make it harder for users to enjoy themselves. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
We first chatted ChatGPT last month, and have since been keeping an eye on the incredible ways it's been responding to users from across the world. This week, we consider the implications of this very powerful tool that has just landed in the hands of pretty much everyone, and whether we should be excited or concerned by the prospect it might become even more powerful... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
How hair follicles might hold the key to reversing scars, but not just in skin: in hearts and other organs too. Also, scientists crack how to grow new brain cells in the laboratory dish. And what a mutant from millions of years ago is revealing about how ancient animals mated... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
It's that time of the year where we traditionally make - and usually break - resolutions to eat less, drink less, lose weight, give up meat and take up exercise during the year ahead. And in the decade since 2013, thousands of people have also been signing up for "Dry January". Last year 130,000 people in the UK elected to stop drinking alcohol for a month. So we thought this week we'd look at our long term love affair with the bottle, from how the practice of brewing began back in history, to the health harms and benefits of drinking today, and how scientists are now working on synthetic... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
The artificial pancreas to turnaround diabetes control, what went wrong with the UK's first space launch, and the Cambridge-born process that can turn CO2 and waste plastic into fuels and valuable chemical raw materials... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
How stars burn for billions of years. Can Rishi Sunak turn us into a nation of mathematicians? And how misinformation changes the shape of our brains. Plus, there'll be our customary quiz at half time... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
We're looking back at 2022, a remarkable year for many reasons. Whilst it is easy to be consumed by stories of conflict, climate catastrophe, and disease outbreaks, it is still important to remember that this year has been another in stellar scientific breakthroughs, a fair few of which may well help us combat the aforementioned challenges. We hope to bring you some of the weird and wonderful discoveries that were made throughout the scientific community over the past 12 months. Everything from the James Webb telescope, to James Tytko falling into a river. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
We're taking a look at our planet's oceans, and seeing how and where the important work into studying our seas takes place, as well as finding out how the data collected by marine expeditions translates to research that informs our climate and conservation efforts. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
A landmark achievement: nuclear fusion experiments produce a net energy output - so what does this mean in practical terms. Also, glasses that soak up infrared to auto-demist. And how magnets are helping to solve a pollution problem on the London Underground... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
This week we've found ourselves attracted by the topic of magnetism; it's what makes it possible to generate and distribute electricity to our homes, or send messages and radio broadcasts over the airwaves; it underpins our ability to see inside the body with technologies like MRI scanners, and thanks to the fact that there's a massive magnetic field surrounding our planet, much of the radiation onslaught from space that would otherwise hit us is fended off, keeping the Earth habitable. That planetary magnetic field also provides us and animals with a way to navigate, and there are even... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
In the news, the old liver drug that turns out to be able to prevent Covid-19 infection, the artificial intelligence systems that pass the Turing test and can write their own computer programmes, and what bats and heavy metal singers have in common. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
Last month, we were told, the 8 billionth person was added to Earth's human population. But despite many acknowledging that some of the biggest threats facing us and the planet, like climate change - stem from our impact on world, and the more of us there are, the worse those threats will be, the topic of population is mysteriously absent from the dialogue at major international fora, like the recent COP27 meeting in Egypt. Surely "living sustainably" must include, as David Attenborough puts it, not over-running the planet and destroying it in the process?So how many people can, or should the... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
A new Alzheimer's drug shows some promise in trials, but are the risks from side effects worth it? A new contraceptive inspired by Roman history and shellfish... And the surprising discovery about ants that scientists missed for over a century... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
If you've recently applied for a job, you may have been asked to fill out a personality test. From banks and consultancy firms to fast-food outlets, they're increasingly being used as a way to improve efficiency and perceived fairness in recruitment.The most common tests used for these purposes are based on the so-called 'big 5' personality traits that psychologists have settled on as providing a good indication of just what makes us tick. Such personality tests take the form of a questionnaire in which the participant indicates their alignment with statements concerning human behaviour,... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
In the news this week, we hear about the novel approach to diagnosing diseases by looking at the chemical compounds in patients' breath, a new way of attacking viruses without damaging our cells, the potential for life on Mars, successful trials prescribing heat for health conditions, and what low frequncy noises we can't even hear can do for our propensity to dance... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
This week, it is time to put your questions to a panel of excellent experts in one of our Q&A shows! We are going to be investigating how we track disease outbreaks, why our ears go pop, and why neanderthal DNA makes some of us more susceptible to diseases like COVID. Plus, we have a science quiz based on the World Cup. See how you fare against our experts... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists https://www.thenakedscientists.com/donate
