Another month, another brilliant panel, another romp through your mind bending questions. Physicists Tony Padilla and Toby Wiseman, archaeologist Emma Pomeroy and educator Andrew Morris help Chris Smith explain whether electricity in our bodies is the same as in our houses, how we can detect the collision of 2 black holes from here on Earth, and why Graham's number doesn't bear thinking about too deeply... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists...
Aug 08, 2023•58 min•Ep. 968
This week, we're turning to the subject of hydrogen and its potential to play a role as a cleaner fuel in future. Could hydrogen be the answer to our energy conundrum? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Aug 01, 2023•30 min•Ep. 967
Sweltering temperatures wreak havoc across Europe and North America, so what needs to be done to bring them down? We hear from the Cambridge scientist who wants to create the largest ever DNA and health research programme for children and young people. And, did aliens crash-land on Mars? Strange pictures resembling a crash site have been circulating but is there a more mundane explanation? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists...
Jul 28, 2023•28 min•Ep. 966
It's been quite the ride in the realm of artifical intelligence over the past year or so. As impressive as advancements in machine learning have been, however, few experts are worried about bots taking our jobs and threatening our safety as a species. The truth is, tools like ChatGPT are not the way AI is going to prove most helpful in the short term. We scratch below the surface to explain how, with more carefully trained programmes, the real potential of chatbots can and is being unlocked... L...
Jul 25, 2023•30 min•Ep. 965
A new drug in the fight against Alzheimer's disease: how does it work? Plus, we'll also have the latest on measles cases in London, look at the calls to reset the lunar clock, and could algae help people who are seeking to increase vitamin B12 in their diet? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jul 21, 2023•28 min•Ep. 964
We'll be exploring depression, what causes it, and whether antidepressants or other treatments hold the key to solving it. Amongst our guests is psychologist Gordon Harold, speaking on how depression manifests in patients, and we'll also hear from psychiatrists on both sides of the antidepressant debate: Hamish McAllister Williams and Joanna Moncrieff. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jul 18, 2023•30 min•Ep. 963
The mercury rises as record temperatures are recorded across the world. But what's driving them? Also ahead: the sound of silence. We'll be finding out why scientists think it's not just the absence of noise, we can actually perceive it. Plus, the Cambridge students who are hoping to boldly go where no other amateur European rocket group has been before... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jul 14, 2023•28 min•Ep. 962
It's a Question and Answer special this week. You supply the questions and we pose them to a panel of expert guests. Joining us this time, biologist and author Tom Ireland, marine scientist Liberty Denman, chemistry writer Philip Broadwith, and comedien Rosie Wilby. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jul 11, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 961
This week, we're diving into the fight to save the planet's oceans. We're looking at how humans are responsible for the effects on our planet's oceans, but also perhaps lesser known strategies that are currently being employed to protect the sea and its inhabitants. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jul 04, 2023•31 min•Ep. 960
How an artificial-intelligence technology from Cambridge is helping cut cancer treatment waiting times, how the James Webb Space Telescope is shedding new light on the chemical building blocks of life, the universe and everything, and why Finland's become a hot spot for the world's computer scientists. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jun 30, 2023•32 min•Ep. 959
Many people don't recognise light pollution at night for what it is: pollution. Largely, we fail to see this harmful introduction into the environment because we have been conditioned to associated light with good and darkness with badness. It's time to change that. In this episode, we explore the various implications of artifical light at night and speak to the activists trying to put a stop to it. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists...
Jun 27, 2023•31 min•Ep. 958
In this week's show, we speak to a former navy commander about the Titan sub, do our decision-makers ignore evidence when making scientific policy? And the new telescope that is hoping to explore the dark side of the cosmos... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jun 23, 2023•28 min•Ep. 957
40 years since the identification of HIV, we look at where it came from, and how far are we from an effective vaccine... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jun 20, 2023•28 min•Ep. 956
The plan to beam-in solar power from space, ways to incentivise sharing trustworthy material on social media, and do ill fish run a fever like we do? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jun 16, 2023•28 min•Ep. 955
This time, we'll be taking a deep dive into the extra terrestrial...and exploring UFOs. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jun 13, 2023•28 min•Ep. 954
As the UK's Covid inquiry kicks off, will it help to transform how we tackle future pandemics? How an AI is writing its own computer code, speeding up the Internet; and using gene therapy for cat contraception. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jun 09, 2023•30 min•Ep. 953
Researchers around the world are naming a new kind of dinosaur every week on average at the moment - what's behind this golden age of palaeontology? We talk to scientists, museum staff and amateur fossil hunters to find out about some of the most recent breakthroughs in the field, including new techniques looking for fossilised DNA still present in the samples stored away in curators' collections... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists...
Jun 06, 2023•29 min•Ep. 952
Also in the news, boys vocalise more in their first year, NASA' holds a public meeting on the study of 'unitdentified aeriel phenomena', and what damage might a time traveller cause? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Jun 02, 2023•31 min•Ep. 951
This week, we're taking a closer look at allergies. What causes them, and what makes them so hard to cure? Along the way we find out what it's like to live with severe allergy, why the body has evolved such a self-destructive system in the first place, whether, as some claim, caesarian delivery is linked to allergy risk, and how scientists are working on ways to blind the immune system to the things we react to to prevent allergy symptoms in future... Like this podcast? Please help us by support...
May 30, 2023•26 min•Ep. 950
Are public health officials preparing to clampdown on the sale of dangerous vapes, the Russian scientists under arrest for treason, how researchers are homing in on why some of us are magnets for mosquitoes, and a very welcome floral addition to King's College, Cambridge... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
May 27, 2023•29 min•Ep. 949
Your questions are going under our microscope and we?ll be asking our guests to give their expert insight on a number of topics. Including, Why does asparagus make your wee smell? Could plastic eating worms help prevent pollution? And what?s going to happen to the International Space Station? Plus, there?ll be our customary quiz at half time. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
May 23, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 948
How do we remember things, why some people stuggle to remember their way around, and what does it take to be a memory world champion? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
May 16, 2023•27 min•Ep. 947
Scientists successfully test a promising vaccine for pancreatic cancer, why Japan is finally casting off its remaining Covid-19 restrictions, and we'll explore how a scientist is turning Yellowstone's geology into stunning music... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
May 14, 2023•30 min•Ep. 946
With the global power supply shifting towards renewables, the battery is fast becoming one of the most vital forms of power storage. So how did we get here, how do batteries still need to improve, and could we be flying in battery-powered airliners before long? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
May 09, 2023•28 min•Ep. 945
What should we make of claims that China is building super weapons to hack and hijack US satellites? Also, the new app to help midwives detect health conditions in newborns, and we hear from the couple who have discovered one of the world's most important fossil deposits, almost on our own doorstep! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
May 05, 2023•33 min•Ep. 944
How repeated bumps to the head in sport can add up to dementia later in life... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
May 02, 2023•29 min•Ep. 943
The doctor and broadcaster, Chris van Tulleken, on why ultra-processed food is making us fat and ill, the team that think they're close to cracking the male contraceptive pill, and the WHO's drive to get more people vaccinated. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Apr 28, 2023•31 min•Ep. 942
With 14 million new cases of diabetes each year being attributed to poor diet and half the worlds' population estimated to be overweight or obese by 2035, it's no wonder the UK's Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, claims the situation around these conditions presents one of 'the biggest future health challenges we face.' So why is it happening and what can be done to reverse these worrying trends? We find out what dieting does to your metabolism, and whether the effectivness of weight loss dru...
Apr 25, 2023•26 min•Ep. 941
In the news this week, Elon Musk's Starship experiences a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly', there's progress in developing a universal flu vaccine, and the sounds which might help your little one to fall asleep... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Apr 21, 2023•33 min•Ep. 940
Black holes are one of the most extreme things in the universe. Their gravitational pull is so strong, they can bend light and even time. So were you to find one and fall into it...what would happen? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Apr 18, 2023•30 min•Ep. 939
