The Naked Scientists Podcast

This week, is there anybody out there? We're pushing at the boundaries of science in the search for ET. We take a magnifying glass to the big questions: what is life, where can we find it and could we ever communicate with it? Plus, the blood test that can tell you how long you'll take to recover from surgery, a new mussel-inspired glue that even works underwater and, 76 years after penicillin was first discovered, how scientists are combating antibiotic resistance Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, are we on the verge of being able to print a new kidney or liver? And will every home soon have a machine in it to make medicines so we don't need to head off to the chemist for a dose of antibiotics? This is the world of 3D printing and we'll show you what it promises to deliver... Plus, in the news, is fracking contaminating underground water or is it just leaky pipes? And a new breakthrough therapy for multiple sclerosis... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Have you been hacked? This week we examine the risks from public WiFi, why the Internet of Things is jeopardising the security of your home, the threats frequently lurking inside innocent-looking documents, what your mobile phone says to cybercriminals without your say-so and the new method of marketing: you compromise your competitor's website. Plus, in the news, an update on ebola, do bereaved people really die of a broken heart, and DNA points the finger at a Jack the Ripper suspect... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we're looking to nature to solve some of today's biggest problems - from climate change to water shortages. We hear how spiders hold the key to making the strongest material known to man and how insect ears have inspired the world's smallest microphone. Plus, why Bruce Willis might be making you fat, the Arctic ice sheets that are melting despite headlines to the contrary, and why thousands of languages are on the brink of extinction... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, we're exploring Nuclear Fusion, the power source of the sun. What is it and how can it help us on Earth? We visit the JET fusion facility to watch a test firing, we hear how lasers can be used to kickstart the process and how a new spherical fusion system could be outputting power within a decade. Plus, in the news, what lights up the Universe, how people are no smarter than pigeons when it comes to gambling and how the eyes can forewarn of forthcoming dementia... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Dr Chris Smith goes down under for this special report from New Zealand. In this podcast we discuss lasers that are helping us understand how molocules are formed, using viruses as antibiotics and the possibility of life on Mars. Plus, looking at video game therapy, where Ebola and HIV came from, and the world of bumblebee real estate. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we're talking about gene sequencing and how to keep that information safe. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The Naked Scientists have food on the brain this week, as we hear about how sound can affect taste, why our mood can be changed by what we eat, and we try out some unusual flavour combinations. And in the news; why grizzly bears may help us in the fight against diabetes, the comet chaser that has finally reached its target, and self-assembling origami robots... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, we hear how one of the brightest lights in the Universe is helping scientists to build better jet engines, fight off antibiotic resistant bacteria and read the biochemical make-up of long-dead dinosaurs. Plus, how fears and phobias can pass from parent to child in a smell, why first impressions really do count, and also the physics of being a lead guitarist... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week why whales get dandruff, what seabirds think of wind farms, the plight of coral reefs, we take a look at some giant sea spiders and look at water that can stay liquid below freezing temperature. Plus, we use science to perfect the recipe for a superior sandcastle... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Will wooly mammoths roam the tundra once more? This week we ask whether improvements in genetic technologies mean extinction is no longer the end, as well as meeting moss that came back to life after 2000 years buried in permafrost, and the million-year-old microbes lurking in the ice of Antarctica. Plus, news that our genes control who we make friends with, how fossil sea urchins hold the key to finding your lost car keys, and what ancient tooth plaque is revealing about the diets of our ancestors... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

We celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission by asking, should we return to the moon? We discover what scientific knowledge is still to be gained by going back, what robot missions are being planned as part of the Google Lunar X prize, and do commercial companies hold the key to funding research? Plus, in the news, the electronic lables that can be printed by inkjet, the genes which control how good you are at Maths, and can elephants cry? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Chimps use gestures, climate change stops fish finding friends, gut cells reprogrammed to make insulin, and people prefer shocks to thoughts! Plus Saddle Up! - we look at the science of cyling as the Tour de France comes to the UK, including seeing how long an amateur cyclist can sustain Tour de France speeds, hearing how the bike came by its spokes, and visiting a wind tunnel to learn about the art of aerodynamics... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

From levitating trains and humans to giant, climate-altering balloons, super-steels and earthquake-proof buildings, this month's live show panel reveal the latest advances in extreme engineering. Plus, we get engineering for ourselves, including taking a blowtorch to a paperclip to make metallurgy happen before your eyes... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

England might be out of the World Cup this week, but thousands of fans are still cheering their teams on across Brazil. But how does chanting change the behaviour of a football crowd? Why do free kicks and penalties still come down to good old physics? And how can economists use data from the pitch to see whether discrimination still exists in the beatuiful game? Plus, in the news, why scientists have blown up a mountain in Chile, why you could get addicted to sunshine, and are electronic cigarettes safe? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Alois Alzheimer, who described the first case of the disease now named after him, would have been 150 years old this week. But what have we discovered about the disease since he presented the first Alzheimer's case over 100 years ago? And how can fruit flies, arm hair and video games untangle the most significant threat to our generation? Plus, in the news, how making mosquitoes male could reduce malaria, protecting astronauts from solar radiation, and why is beetle sex a sticky situation... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Freeze Dried Blood! Every day the likes of probiotic "good" bacteria in yoghurts, and even the enzymes in washing powder, give us a helping hand. This week we investigate how scientists are designing new ways to protect and guard these tiny helpers, including new techniques to freeze-dry human blood. Plus, news of how sleep boosts learning, the effects of foetal nerve transplants for Parkinson's, tree-hugging koalas and why negative Facebook friends can make you moody. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Making brainwaves: from how babies' brains develop, to how children learn language and even unravelling the adolescent mind, this month's live show panel of guests walk us through how we learn to learn! Plus, popping balloons shows why teenagers take risks, and some practical tips to improve your short term memory Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

We often hear about amazing new medical developments which could improve disease treatment. But what about the ethical considerations involved in deciding how to use these advances? Hannah Critchlow and Ginny Smith discuss how we decide which drugs we can afford and what the limits are on designer babies. Plus how DJ's help get you in the groove, the risk of dengue fever at the World Cup, and how you can win the 10 million Longitude prize! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we investigate green clean ups. Can nature's recyclers, bacteria and fungi, help us clean up man-made environmental problems from oil spills to mining slag heaps? Plus in the news, how the Gemini Planet Imager is helping astronomers 'see' exoplanets, why pregnant women are at a higher risk of a car crash and why don't octopuses get tied up in knots? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we look at how our power grids are going to be transformed. From technology which hopes to reduce our energy prices to new ways to include wind and solar power in the grid. Plus, in the news, what Google have up their sleeve for their next smartphone, the proposed takeover of the UK pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, and why AM radio could be sending birds off course... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In front of a live audience at the Cambridge Science Centre, Chris Smith is joined by three paleontologists to discuss fascinating fossils! Alex Liu explains where the first animals evolved from, Stephanie Pierce describes how animals first crawled out of the oceans and Jon Tennant digs into how the dinosaurs died out. The team also answer questions like how big are fossilied spiders? Plus, Dave Ansell and Kate Lamble break down bones and discover how we know how fast dinosaurs ran... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

With the demand for new homes ever increasing, we ask what will the buildings of the future be like? Will new materials like bamboo or plastic take a bigger place in our houses? And how can we make our accommodation greener? Plus, in the news, the first model of all of Earth's ecosystems, what a 115 year old can tell us about aging, how to improve cochlear implants, and what happens if you try and stowaway on a plane... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In a special show from Cambridge and New Zealand, Hannah Critchlow investigates the research into Huntington's Disease. How has the search to correct a single gene enhanced our understanding of how the brain functions? How are sheep helping to unpick the pizzle of the human mind? Plus we visit a brain bank to find out how tissue donors are supporting the scientific research. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In this question and answer special, the Naked Scientists get stuck into your queries, like why are planets round? Why do we laugh when tickled? Does wearing glasses make your eyesight worse? And how many trees could offset carbon emissions? Plus, in the news, the app that could help you get over jet lag and the Heartbleed bug which could affect your internet security. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Bigger, better and longer lasting - this week we go in search of the battery technology that will power the future as well as consider the shortcomings of our present technologies. We also try to tune-in to our own broadcast on a radio powered by moss! Plus, in the news, the genetic switch for spinal nerve regeneration, the ocean deep inside Enceladus, young-smoking dads condemn their sons to adult obesity and why cereals make eye contact with you... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How handedness spans the scientific world, from the smallest particles in the Universe to the drugs that cure disease and even the way you hold a pen, goes under the microscope this week as we explore the realms of asymmetry. Plus, in the news, the world's first synthetic chromosome, the goo that stops bones breaking, is there a giant planet lurking beyond Pluto, aircraft black boxes and anti-aphrodisiacs... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

2014 is the Year of Code, with the UK even becoming the first major economy to introduce computer programming to the school timetable. This week we investigate why coding, and getting kids into computer science has become so important. Plus, in the news, why the estimated number of smells a human can detect has gone from 10,000 to a trillion, the astronomers who have detected primordial gravitational waves, and a new supercomputer, in Scotland... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Pit your wits against the combined brain power of the Naked Scientists, in this question and answer Special as the team try to find out the truth behind the age of the Milky Way? Whether plants die of old age, and how cats make their fur stand on end? Plus, in the news, contagious yawns, and how the number of takeaways on the way to work affects your risk of weight gain... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

With climate change expected to bring more bouts of extreme weather and longer periods of drought and flooding, this week we take a look at ways to turn the tide on the looming water crisis. Plus, in the news, the schoolboy who's become the youngest person yet to achieve nuclear fusion, the pedicure-inspired tags which are helping track turtles, the new gene therapy breakthrough for treating HIV and, what's worse for you, cigarettes, or sausages? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Robots are under examination this week. Engineer Blaise Thomson, from Vocal IQ, designs speech systems for smartphones, Neil Bargh builds robots for science labs, and Airbus systems engineer Paul Meacham, who is building the next rover that will explore Mars, join Chris Smith, Dave Ansell and Ginny Smith to pit their wits against the assembled Cambridge public, answering questions like how would the Mars rover fare in Robot Wars? Plus, we make a motor from scratch and find out what happens when we dunk electronic devices in liquid nitrogen... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Norovirus, the winter vomiting bug, affects 1 million people each year in the UK. But what is it, and how can you best protect yourself? Plus, in the news, how stress hormones depress the stock market, brain training that can improve vision on the baseball field, a new biological marker to diagnose those at risk of depression and artificial growth factors to speed up wound healing... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Should you raise your baby to be bilingual? Are video games rotting or rejuvenating children's brains? We find out! Plus in the news, personalised breast milk, modelling the brain with computers, how crude oil spills affect tuna and the next step towards nuclear fusion. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

UK Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts, becomes his own radio presenter; here, on a tour organised by the UK's Science and Innovation Network, he charts his meetings with scientists and entrepreneurs in Chicago, including discovering how researchers are trying to develop new batteries, he meets MIRA the Argonne supercomputer, attends a synthetic biology convention, talks to technology start-up CEOs, addresses the AAAS fellows forum and talks in depth to his travelling companions, Nottingham chemist Martyn Poliakoff and Edinburgh Vice Prinicipal Mary Bownes... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Do scientists resort to propaganda to defend climate change? How do we deal with evolution unbelievers? How do governments and policy-makers decide what science should be funded? Where will the next generation of communicators come from? Why are western countries spending more on baldness than malaria? Live at the AAAS 2014 meeting in Chicago, panellists David Willetts, the UK Minister for Universities and Science, Robyn Williams, of the Science Show on the ABC, MIT Enterprise Forum president, Kathleen Kennedy, IgNobel Awards founder Marc Abrahams and University of Madison-Wisconsin scientist... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

We're chewing over the topic of food footprints: How green is your lunchbox? What's the environmental impact of your weekly food shop? Plus, in the news, the prosthetic hand that has allowed an amputee to feel for the first time, a new fatal strain of flu has been identified in a patient in China and Gaia's goal is to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we we zoom in on the subject of nano-particles to examine how tiny objects, smaller than the wavelength of light, can be making such large waves in the fields of health, optics, and electronics. Plus news of purple tomatoes on their way to your dinner plates, the medical treatment that could mean the end of peanut allergies, the acid dip that reverts cells to their stem state, and what's in the air in Beijing? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Live on location at the Cambridge Science Centre, Chris Smith is joined by exercise scientist Dan Gordon, who also holds the world record in tandem cycling, epidemiologist Nita Forouhi, who studies diet, and David Ogilvie, who investigates how our environment can shape our activity. Together they pit their wits against the assembled public as they answer questions like, is watching the Exorcist a replacement for exercise? Plus Dave Ansell and Ginny Smith find the iron on breakfast cereals, measure the vitamin C in carrots, and see how much exercise it takes to work off a Mars bar... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we investigate why the UK is investing in space weather forecasts. Plus how could changes in the Sun's activity affect us here on Earth? In the news, conservationists supporting the sale of a hunting licence for the endangered Black Rhino, gene therapy success for treating blindness-causing diseases, and do humans use anger strategically? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we want to hear how you're doing with your New Year's Resolutions as we investigate the psychology of willpower and how long it takes to form a new habit. In the news, does drinking a cup of coffee after studying help students remember their work? Should the UK introduce a minimum price for alcohol? Plus the light activated glue that could change the way cardiac surgery operates. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The Naked Scientists tackle your questions, from how hail storms come about to why the Mediterranean Sea has such small tides. And why do people often favour walking on one particular side of the road?Plus, we look at what science might hit the headlines in 2014, from China's ambitions for manned spaceflight, to new graphene-based electronics. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

It's Christmas, and we're celebrating in style with a look at the science behind the things that grace the festive period. In a special programme recorded live in the kitchen, we produce our own home-made ice cream, hear about the brain-basis of the Boxing Day sales bargain, test fruit-fuelled flamethrowers, investigate candle chemistry, find out about LED fairy lights, probe the origins of the Star of Bethlehem, and make our own hydrogen-powered party popper. Merry Christmas! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How balls of cells assemble into a baby, why cell shape is crucial in cancer, telling cells where to go in an embryo, and getting a handle on how limbs develop: this week's Naked Scientists explores the science of structure. Plus, does classical music make you brainier? News of what your Christmas dinner means to the microbes in your intestines and a breakthrough in tracking the international spread of pandemics... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The bid to create the world's largest marine reserve, diseases threatening corals in the Caribbean, what is the best way to conserve coral reefs in Fiji, and why fish microbes matter too. Plus news of DNA sequences extracted from a 400,000 human ancestor in Spain, contraceptive pills for men, pain-free injection patches and the brain basis of dyslexia... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Live on location at the Cambridge Science Centre, Chris Smith is joined by guests Didier Queloz, who discovered the first exoplanet, Alan Tunnacliffe who investigates organisms which might be able to survive in space, and Gerry Gilmore, who is aiming to map the Milky Way. Together they pit their wits against the assembled public as they go on the hunt for alien worlds and life in space. Plus Dave Ansell and Ginny Smith reanimate yeast, spin an alarm clock to demonstrate how planets make stars wobble, and launch their own hydrogen rocket... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, smells, pheromones and anosmia. We talk to a patient with no sense of smell, hear why odours might be more down to the way molecules vibrate that how they are shaped, we look at the role that genes play in what we can smell and hear how pheromones affect how we feel. Plus, in the news, the legacy of double Nobel laureate Fred Sanger who died this week, a new water-repelling material which rejects water faster than ever before, an ode to World Toilet Day, the swarm of tiny satellites which are helping to miniaturise space missions, and we hear about the bacteria that have acquired... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we discover how we repair and restore everything from ancient manuscripts to the human heart! The team visits the BBC to find out how recently re-discovered episodes of the classic sci-fi series Dr Who were restored and find out about the three million pound project to develop self healing concrete. Plus, in the news, how Typhoon Haiyan has affected the Philippines, where in the world wolves first evolved into dogs, the new drug which could tackle persistent infections and the satellite database which can monitor deforestation from space... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

What is multiple sclerosis (MS), what causes it, why do some people suffer from it, and how can we treat it? This week we hear about a drug that can halt the disease in its tracks for some patients, and how scientists screening chemicals that trigger the brain to make new myelin have stumbled on a therapy that might reverse the symptoms for some sufferers. Plus, in the news, why the US and India are launching probes to Mars within weeks of each other, where the meteor which exploded over Russia in February 2013 came from, how Prozac makes the brain more plastic, and the stem cells which... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

From detecting tumour DNA in our bloodstreams to making cancer cells stand out in an MRI scan, this week, coinciding with the NCRI Cancer Conference, we explore how best ways to detect cancer and monitor tumours during treatment. Plus, in the news, what a dog's wagging tail can tell you about its mood, the chemistry behind fireworks, how wind farms could be made up to 30% more efficient just by moving the turbines around, and the electronic blood that could help to shrink supercomputers... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Live on location at the Cambridge Science Centre, Chris Smith, Dave Ansell, Ginny Smith and guests James Jackson, an Earth Scientist, Tehnuka Ilanko, a volcanologist, and Arwen Deuss, a seismologist, pit their wits against the assembled public as they tackle the extreme Earth. Plus Dave and Ginny make a flame tornado, a volcanic crater and explain why acid rain can be so damaging... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists