The Naked Scientists Podcast

It's not just pandas, great apes and big cats - ugly animals need our attention too. This week, we find out why some of nature's least attractive species are under threat and explore the arguments for conserving bacteria, fungi and even parasites! In the news we hear how to fix mitochondrial faults, discover a cocktail of bacteria that can see off C. diff and we find out how dung beetles are on the ball when it comes to keeping cool. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Are vegetables intelligent? Is Pi a "normal" number? Are humans the only picky eaters? We take on your science questions, including why women generally don't go bald and how fingers can feel cold even though they're warm to the touch. Plus, we're joined by Matt Parker, the Stand Up Mathematician, who takes on your mathematical brain teasers, and explains how a simple mathematical trick can let you predict the numbers on a barcode! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do we tell where sounds are coming from? What does life sound like through a hearing aid? Can we cure tinnitus? We try to answer all these questions and more in our show on hearing. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The tricks your mind plays on you are up for analysis this week as we explore the science of taste including why noise diminishes food flavour aboard an aeroplane and how much affects your choice of wine. We also speak to a synaesthete who, quite literally, tastes the people he meets, and we probe the workings of the placebo effect. Plus, pain killers from black mamba venom, why teenagers take risks and the age old chestnut of why names are so hard to remember... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How can we stay sharp as a senior citizen? This week, we explore the different biological approaches to understanding healthy ageing, discover a protein that may prevents age-related nerve degeneration and find out how to preserve cognitive function as we age. Plus, why Eunuchs lived longer, and how to turn trousers into catalytic converters that filter polluted air! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Can spiders weave webs in microgravity? Can shampooing cause hair loss? How much brain do we use at once? Can a person survive on raw food alone? This week we're answering your science questions, plus news of the IgNobel prize for research into 'hairodynamics' and a way to wipe out bad memories... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Would you set sail with a robotic skipper? This week, the World Robotic Sailing Championships grace the waters of Cardiff Bay, and we meet the teams to find out how this could lead to a sea change in robot science. Plus, we find out how robots are coming out of the factory and into the home, to care for the elderly and help children learn. In the news, stem cells restore hearing to deaf gerbils, facebook alters voting behaviour, and why a blue berry is the brightest thing in nature... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Will we find life in a lake trapped under 3 kilometres of ice? How can living above an abandoned mine cut your heating bills? What is the future for diet foods? This week, we bring you the best from the British Science Festival in Aberdeen. We also discuss the Higgs and antimatter, how plastics are affecting our health and how to recreate the colours of fossilised insects... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How is data sent safely online, and how can we keep prying eyes away? This week we investigate the basis of cybersecurity, ask if chip and pin is safe and talk to a team of hackers who attempt to penetrate websites legitimately. We also reveal the dangers of wifi as we find out what your mobile phone is revealing about you. Plus the genetic basis of movement, a new form of flexible battery and, in our Question of the Week, how one telephone line can have multiple uses! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How nerve cells make decisions, how genes control behaviour, using light to interrogate neuronal circuits, anxiety attacks, deep brain stimulation to bust addiction, how the immune system can cause psychosis, the genetics of behavioural problems and hallucinogenic flashbacks: fact, or a mind playing tricks on you? This week we launch Naked Neuroscience, a new monthly podcast to open your mind... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Is hydrogen the fuel of our future? As fossil fuel reserves run out, this week we ask whether hydrogen can fill the energy void? We look at work to harness bacteria to transform everyday waste into biohydrogen, hear how scientists are planning to store this gas safely, take to the road in a hydrogen-powered car and investigate the workings of the fuel cells that run them... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

What happens if you're exposed to the vacuum of space? Is using a mobile phone on a flight safe? Which is more contagious - a cough or a sneeze? This week we answer your sticky science questions, such as what makes Jam set? And how does ironing work? Plus, we meet the very first lumberjacks, locate the dark matter in our locality and find out how a small electric pulse can stop a seizure in its tracks... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Publishing early in recognition of the arrival on the red planet of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover, this week we talk to members of the mission team, revisit some previous successful planetary explorations and hear how UK engineers have made it possible for Rovers to think for themselves. Plus, news of why planets orbit in a plane and whether elephants purr, or just hum... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How can science, technology and engineering aid the world's elite athletes? In this special edition of the Naked Scientists, we discover how physiology, psychology and technology help get us across the finish line. We'll be exploring the biochemical tests that can improve training, and Meera gets put through her paces on a treadmill! We also hear from Gold Medal winner Steve Redgrave and current Team GB competitors about the impact of science on their performance. Plus, how Formula One technology can make better bicycles, and why can technology can get so good, it has to be banned from... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

From the first flight to supersonic air-travel was achieved in under 50 years. To discover what made it all possible we look at the advances in technology, engineering and materials that were needed, and the social and political pressures that drove the field forward since the first tentative steps toward take-off in the 1870s... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Should we blow up objects on a collision course with Earth? Or will they do less damage left intact? More importantly, is there a gene for hating marmite? And what makes copper such a good conductor? How would a caveman cope in modern society? What's the secret to how balls spin in sport, and why does wrapping vaccines and antibiotics in silk make them last longer. Plus, why physics says Batman's cape won't work... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Super bainite, a surprisingly-strong steel, is the subject of this week's Naked Scientists. We discover how it's made in the metallurgical equivalent of a pizza oven, why it makes the best bearings and how, even when it's full of holes, it also makes great armour. In the news, a nanotechnological tool to unblock blood vessels, a dust cloud that's disappeared around a nearby star and have we found the Higgs? Plus, can your cutlery affect the flavour of food? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Later this month, the 2012 Olympics kicks off in London. With hundreds of thousands of people expected from overseas, is this the perfect trigger for a pandemic? This week we're looking at the public health implications of events like London 2012. We discover why an understanding of crowd psychology can avert disasters, and how mathematical models can predict and prevent jams in human traffic. Plus, a new technique to communicate with "locked in" patients, the evidence for warm blooded dinosaurs, and does ice really help to treat an injury? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Science and technology can catch criminals and tackle terrorism. This week, we're exploring two ways to sniff out concealed explosives and a new technique to lift fingerprints from surfaces that have been cleaned or burned. In the news, a new way to halt Huntington's disease and how to identify the influential online. Plus, could gene therapy cheat a DNA test? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Why does a head injury, or standing up too quickly, make us see stars? Are slug pellets painful? How do flies fly in an elevator? We take on your science questions this week, and find out why we should let food ferment, what makes batteries get hot and if the strings in string theory are real. Plus, a new drive to improve science education, new vistas for Voyager 1 and new veins from stem cells. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do we look for life beyond Earth? And how did it first get started down here? To help us take on these big questions, we explore the science of SETI and the chemistry of creating life. Plus, science gets cinematic as we meet the scientific adviser for Prometheus, and find out how his work could help us understand alien atmospheres. In the news, how to sequence a baby using just the mother's blood, and the simple intervention that could prevent millions of malaria cases. In Question of the Week, can we create life in the lab from just elements and heat? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, we're introducing the new Naked Genetics podcast - This time, Kat Arney takes a look at the world of top models - not the kind that won't get out of bed for less than ten grand, but the model organisms used by researchers all over the world to answer some of the most challenging questions in biology. We'll also be hearing about the origins of polar bears, the extinction of Tasmanian tigers, fitter frogs with faster-changing genomes and promiscuous bees. And move over Beyonce, because our gene of the month is the curvaceous Callipyge - Greek for beautiful buttocks. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we explore the role of microbes in drug development, food production and soil fertility. We investigate how bacteria such as Streptomyces are used and improved to make antibiotics, discover how gut microbes in cattle can be manipulated to increase growth and reduce environmental impact, and we visit the Chelsea flower show to learn how Rhizobia found in the roots of legumes could be used to improve crop growth and food availability. Also, in the news, how shift-work could affect your fertility, a new method of data storage using DNA, the key to growing the tastiest tomatoes and the... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do you make a new metal? This week, we follow a novel alloy from PC to plane, finding out how computer modelling and design can help us create new metals with exciting new properties. We also discover how these newly-designed metals are forged, treated and tested before they form the basis of a new generation of jet engines. In the news, deep-sea dwelling bacteria that are still digesting a meal dating from the time of the dinosaurs, a shot-in the arm for ageing satellites and a brain-interface device to permit paralysed patients to control robotic arms... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) sufferers describe symptoms of severe exhaustion, weakness, muscle pain and fatigue. But why, and what is science revealing about the underlying causes of the condition? We talk to a researcher who is probing the genetic links to the syndrome, a clinician with evidence that the muscles of patients accumulate acid when they exercise and a pathologist with post-mortem evidence of inflammation in the nervous systems of CFS sufferers. Also, in the news this week, the ants that help a pitcher plant to catch its lunch, the missile-hurling zoo chimp who plans his... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we get Naked in Norway as we visit the University of Oslo to reveal the remains of ancient plesiosaurs and investigate their migration into water, discuss a new concept for more efficient solar cells and discover the fatal effects of climate change on lemming population cycles. We then scour more Scandinavian science to unearth the causes of mass extinction, find out a new way to overcome resistance to radiotherapy, tool around with chimps in the Savannah and round up with a scientific climax in bird masturbation! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Does exercise lead to a more muscular heart? Why can an unfit cyclist cycle faster than an olympic runner runs? How do kinetic watches work? We answer your questions in this week's Naked Scientists Podcast, and find out why so many dead bugs end up on their backs, how salmonella gets into an egg, and if it's more efficient to fill your freezer than run it half empty? In the news we hear how farming migrated across Europe, why distant stars might have influenced life on Earth, and why rogue DNA can cause heart failure. Plus, we home in on the parts of the pigeon brain that respond to... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The body clock goes under the Naked Scientists' spotlight this week. We unpick the mechanisms that enable human cells, plants and even bacteria to track the time of day and alter their activities accordingly, and we hear the evidence that night work makes you put on weight and boosts your diabetes risk. In the news, how cells grafted into the eye restore sight to blind mice, the three genes that can convert scar tissue back into beating cardiac muscle following a heart attack, and electrical stimulation that returns movement to limbs paralysed by spinal injury. And on the subject of the body... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How can we save the occupants of stricken submarines? What species survive in the deepest depths of ocean trenches? Recognising the centenary of the Titanic tragedy, we're diving deep to meet the Rolls-Royce NATO Submarine Rescue System, we find out about a new initiative to discover what really lives at the bottom of the ocean and hear how volcanoes are acidifying the seas. Plus, what robots can tell us about cocktail party conversations, the mystery of the pigeon's magnetic navigation, and can oil-based face-cream make you fat...? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we bring you a special look at marine pollution from the Naked Oceans team, going from plastics to poo to explore some of the many ways we pollute the seas. We find out the truth behind the Pacific Garbage Patch, discover how human sewage is wiping out corals in the Caribbean, and in Critter of the Month, a marine expert describes which ocean creature they'd like to be and why... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Why does sunlight make me sneeze? What causes air turbulence? Why do energy-saving lights take time to warm up? In this week's question and answer show we also investigate why microwaving a dishcloth causes it catch fire, whether mining could change the Earth's orbit and why streetlights shine with an orange glow. In the news, meanwhile, how electrical brain stimulation can make impossible problems tractible, a pint-sized rocket to take spacecraft to the moon and a tornado spotted on the surface of the Sun... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we're exploring the future of nuclear energy, including meeting the makers of a new design of nuclear reactor that can consume the fuels that other plants can't burn. We also delve into ways to unclog pipes inside reactors without the risks of going inside. And where do you stand on the nuclear debate? Should we be exploring alternatives, or is there no alternative to a nuclear-future? We talk to two parties on opposite sides of the debate. Plus, what the Messenger probe has found on Mercury, a blood test to predict an imminent heart attack, flushing out evidence of drug use from... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Immune-manipulating parasites, bacterial genomes married to disease processes and viruses that bounce off already-infected cells make for an infectious episode of the Naked Scientists this week. Also up for analysis, why the eyes vote no to long space journeys; the problem with prostate cancer prediction; why nanoparticles trigger bacteria to breed superbugs and the contagious question of which cancers you can catch... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Smart sensors can open a window into the environment. In this week's Naked Scientists Podcast we find out how networks of sensors around Heathrow airport can study how planes alter the atmosphere, and how a similar network can monitor an Oxfordshire floodplain. Plus, we find out how the tools of a surgeon are helping to keep jet engines in flying form. In the news, we hear how gut bugs promote blood vessel growth, why fresh fruit and veg gives you a healthy hue and how scientists are analysing antimatter with microwaves... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How can we extract energy from waste? In this week's Naked Scientists we explore the technology that turns muck into methane and consider the fertile issue of nutrient overload resulting from returning the finished products to farmland. And what about water? Why do we individually use ten times more water than we actually need, and what's the solution for a drought-stricken Britain? Plus, in the news, how astronomers have discovered evidence of life in the universe, but only down here on Earth, and the "ungentlemanly" conduct of the upper classes... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

What's the point of earwax? Does WiFi damage the brain? Can a mobile phone in a trouser pocket dent a man's fertility? In this week's science Q and A show we also brush up on how they get the stripes in toothpaste, discover whether dropped food follows the 5 second rule and shed light on why some forms of EM radiation more damaging than others. Plus, news of a new microscopic MRI machine for molecules, how computer games can alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia and why what a woman eats, even before becoming pregnant, can have a lifelong genetic legacy for her offspring... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A new liquid crystal laser that can dial-up any wavelength of light you need, a laser-powered projector technology that turns any surface into a touch-screen, and a laser that fires salvoes of X-rays to make light work of unlocking the molecular fabric of matter are the focus of this week's laser-led show. We also meet HECToR, one of the world's fastest computers that just got a tenfold power boost, and David Braben unveils the credit-card sized Raspberry Pi, the world's smallest home micro he's helped to invent... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Over two-thirds of the energy in the fuel you put into your car is wasted, most of it in the form of heat that exits along the exhaust pipe. The same is true of large-scale power stations, which are only 50% efficient at best. But now researchers are bringing 200 year old physics to bear against the problem by developing thermoelectric generators (TEGs) that can turn waste heat into useful electricity and this week we find out how. Plus, news that disguising cancer cells as Salmonella could hold the key to producing effective anti-cancer vaccines, why the Y chromosome boosts heart attack risk,... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Could diet foods be making you fatter? How do we learn to like the foods we eat? This week, we indulge in the science of appetite, diet and diabetes. We'll find out how our early experiences of food can alter our diets for life, and ask if low calorie alternatives to sweet and fatty foods can fool the brain into underestimating the energy content of the real thing. Also, how synthetic chemists are searching for compounds to monitor blood glucose and control diabetes. Plus, how regions of the brain can "catch" Alzheimer's from each other, we discover a new microscopy technique that can... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Has all the air in the world been breathed before? Are any viruses beneficial to health? Can naked farts transmit diseases? You set the agenda in this Naked Scientists Question and Answer show in which we also discover how Inuit cope without fruit and veg, whether muscles can become cancerous and how long before we can teleport to work. Plus, reproducing Alzheimer's disease in a dish, self-distilling vodka, magnetic soap to cleanse the parts other soaps can't reach, and what magic mushrooms do to the brain... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Could a ray of sunshine hold the key to preventing MS, diabetes and even bowel cancer? Vitamin D - made naturally in skin exposed to strong sunlight - appears to reduce the risk of developing these, and a rash of other diseases. We examine the evidence to find out why as well as hearing how seaweed looks set to ignite a biofuel boom in the future, why a good night's sleep might make traumatic memories worse and how scientists have made multicellular life in the lab in just 60 days... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Where do you stand on becoming part person, part machine? This week we hook up with three pioneers in the field of cybernetics including walking cyborg Kevin Warwick, who volunteered his own nervous system to test out a new way to connect up with the machine world, Markus Groppe, who is trialling an implantable chip to restore vision to the blind, and Andrew Schwartz who's developing neural interfaces to couple the brain's motor circuits to a robot. Plus, news of an H5N1 'flu furore as scientists create the most dangerous virus imaginable, and a voyage to the deepest subsea vents ever... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Do stars form outside galaxies? What causes ringing in the ears? How fast does force propagate? Why do spectacles still work when worn backwards? Is the expanding universe tearing galaxies apart? And is any new water being created on Earth? Plus, news of the new satellite surveying the moon, the scientific way to sound out a Stradivarius and how a vaccine based on chimp viruses can protect against Hepatitis C. Plus, in kitchen science, Dave unpacks the contents of a nappy... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Are candles environmentally unfriendly? Why does tinfoil touching a filling set my teeth on edge? What colour does a dead chameleon go? Does antiperspirant deodorant make you sweat more elsewhere? Could we tether the moon on a string to stop it escaping? And why is the fine spray in the shower so cold? To find out, join Chris, Dave, Dominic and Helen for this festive Christmas edition of the Naked Scientists, which also sees the team connecting an oven shelf to their heads and a musical Higgs Boson-inspired interlude from Professor Karmadillo... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Can new technologies probe human thoughts and feelings without us even realising? This week we talk to a researcher who's using mobile phones to tap into peoples' emotions to provide new insights into human behaviour and even spot the triggers that might be encouraging someone to smoke. Plus, how data mining and computer simulations can identify the patterns of behaviour that predate disasters so they can be predicted - and prevented - in future. And with the surge in online social media of the last 5 years, is statistics capable of keeping up when it comes to doing research using these... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do archaeologists locate, conserve and recover historical treasures from old shipwrecks? What is erosion revealing on the foreshores of the River Thames? And how do you weld up an oil or gas pipeline one kilometre underwater? This week we're looking at the "appliance of science" beneath the waves as well as hearing how the ageing Voyager space probes have discovered the births of new stars in the Milky Way, how a gene therapy technique can block HIV infection and how a computer programme can spot to what extent a photo's been doctored. Plus, does heading a football cause brain damage? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, how immune cells can be caught on camera as they exit blood vessels, a new design of lensless microscope and one that sees cells in 3D, how sound and heat can be used to find faults in materials and how something as small as an atom can be seen under an electron microscope. Plus, news that nerve transplants can correct metabolic disorders, the World's first fishhook, bionic contact lenses that project emails into your eyes, are statins safe and why are mirror reflections still blurry close up for the shortsighted... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Is modern technology changing your brain? How fast does flu fly? Can you build a lightsaber? Your questions are the stars on the Naked Scientists this week, as we discuss the implications of faster-than-light travel, the risks of skydiving through a thundercloud, and ask if dogs can sniff out cancer. Plus, we find out how the brain detects different diets, what happens when black holes collide, and in Kitchen Science, how a coin can make a balloon roar! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In a show not to be sneezed at, we look at the evidence that coughs and sneezes are linked to heart attacks. We also probe the Flu Survey, a new citizen science initiative to gather data on the incidence of influenza-like illnesses in the European population; we talk to the company who are mass producing flu vaccines in tobacco plants and catch up with the Columbia University scientific adviser on Contagion, Hollywood's latest infectious offering. Plus, why babies don't tie their umbilical cords in knots and news of a new fat-busting injectible that selectively destroys adipose, evidence... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week Kat Arney joins us live from the National Cancer Research Institute's conference in Liverpool. We find out how mistakes in cell signalling can cause cancers and why DNA repair pathways offer targets to treat tumours. Also, we explore the latest developments in cancer imaging, including new techniques that allow us to track chemical reactions happening inside the body. In the news, why you need to remove genes to repair nerves, and how clearing out old cells can prevent diseases of old age! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists