300 episodes

A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.

BBC Inside Science BBC Podcasts

    • Science
    • 4.0 • 1 Rating

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A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Dimming the Sun

    Dimming the Sun

    Switzerland has submitted a proposal to create a United Nations expert group on solar geoengineering to inform governments and stakeholders. The idea was discussed at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, this week. Professor Aarti Gupta shares how, after tense negotiations, the different member states could not agree, and the proposal was withdrawn. Why is solar geoengineering a controversial issue? How would dimming the sun even work? And should we consider it a genuine option in our fight against climate change? Dr Pete Irvine and Professor Joanna Haigh join presenter Marnie Chesterton in the studio to discuss.
    Animal welfare charities have been celebrating a ban on donkey skin trade, agreed to this month by 55 African countries. This will make it illegal to slaughter donkeys for their skin across the continent, where around two thirds of the world’s 53 million donkeys live. Victoria Gill tells Marnie that the demand for the animals' skins is fuelled by the popularity of an ancient Chinese medicine called Ejiao, believed to have health-enhancing and youth-preserving properties and traditionally made from donkey hides.
    Lastly, Dr Jess Wade, physicist and science communicator at Imperial College London, discusses Breaking Through: My Life in Science. It’s the memoir of Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Dr Katalin Karikó, whose passion and dedication to mRNA research led to the development of the life-changing COVID mRNA vaccines.
    Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
    Producers: Florian Bohr, Louise Orchard
    Assistant Producer: Imaan Moin
    Editor: Martin Smith
    Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
    BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

    • 33 min
    Laboratory-Grown Meat

    Laboratory-Grown Meat

    Professor Ben Garrod guest presents.
    As a new 'meaty rice' is created and Fortnum & Mason launch a scotch egg made with cultivated meat that they hope to have on sale as early as next year, we investigate the world of laboratory-grown meat.
    Mark Post made the first ever synthetic meat in 2012 to the tune of £200,000. He tells us how these lab-grown meats are made and how, he thinks, they could play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and feeding a growing population. Jenny Kleeman, author of Sex, Robots and Vegan Meat, is more sceptical, citing concerns over food security and if the public really want to eat this stuff.
    A stingray called Charlotte has become pregnant, despite there being no other stingrays in her tank at the Aquarium & Shark Lab in North Carolina. Marine biologist Dr Helen Scales considers how this may have happened.
    And cosmic minerologist Sara Russell from the Natural History Museum tells us how astronomers tracked and found a particularly unusual asteroid entering Earth’s atmosphere and what we might learn from it. 
    Presenter: Professor Ben Garrod
    Producers: Hannah Robins, Florian Bohr, Alice Lipscombe-Southwell and Jonathan Blackwell
    Editor: Martin Smith
    Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 
    BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

    • 28 min
    The Gulf Stream’s tipping point

    The Gulf Stream’s tipping point

    The Gulf Stream, also known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is essential to stable global climate, and the reason we have moderate temperatures in Northern Europe. Now, a new modelling study suggests that this circulation could, at some point, be at a tipping point and collapse. We hear from one of the minds behind the model, post-doctoral researcher René van Westen from Utrecht University. But how likely is it that this will actually happen in the real world? Presenter Victoria Gill speaks to Jonathan Bamber who cautions that a gulf stream collapse is not imminent, and that it may just weaken slowly over time.

    Every summer in the Hudson Bay, on the Eastern side of Arctic Canada, the sea ice melts and the region’s polar bears head inland. But that ice-free season is getting longer, depriving the bears of that frozen platform that they use to pounce on their favourite prey – seals. So what do the bears do all summer? Research Wildlife Biologist Karyn Rode shares how she and her colleagues put a collar with video cameras on 20 polar bears, and what it revealed about their lives.
    Is CERN finally going to get a gigantic new particle accelerator? Almost exactly one decade ago, Roland Pease reported from Switzerland about the very first meeting about the successor of the Large Hadron Collider which was used to discover the Higgs Boson. Now there’s an update to the story. Roland is back to tell Vic how far along CERN is with their plans, and how much more time and money it will take to build the Future Circular Collider.
    Lovers of certain famous, creamy French cheeses could be in for a bit of a shock. Camembert and Brie are facing extinction as we know them! The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris has stated that, over the last 100 years, the food and farming industry has placed too much pressure on the production of these types of cheeses. Now, the fungus traditionally used to grow the famous, fluffy white rinds has been cloned to a point where the lack of diversity in its genetic makeup means it can no longer be reproduced. Turophiles must learn to appreciate more diversity of tastes, colours and textures to protect the cheeses’ future.
    Presenter: Victoria Gill
    Producers: Florian Bohr, Louise Orchard, Alice Lipscombe-Southwell 
    Editor: Martin Smith
    Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 
    BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

    • 28 min
    Ancient Roman writings revealed

    Ancient Roman writings revealed

    As part of the Vesuvius Challenge, computer scientists have used machine learning to successfully reveal 2,000 characters from the Herculaneum scrolls. These artefacts were charred to a crisp following the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Papyrologist Federica Nicolardi has been translating the writings, and tells us what exactly has been deciphered.
    Following this week’s launch of NASA’s PACE satellite, NASA scientist Dr Susanne Craig tells us how the mission will be giving our planet a health check.
    Bird flu is still an issue. This month, scientists have reported that hundreds of penguin chicks have died from the virus in the Falklands. Meanwhile, in Argentina, avian flu has killed huge numbers of elephant seal pups. Professor Wendy Barclay, a virologist from Imperial College London, tells us more about the virus and how it can jump between species.
    Sunday 11th February is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Physicist Dr Jess Wade, who has written hundreds of Wikipedia biographies of women and underrepresented scientists, reveals one of her favourite scientists that people haven’t heard of.
    Presenter: Victoria Gill
    Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, Florian Bohr, Louise Orchard
    Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell
    Researcher: Imaan Moin
    Editor: Martin Smith
    Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 
    BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

    • 28 min
    When brains and computers meet

    When brains and computers meet

    Are cyborgs now reality? Elon Musk certainly thinks so. His company, Neuralink, has successfully implanted one of its wireless brain chips in a human. Although billed as a breakthrough, they’re not the first to do it. In fact, similar devices have already been implanted, all with the aim of connecting our brains to computers with the aim of tackling complex neurological conditions. Joining Inside Science is neuroscientist and author, Dean Burnett. In this episode, Dean helps to break down the technology behind the brain-computer interface and digs into the ethical implications.
    Plus, game changing smart technology gets a run out as Rugby Union’s Six Nations Championship kicks-off. This year, all players will be wearing “Smart Mouth Guards.” These are intelligent gum shields containing miniature gyroscopes, accelerometers and Bluetooth, which provide - with incredible accuracy - a measure of the magnitude and frequency of forces experienced by players. An athlete making their international debut in this competition could have their entire collision history mapped from now until retirement, providing invaluable information for training and treatments. Crucial not only for elite squads, but ultimately for community and schools rugby where the technology will eventually land, leading to a safer game.
    And finally, it turns out that we can actually understand chickens even if we’ve never met them before! After assessing a group of around 200 volunteers, a team at the University of Queensland has discovered that humans with no experience of chickens at all, could understand the birds’ calls of satisfaction, or frustration. The research has serious implications for what’s known as precision farming, an area of livestock farming with little, to no, human interaction that requires automated systems of welfare detection using sound recognition.
    Presenter: Victoria Gill
    Producers: Louise Orchard, Florian Bohr, Alice Lipscombe-Southwell
    Editor: Martin Smith
    Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 
    BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

    • 27 min

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