Science Interviews

COSMOS - Mobile Phones and Health

With mobile communications playing an increasingly major part in our lives, many people are worried about the potential health impacts of this technology. For this reason, a large study, called COSMOS, has been set up to track the ongoing health of 250,000 mobile phone users over a 30 year period...Professor Paul Elliott, Imperial College London

Naked Engineering - Why a Mobile Phone Call is like a Sudoku

Meera and Dave have been to Cambridge University’s Engineering Department to look at the research they’re doing there to improve the quality and reliability of mobile communications, and ensure a good signal whilst on the move...Dr Albert Guillen, Dr Yossi Sayir, University of Cambridge

Planet Earth Online - The Big Dish

Some clouds can be identified easily from the ground. But when weather forecasters and academic researchers need a bit more detail, they turn to the Chilbolton Facility for Atmospheric and Radio Research in Hampshire. They can put the world’s largest fully steerable meteorological radar - known as the “Big Dish” - to work...Charles Wrench, Chilbolton Facility for Atmospheric and Radio Research

Watching the Worm May Turn Voters

In last year’s general elections, we had the exciting spectacle of a leaders debate, and to help us get an idea of how well the speakers were doing, we could watch “the worm” - a real-time computer generated graph that showed how much a sub set of the audience approved or disapproved of the comments the leaders were making. But could the worm itself, not just the speakers words, alter how we feel about the outcome?Dr Colin Davis, Royal Holloway University of London

Separating Metals from Mud - Mining Technologies

An important resource that we find in deep dark places are the metals and minerals we need for industry and everyday life, which means that mining minerals like copper and platinum is a multi-billion pound industry. Dave and Meera have been out exploring how you separate the metal we do want from the rocks we don’t...Professor Jan Cilliers, Imperial College London

Getting under the Skin of Melanoma

Melanoma is a form of skin cancer that's becoming increasingly common; in fact, the incidence of the disease has doubled in the last ten years. But now there's some good news, because, with the help of a tankful of fish, scientists at Harvard University have discovered a key gene that drives the disease and therefore could hold the key to new ways to treat it...Dr Leonard Zon, Harvard University

Planet Earth Online - Bone Eating Worms

Another source of energy for deep sea species is the bodies of whales and other animals that fall to the sea bed. Nick Higgs, from the University of Leeds, researches whale fossils, which show tell-tale signs of a much smaller creature that could hold the key to why there’s a gap in the evolutionary record of whales...Nick Higgs, University of Leeds

Life at Hydrothermal Vents

It’s not just rock that can block sunlight: water does too, and you need only descend a few hundred metres to enter the aphotic zone – where sunlight is too weak for plants to photosynthesise. But there are other sources of energy on the seabed, and among them are hydrothermal vents, which harbour ecosystems found nowhere else on Earth...Professor Paul Tyler, Southampton University

Unique life in a Romanian Cave

We are looking at life that flourishes in the absence of input from the Sun, in other words, some of the most inaccessible places on the planet. One of them is Movile, a cave in Romania that has been cut-off from the outside world for over 6 million years and harbours a thriving ecosystem of complex life including water scorpions, worms and spiders...Rich Boden, Warwick University

Open Day at the IoA

What goes on at an Institute of Astronomy open day? Carolin Crawford explains what happens once the doors are opened...Carolin Crawford, Cambridge University

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Louise Ogden continues her series looking at our large telescopes by introducing the Chandra x-ray observatory...Harvey Tananbaum, Director of the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC)

Building a Home Made Astrolabe

Dominic Ford explains what an Astrolabe is, and how you can make one at home...Dominic Ford, Cambridge University

Sir Fred Hoyle - a Life in Objects

Katie Birkwood introduces us to Sir Fred Hoyle, through the objects he left with St John's College, Cambridge...Katie Birkwood, Hoyle Project Associate

Communicating the CMBR

How do you communicate the concept of the Cosmic Microwave Background to families and children. Andrew Pontzen explains how you can only stretch some metaphors so far...Dr Andrew Pontzen, Kavli Institute

The First Starlight

Dr Dan Stark explains what we're looking for at the very edge of our observational limits...Dr Dan Stark, Cambridge University

Supersymmetry and the LHC

Any hypothesis on multiverses will remain just that, a hypothesis, until experimental physicists can find observations to support or refute these ideas. Dr Chris Lester joins us to discuss his work on the LHC ATLAS detector...Dr Chris Lester, Cambridge University

Naked Engineering - Synchrotrons

Meera and Dave have been out to the Diamond synchrotron, an electron accelerator, based in Didcot, Oxfordshire where head of engineering Jim Kay gave them a tour of the facility to see just how electrons can be made to move close to the speed of light using a combination of vacuums, magnets and a few other pieces of engineering...Jim Kay, Head o f Engineering, Diamond Synchrotron

Planet Earth - Carbon Capture and Storage

One of the most promising technologies for tackling rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is known as ‘Carbon Capture and Storage’. The idea here is that you pump carbon dioxide from power stations into a rock, rather than into the atmosphere. But you do need to have the right kind of rock. To find out more, Planet Earth Podcast presenter, Richard Hollingham, visited the pub…Mike Stephenson, National Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage

Beyond Our Universe

Brian Greene, author of "The Hidden Reality" explains the possibility and probability of there being more than one Universe....Professor Brian Greene, Columbia University

How Progesterone Excites Sperm

Also this week, a pair of papers in the journal Nature have shed some light on how human sperm cells react to the presence of progesterone, and this could lead to a whole new type of contraceptive...Dr Steve Publicover, Birmingham University