Science Interviews

The Natural History of Beer

Beer is one of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages, dating back over seven thousand years and it’s still one of the most popular drinks in society today. But how’s it made? How was it discovered in the first place? Meera went to the Natural History Museum for one of their Darwin Live events, where the theme of the evening was the natural history of beer...Dr Dave Roberts, Natural History Museum; Dr Robert Simmons, Fishbourne Roman Palace & Julian Herrington, Master brewer.

Hop Extracts for Better Beers

The chemistry of carbon dioxide could give us better beers, by supplying brewers with exactly the compounds they need, extracted from hops. Dr Ray Marriott tells us more... Dr Ray Marriott, Botanix Ltd

The Quality of Life Depends upon the Liver

As much as we enjoy the odd beer it’s always best to enjoy it in moderation because drinking alcohol does have its health downsides. Ben went to the pub to meet up with Mike Allison, a liver specialist from Addenbrooke’s hospital, to find out more about the damage that alcohol can do...Dr Mike Allison, Addenbrooke's Hospital

Kitchen Science - The Science of Scotch Part 2

Continued from part one, where we set up the distillation equipment, Ben returns from the pub to find the results...Chris Forman, Cambridge University

Beating Breast Cancer - News from the Cancer Conference

Kat Arney reports in with the latest news from the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Birmingham, UK.Dr Kat Arney

Super Non Stick Surfaces

Non-stick pans are great, they make it so much easier to clean cooked on scrambled egg! But the Thin Films and Interfaces group at Cambridge University have found a way to make a super non stick surface, just by changing the surface structure of ordinary Teflon. Ullrich Steiner explains...Professor Ullrich Steiner, Cambridge University

Plastic Logic - Plastic Paper and E-Ink

Now, if you listen carefully you will notice that we, in the Naked Scientists are surrounded by paper. We usually try not to make you hear but similarly in offices all around the country incredible amounts of paper are thrown away on a daily basis. I’d just like to point out that I take all my paper home to recycle. Maybe a better solution would be to remove the need to use all this paper in the first place and do away with all those hours spent photocopying and all those pages that come out of printers. We sent Azi to find out about the design and uses of plastic electronics and e-ink.Professor Henning Sirringhaus and Simon Jones, Plastic Logic

Biocomposites - the Future for Plastics?

Biocomposites, materials similar to plastics but made from biological material, could be the ideal replacement for petrochemical based plastics. Paul Fowler explained more to Chris...Paul Fowler, Univeristy of Wales, Bangor

Medical Materials

Dr Ruth Cameron and Dr Serena Best from the Centre for Medical material at the University of Cambridge spoke to Chris about how they are using ceramics and polymers to help mend broken bones.Dr Ruth Cameron and Dr Serena Best, Cambridge University

Robot Wars - The history of Robots and Robots at War

Once a judge on Robot Wars, Professor Noel Sharkey told us about the part robots have to play in real wars...Professor Noel Sharkey, Sheffield University

Robots in Genetic Research

What do we need robots for in genetics? Just what difference do they make? We sent Meera to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute to find out...Sarah Sims & Jonathan Davies, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Train a Robot? Why bother, when he can just look it up?

The Semantic Robot Vision Challenge was set up to find robots which could locate an object in real space, after only seeing it in cyberspace. We spoke to Professor Jim Little and Dr Per-Erik Forssen about their winning robot, Curious GeorgeProfessor Jim Little and Dr Per-Erik Forssen, University of British Columbia

Intelligent Items or Malicious Machines? Artificial Intelligence Examined

Professor Nigel Shadbolt is the President of the British Computer Society - he gave a talk at the BA festival of science asking examining artificial intelligence titled 'Free thinking Machines or Murderous intellects'. Scary stuff indeed...Professor Nigel Shadbolt, University of Southampton & President of the British Computer Society.

York's Plagued Past

Chris travelled back in time with Sabine Clarke and James Sumner to find out how the people of 17th century York coped with the plague.Sabine Clarke, Oxford University & James Sumner, Manchester University

A Chocolate Fix is Actually Good For You!

Being addicted to things is usually bad news but now there's evidence that getting hooked on chocolate might not be such a bad thing: Just so long as it's the dark variety. That said, is chocolate really addictive? To find out, Chris met up with anti-oxidant expert Roger Corder and addiction specialist Peter Rogers.Roger Corder, The Royal London Medical School & Peter Rogers, University of Bristol

Best of the BA Fest!

Meera went out to find the best bits of the festival, and wound up in crowd control!John Drury, University of Sussex, & David Steven, Hypnotic Audio

Breastmilk and Nicotine

Breastfeeding is the best was to nurture an infant, but what if you're a smoker? We're always told that smoking while pregnant is bad for the baby, so what about nicotine in breastmilk? Chris spoke to Julie Mennella... Dr Julie Mennella, Monell Chemical Senses Centre

F1 goes Green!

We’re all being asked to lower our carbon footprint and one area where you’d think this would be nearly impossible is the world of Formula one racing. But scientists are now working on a way to reduce the damage that results from this sport. Meera went along to the Science Museum to find out how.Ben Woods, University of Warwick

The BA Festival of Science

Every year, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the BA, hold a festival. They go to a different university each year and the idea is to make science fun and interesting for the masses. We spoke to Sue Hordijenko, one of the people responsible for making it all happen...Sue Hordijenko, The British Association for the Advancement of science

Out of Body Experiences - On Demand!

Out of Body Experiences (OBE's)may be spooky, but they can tell us a lot about how the brain works. Now, scientists have found a way to cause OBE's at will...Henrik Ehrsson, Olaf Blanke & Thomas Metsinger, UCL