Science Interviews

Mind-reading MRIs

Using computers to read the mind might seem more suited to the pages of a sci-fi thriller, but scientists are edging closer to this reality using brain imaging technology such as functional magnetic reasonance imaging - fMRI. Professor Jack Gallant and his team from the University of California at Berkeley use this fMRI technique together with computer models to predict the images that their subjects are looking at...Professor Jack Gallant, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Bekeley

The Cultural Aspects of Sleep

What constitutes a good night sleep? Here in the UK, we’re told that it’s a solid 8 hours overnight, tucked up in bed in the dark and in the quiet. But if we don't do that or if we can't do that, we’re thought of as being unusual. Helen Ball, Professor of Anthropology at Durham University is looking into the cultural aspects of sleep...Helen Ball, Durham University

Rheumatoid Arthritis

If the joints in your hands and feet are stiff and for an hour or more in the mornings, you may be suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis - but the earlier this common arthritis is diagnosed and treated, the better. Ben Valsler finds out more.Karim Raza, Senior Lecturer at Birmingham University, Consultant Rheumatologist at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

Sir Bernard Spilsbury - Science Poetry

An important aspect of science festival is the diversity of people, interests, and talents coming together to celebrate science. This year, that included an event of science stand-up poetry.Heather Wastie, Poet

Pi Time

And now it's time for some Pi - not the food but the number. Julia Graham met Professor Robin Wilson to find out a bit more about this elusive number.Robin Wilson, Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University

Computing with a Quantum Walk

Researchers from Bristol University recently reported on a development in quantum computing that could bring this revolutionary technology closer, by up to twenty years. Ben Valsler met up with Jonathan Matthews and Jeremy O’Brien...Jeremy O’Brien, Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics and Jonathan Matthews, Bristol University

What do you think of Human Animal Hybrids?

Robin Lovell-Badge is from the National Institute for Medical Research and he’s been researching public opinion of animal experiments that have a key biological human element as he explained to Smitha Mundasad...Robin Lovell-Badge, MRC's National Institute for Medical Research

Planet Earth Online - Ocean Acidification

In the latest of our features from the Planet Earth Podcast Team, Richard Hollingham accept reports from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory where scientists were investigating the effects of ocean acidification... Steve Widdicombe, Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Music, Emotion, and Pain Control

Also in the news this week, EPSRC funded researchers up in Glasgow have been investigating how we respond emotionally to music, and how this could lead to music being used in pain control. Sarah Castor-Perry caught up with the researchers involved to find out more ...Professor Raymond MacDonald, Dr Don Knox, Glasgow Caledonian University

Marine Renewable Energy

Increasingly, governments and energy companies are looking at ways of harvesting wave and tidal energy. But what about the environmental impacts of marine-based renewable energy technologies? Richard Hollingham finds out more...Ben Wilson, Scottish Association for Marine Science

Critter of the Month - Tiger Shark

Boris Worm from Dalhousie University in Canada picks our Critter of the Month.Boris Worm, Dalhousie University

Genetic tools to track the shark fin trade

Around the globe, sharks are hunted unsustainably for their fins to make into soup. Mahmood Shivji tells us about how DNA extracted from a dismembered fin can tell us not only which species it came from but where in the ocean the shark lived.Mahmood Shivji, Save Our Seas Shark Center and the Guy Harvey Research Institute, NOVA Southeastern University

The Great Egg Case Hunt

We join the Great Egg Case Hunt on the Norfolk Coast with Sonia Revelley from Natural England, to help track down the whereabouts of skates and rays - the lesser-known relatives of sharks.John Richardson, The Shark Trust, and Sonia Revelley, Natural England

Does Burley Change Shark Behaviour?

Burling (known as "chumming" outside Australia) is the act of allowing the scent of bait into the water to attract sharks and other animals for fishing, study and tourism. But does the ever present smell of food, and lack of ultimate reward, change shark behaviour? Flinders University researcher Charlie Huveneers hopes to find out...Charlie Huveneers, Flinders University, Adelaide

Battles Between Bee Sperm

What have bees and gladiators got in common? Well, Boris Baer has been looking at their breeding habits and it turns out that bee’s sperm actually fight it out amongst themselves to determine who’s going to father the next generation...Boris Baer, University of Western Australia

The Man Who Ate His Own Experiments

The man who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the bacterium that is responsible for stomach ulcers actually munched on a few of the bugs in order to find out what they do... Chris Smith talks to Barry Marshall...Barry Marshall, Q.E.II Medical Centre, Perth

Seeing Farther than Ever Before - The Square Kilometre Array

The Square Kilometre Array will be the largest radio telescope device ever constructed - a strong contender for the title of World's Largest Scientific Device. But how will it work and what do we hope to learn from this enormous project? Peter Quinn, Director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Perth, Western Australia, explains more...Peter Quinn, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Perth, Western Australia.

A Ride Around The Universe

Chris touches down in Australia and steps inside a planetarium for the very first time. He talks to Carley Tillet of Horizon about spinning and space junk and makes a quick stop at South Pole's night sky...Carley Tillet, Horizon, the Planetarium, SciTech, Perth

Generating Hydrogen from Solar Power

Embarrassingly for the average Aussie, as a nation, they're amongst the worst emitters of greenhouse gases on a per capita basis of any country in the world. So why aren't they making more use of all that lovely sunshine they enjoy? New research in Sydney could generate hydrogen using titanium oxides and sunshine...Leigh Sheppard, University of Western Sydney

Project Eden - Rebuilding Australia's Native Fauna

Many of Australia's unique and endangered species are under threat, largely owing to feral animals like cats and foxes, that have been introduced from Europe. But now, a major initiative called project Eden which is based in the Francois Peron National Park in Shark Bay, Northwest Australia, has been set up to tackle the problem by returning a patch of the country to what it would’ve been like before rat and cat bearing European settlers arrived on the scene...Brett Fitzgerald and Colleen Sims, Project Eden