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Naked Scientists PodcastThe Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts |
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This week we put our heads in a spin as listeners across the world take part in a huge experiment to see whether it is possible to detect the Coriolis Effect in the bath, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki from Sydney provides the definitive answer to the Coriolis Effect quandary from a bathroom Down-Under, Dr Kat interviews Jack Ashby at the Grant Museum in London about how insects have been used to bring cannabis traffickers out of the wood work, and callers get the chance to quiz Dr Chris, Dr Dave and Dr Phil on any aspect of science, technology and medicine in our Christmas question special. .
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This week we learn about animal communication straight from the horse's mouth. Dr Gillian Forrester, from the University of Sussex, describes how gorillas use tactile signals to communicate, Dr Katie Slocombe, from the University of St. Andrews, talks about her work on how chimpanzees use certain grunts to refer to specific food sources, Professor Joan Silk, from the University of California, discusses whether chimps are charitable to their chums, Professor Keith Kendrick from the Babraham Institute in Cambridge discusses how sheep recognise emotion, and Dr Vicki Melfi, from Paignton Zoo, tells of how the red swellings on a baboon's bottom work like a sexual traffic light.
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This week we take a foray into forensics, as Detective Inspector Alan Cook from Essex Police joins us to talk about how DNA is used to solve crimes, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys from Leicester University helps us brush up on how DNA fingerprinting works, Dr Tamsin O'Connell from the University of Cambridge describes how archaeologists extract DNA from old bones and how DNA can help us track down our human origins, and in Kitchen Science we have the first ever radio DNA fingerprinting race, in which schools will battle it out to find out which of the Naked Scientists is the foul footed felon with the criminally smelly feet...
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This week we dive into deep time as cosmologist Dr Mike Hobson from Cambridge University explains how we measure the universe and answers a host of astronomically hard questions, Dr Chris Voigt from the University of California in San Francisco describes his E. coli-cam, a bacterial camera with a resolution of 100 mega-pixels, and Derek and Dave cook up a treat in this week's Kitchen Science.
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This week we unravel the secrets of DNA as Dr Darren Grafham from the Sanger Centre in Hinxton, Cambridge, discusses the importance of sequencing genomes and how the Human Genome Project has improved medicine, Dr Mike Majerus from the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University explains how we can share genetic material with worms but look completely different, Anna Lacey interviews BBC producer Mike Salisbury about the making of the new David Attenborough series Life in the Undergrowth, and we take Kitchen Science to the classroom as schools across the region battle it out in a live DNA extraction experiment.
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This week Professor David Pritchard from Nottingham University gets to the bottom of why parasites can get rid of allergies, Professor Elizabeth Bernays from the University of Arizona describes how caterpillars use plant-toxin chemical warfare to fend off parasites, Dr Chris visits Westbourne High School in Ipswich to run fitness experiments for Healthcare Science Week, and Dave and Derek go bang with an explosive electrolysis experiment in the Naked Scientists Laboratory.
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In this week's explosions extravaganza, chemist and award-winning author Dr John Emsley joins pyrotechnics expert Dr Jacqueline Akhavan from Cranfield University to talk about the chemistry behind the bangs on bonfire night, George Pendle, author of Strange Angel, describes the long history of rocketry, Mark Schrope, recalls his experience of flying straight into the eye of Hurricane Rita, and Dave and Derek cool us all off by creating a home-made fire extinguisher in this week's Kitchen Science.
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This week we delve into the unexplained, as ex-UFO official Nick Pope from the Ministry of Defence discusses Britain's biggest UFO case, the Rendlesham Forest Incident, Anna Lacey visits Rendlesham to talk to Brenda Butler and Vince Thurkettle about their involvement in the alleged sighting, Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright from the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University discusses Mars, asteroid impacts and life on other planets, and Surendra Verma, author of The Tunguska Fireball, tells the story of how an area of forest the size of Greater London was mysteriously flattened in 1908.
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This week we get bitten by the bug as Dr Ian Burgess from Insect Research and Development Limited talks about the nasties that nibble us at night, Dr William Foster from the Department of Zoology at Cambridge University discusses social insects and how individuals in the colonies communicate, Bee Wilson, historian of ideas, food columnist and author of The Hive, describes the useful properties of honey, and Megan Frederickson from Stanford University reveals the horticulturalist responsible for Devil's Gardens in the Amazonian rainforest.
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As the flu season and the threat of avian flu comes closer, Professor John Oxford from the Royal London Hospital discusses what the flu is, where it comes from and whether drugs and vaccines can help, Professor Pat Troop, Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency, describes the systems in place to stop an avian flu outbreak from spreading, and Dr Paul Digard from the Division of Virology at the University of Cambridge tells us how the flu virus escapes past layers of snot. In the Naked Scientist's Laboratory this week, Dave and Derek give us the run down on what snot is for.
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Stretching our grey matter this week is developmental biologist Dr Adrian Pini from Guy's, King's and St. Thomas's Hospital, London, who describes how our brain grows, how our brain works, and how it can become damaged, and Dr Huseyin Mehmet from Imperial College London, who discusses the potential application of stem cells in repairing central nervous system damage. Also in the studio is Tom Smith from Cambridge University, who has designed a new water pump that could help thousands of people in the developing world, and Derek and Dave perform a vanishing act in Kitchen Science.
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In this show Dr Symon Cotton from Astron Clinica joins us to discuss how Raman Spectroscopy can be used to non-invasively diagnose malignant melanoma, Professor Russell Cowburn from Imperial College London describes how laser scatter effects can be used to fingerprint a banknote, Sam Reay chops his way through a 3-inch block of concrete to highlight the physics of Kung Fu, and Dr Uwe Bergmann describes how synchrotronic x-rays are helping him to read the 1000 year old Archimedes Palimpsest.
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This week we look at the scary, squeamish and sinister side to science. Dr Tim Wreghitt, from Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, discusses the threat of avian flu, viruses and why we keep catching the common cold, Dr Ian Burgess, director of Insect Research and Development Ltd, is itching to discuss bed bugs, head lice and fleas, and John Emsley from Bedfordshire talks about the chemistry of poisoning and his new book 'Elements of Murder'. Anna Lacey asks the chief executive of the RSPB, Graham Wynn, why conservation is so important, and Philippa Law provides an alarming conclusion to our series on Einstein's influence in our everyday lives by finding out how smoke detectors work.
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This special Brain Awareness Week show exercises the grey matter as Professor Chris McManus from the Department of Psychology at University College London talks about left-handedness and why the two halves of the brain are different, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, discusses autism and a process called synesthesia, where people hear colours and taste shapes, and Professor Seth Grant from the Sanger Institute at Hinxton describes how genes help your brain to work, and discusses whether they make you intelligent. Continuing our series on Einstein's influence in the home, Philippa Law stews over Brownian Motion and the science in a cup of tea, and Sarah Urquhart, Brian Wallace and Anna Lacey join the fun at the Cambridge Science Festival.
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In this show we look at the causes and effects of global warming. Professor Lloyd Peck from the British Antarctic Survey discusses how giant sea spiders cope with extreme Antarctic cold, Professor Howard Griffiths, from the Plant Sciences Department at Cambridge University, describes the link between carbon dioxide and climate change, and discusses how plants help to control global warming, Professor Harry Elderfield from Earth Sciences at Cambridge University tells us how carbon dioxide is making the ocean acidic, and Professor Chris Llewelyn-Smith, from the UK Atomic Energy Authority, suggests that nuclear fusion may be an alternative energy solution for the future. And continuing our series on Einstein's contribution to science in the home, Philippa Law gets turned on by the photoelectric effect.
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This week we're picking the brains of two top experts on the science of hypnosis. Dr Peter Naish from the Open University discusses what hypnosis is, how stage hypnosis differs from therapeutic hypnosis, how new evidence suggests that hypnosis isn't just 'all in the mind', and whether hypnosis can reveal your former life, while Dr Tannis Laidlaw from Imperial College London talks about how hypnosis can help people give up smoking, reduce stress and improve well-being. In our second look at how Einstein has influenced science in our living rooms, Philippa Law accounts for how calculators work.
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This week we've dug up three bona fide scientists to talk about what fossils tell us about the past. Dr David Norman, the director of the Museum of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University, discusses the science of dinosaurs, Dr Tamsin O'Connell from Cambridge University describes how isotope markers in ancient bone and hair can tell us what animals were eating, and Dr Paul Willis from Sydney, Australia, talks about how new crocodile fossils help us understand crocodile evolution. In the first of our series on how Einstein has influenced our everyday lives, Philippa Law has a laser-sharp look at how a CD player works.
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In this week's show, Professor Fran Balkwill from the Cancer Institute at St. Bartholomew's and The Royal London, and Professor Andrew Wyllie, Head of the Department of Pathology at Cambridge University, discuss cancer, how cancer spreads and how the body responds, Dr Toby Murcott, a science writer and broadcaster, talks about complementary medicines and how they might be tested, and Dr Chris Smith flies through a host of discoveries from the other side of the pond, where he reports live from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington.
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Today's show is about Cupid's Chemistry - the science of sex, smell and pheromones - with Cambridge University olfaction and pheromone researcher Dr. Peter Brennan, who joins us to discuss how the nose picks up smells, Prof. Steve Jones, from University College London who describes why animals and plants have sex, Keele University chemist Dr. Graeme Jones who discusses the role of pheromones, and how ants and other insects use smell to find their way back to their nest, and Dr. Steve Yanoviak drops in from the rainforest canopy in Peru to talk about ants that can glide...
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On today's show Prof. Roger Pedersen, from Cambridge University, joins us to discuss what are stem cells, what is their role in the developing embryo, and how can they be used to repair or replace damaged tissues, and Dr Huseyin Mehmet, from Imperial College London, discusses how he is developing therapies for cerebral palsy based on stem cell repair. Also joining us on today's show is Soren Müller Bested, from Singapore's umbilical cord blood stem cell bank, CordLife, to discuss how discarded umbilical cords of new born babies are a rich source of stem cells.
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On today's show we go in search of life's origins, extraterrestrial life, and the ingredients that make a planet a good home with astronomer Dr. Simon Goodwin, from the University of Cardiff, and Dr. Monica Grady, from the Natural History Museum, London. Also joining us on the programme are theoretical physicist Professor Michio Kaku, from City University New York, to discuss the possible existence of parallel universes, and NASA plant scientist Dr. Volker Kern, who describes interesting results when moss grows in the absence of gravity aboard a spaceship...
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On this week's show we are joined by microbiologist and probiotic expert Professor Glenn Gibson, from the University of Reading, to talk about friendly bacteria and how they can affect human health, and bioremediation researcher Professor Lynne Macaskie, from the University of Birmingham, who explains how bacteria can be used to help clean up the environment by eating concrete and oil spills. Also joining us are pathologist Professor John Lee, who discusses his new TV programme "Anatomy for Beginners" featuring human dissection, and space scientist Professor John Zarnecki who brings us up to speed with the success of the Huygens mission to Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
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This week's show explores the reality of science fiction by merging man with machine. Dr. Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading discusses current research into cyborgs and upgrading humans through mechanical implants, Professor William Clocksin from Oxford Brookes University talks about computer vision and making machines more human, and Dr Andrew Gosler from Oxford University applies computer vision to finding out why birds eggs have speckles.
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Today's guests include Dr Campbell Bunce, from Xenova, who joins us to talk about vaccines to prevent nicotine and cocaine addiction, Cambridge University's Prof. Barry Everitt, who works on the brain mechanisms of addiction, and Prof. Lawrence Whalley, from the University of Aberdeen, who has been looking into how smoking can dimish brain power as you age. Also joining us on the show is Prof. Mark Griffiths, from Nottingham Trent University, the UK's only professor of gambling addiction, who asks whether gambling can genuinely be considered an addiction, like nicotine or heroin.
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