Interviews with Scientists

Who are our brains for this programme? Plus we find out their burning neuroscience questions.

How much steroid is needed to switch on a single gene?

Cells undergoing programmed cell death release signals that trigger apoptosis in distant cells.

Mice growing in an environment with lots of stimuli are less social and more territorial than mice that grow up in more...

Computational techniques have shed fresh light on how C4 photosynthesis evolved from C3 photosynthesis.

How are organisms such as planarians able to grow new heads and tails?

Our gene of the month is for all you hopeless romantics out there - it's Lonely Heart

Researchers in Finland have found a new gene faults involved in dog dwarfism, which might be important in humans too.

Researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research have found that 'sister' stem cells are much more different...

Researchers on the US The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project have released new data revealing genetic similarities...

Footballer Fabrice Muamba made headlines when his heart stopped on the pitch. Prof Hugh Watkins wants to know why this...

Although lifestyle factors are important, our genes play an important role in our risk of heart disease. Prof Aroon...

What happens in a vacuum? We remove the air from a bell jar to see if you can scream in space...

Dave Ansell explains how to scare your friends by dropping a mug with seemingly nothing to stop it!

How can you make a tiny fridge using an elastic band?

Ginny Smith and Dave Ansell put crisp packets in a microwave - what will the result be?

Material Scientist, Caroline Goddard, explains how new alloys are made and how you select metals for different tasks...

Virologist Margaret Stanley explains how they developed the HPV vaccine to lower the rates of cervical cancers...

Atmospheric Chemist Rod Jones explains how he's developed a pollution detector which fits in your pocket...

A Chinese man looks like he has a nose growing on his forehead after surgeons worked to replace his nose damaged in an...

How does disturbing our sleep patterns by working shifts affect us?

How can we probe what’s going on in the brain of someone who has a sleep disorder? Jason Rihel uses zebrafish to learn...

One serious sleep disorder is narcolepsy; sufferers regularly fall asleep because they can’t regulate their sleep...

Some animals spend over 80% of their lives asleep. But why? What’s the purpose of sleep and why does it become a...