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Noel Sharkey Apr 15, 2013

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Robots probably won't take over the world, but they probably will be given ever greater responsibility. Already, robots care for the elderly in Japan, and drones have dropped bombs on Afghanistan. Professor Noel Sharkey fell in love with artificial intelligence in the 1980s, celebrated when he programmed his first robot to move in a straight line down the corridor and , for many years, judged robot wars on TV. Now, he thinks AI is a dangerous dream. Jim al-Khalili hears how Noel left school at 15 to become an electrician's apprentice and amateur rock musician before graduating as a Doctor of Psychology and world authority on robots, studying both their strengths and their limitations.

Annette Karmiloff-Smith on toddlers and TV Apr 08, 2013

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Annette Karmiloff-Smith, from the Birkbeck Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development in London talks to Jim Al-Khalili about her Life Scientific. Starting out as a simultaneous interpreter for the United Nations she soon decided that not being allowed to express any thoughts of her own wasn't for her. After a chance encounter with Jean Piaget, one of the most renowned psychologists of all time, she decided to pursue psychology and over 40 years later she is a world expert in brain development and how babies and children learn.

Her research has been cited not just by fellow psychologists, but by philosophers, linguists, educationalists, geneticists and neuroscientists. Her controversial response to guidance issued by the American Academy of Paediatrics, that parents should discourage TV viewing in children under two, is that if the subject matter is chosen well, and is scientifically based, a TV screen can be better for a baby than a book.

(Image: Child watching television. Credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Premiership Science Apr 01, 2013

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Like football, science is an international endeavour complete with its own stars and prima donnas. Alok Jha investigates what it takes to make a winning team.

What If... We could stay young forever? 3/3 Mar 18, 2013

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What if we could feel more alive and more alert by just eating smaller meals? Extreme calorie restriction may hold the secret to the a longer live. According to some scientists, living to 120 and beyond could be possible - but is it worth a life of hunger and food deprivation?

(Image: Woman pinching 'spare tyre' on her waist. Credit: Science Photo Library)

What If... We could stay young forever? 2/3 Mar 11, 2013

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What if we could stay young forever? Peter Bowes continues his quest to find out what science and lifestyle can do to help keep mind and body young. Is it possible to slow down or even reverse the aging process, through exercise?

The latest trend in gyms is towards high intensity workouts. Some scientists say they're better for the body than less strenuous exercise like jogging - and just a couple of minutes a day could be all we need. And what if we could inject ourselves with hormones, to stay young?

(Image: Woman running on treadmill in gym. Credit: Science Photo Library)

What If... We could stay young forever? 1/3 Mar 04, 2013

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What if we could stay young forever? It may be a fantasy, but age management is big business and some people will stop at nothing to roll back the years. Pills, scans, injections, extreme diets and brain training - there's a vast array of apparent solutions on the market - but do they work and are they safe? Is age "reversal" possible? Peter Bowes investigates.

(Photo: A woman is covered with sheets of 24-carat gold, said to be effective for anti-aging care. Credit: Getty Images)

What If... We could all become cyborgs? Feb 25, 2013

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As part of the BBC World Service’s “What if…?” season, biologist Dr Andrew Holding meets some of the people straddling the line between man and machine.

Over 50 years ago the term cyborg was first used to describe a person whose capabilities are augmented by mechanical or cybernetic parts.

Today, mechanical or electronic prosthetic limbs and organs are rapidly changing more and more of our lives. But how far can it, and will it, go?

Andrew meets some of those who might describe themselves today as a cyborg. Our bodies are not permanent, and if we lost a limb or an organ, and if we could afford it, we might well think about replacing it with a new device.

But what about replacing a perfectly healthy part of your body with a device to give you superhuman powers?

What if we could all become cyborgs?

Sexual Nature 3/3 Feb 18, 2013

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When a couple are expecting a baby, the big question is: girl or boy? Adam Rutherford explores the many ways Nature decides that question. If you’re a human, a kangaroo or a komodo dragon, it’s in the sex chromosomes. If you’re a crocodile, it’s the temperature of your egg. And if you’re a fish, it can be one sex first and, later in the life, the other.

Adam’s investigation includes conversation with Professor Jennifer Graves, a leading authority on sex determination, at La Trobe University in Australia. She explains what the weird nature of the platypus’ sex chromosomes tells us about how human gender is decided.

Adam also meets one of London Zoo’s Komodo Dragons, the world’s largest and fiercest lizard. Female dragons can produce young without mating with males, but all their babies are males. How so?

Sexual Nature 2/3 Feb 11, 2013

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Sex is one of Nature’s great forces of change. Yet it is one of life’s great mysteries. Adam Rutherford investigates how and why living things first invented sex about 1.5 billion years ago. He begins by exploring why so many animals and plants have carried on doing it, given that sex has some big disadvantages compared to asexual reproduction.

Sexual Nature 1/3 Feb 04, 2013

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The oldest known sexual beings, a 400 million year old fish sex movie and the prehistoric turtles which were fossilised in the act of copulation. Discovery this week is strictly adults-only as we begin a three-part natural history of sex. Adam Rutherford talks to the scientists studying the world’s most revealing fossils.

(Image: Two carettocheylid turtles, fossilised in mating position. Credit: The Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)