Instant Genius

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What can the father of Gaia theory tell us about our future? - James Lovelock Jul 03, 2019

Show notes

This week on the Science Focus Podcast, we spend some time with James Lovelock – the visionary scientist and environmental thinker who this month turns 100 years old.

James Lovelock is best known as the creator of the Gaia hypothesis, which proposes that our planet and all the life on it functions as a single self-regulating organism.

Less well known is that he also developed scientific instruments for NASA missions to Mars; he invented the electron capture detector, with which he became the first person to detect the widespread presence of CFCs in the atmosphere; and he even carried out influential work in cryopreservation, bringing frozen hamsters back to life.

James Lloyd, staff writer at BBC Science Focus, visited Lovelock at his Dorset home to look back at his life and achievements.

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Could leaving nature to its own devices be the key to meeting the UK’s climate goals? - Mark Lynas Jun 26, 2019

Show notes

The UK government’s official climate advisors recently reported that the country’s greenhouse gas emissions must fall to zero by 2050 in order to tackle the growing threat of manmade climate change.

However, it seems unlikely that we will be able to reach this target by simply burning less fossil fuel and cutting down on international travel. So what else can be done?

Environmental charity Rewilding Britain thinks that the answer is to let large areas of the country return to their pre-agricultural state to restore natural carbon sequestering environments such as peat bogs, heaths and salt marshes.

In this episode of the Science Focus Podcast BBC Science Focus commissioning editor Jason Goodyer talks to environmental researcher Mark Lynas about the potential beneficial effects of rewilding.

We now have more than 75 episodes of the Science Focus Podcast, each of which is still well worth a listen. Here are a few that you might find interesting:

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Is there really no such thing as a fish? – Andrew Hunter Murray and Dan Schreiber Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

We like to think our Science Focus Podcast is something really rather special (really, you should tell all your mates about it). But let’s face it, it pales in comparison to the hugely popular podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, which bagged Apple’s prestigious ‘Best New Podcast’ award in 2014.

Numerous awards later, including the 2019 Heinz Oberhummer Award in science communication, they have amassed a whopping 700,000 subscribers for their irreverent podcast about the weird and wacky things they’ve discovered over the past week.

We can’t resist the opportunity to get meta and do a science podcast about doing a science podcast, so we sent Online Editor Alexander McNamara to meet two of the show's stars, Andrew Hunter Murray and Dan Schreiber, where they chewed the ‘facts’ about Isaac Newton lecturing to empty theatres, meeting scientists who suggest putting fake eyes on a cow’s backside, and the logistics around building a statue out of sausages.

We also put their fact-checking skills to the test with a little quiz pulled from the Q&A section of BBC Science Focus Magazine. Why don’t you play along as well and let us know how you get by tweeting us @sciencefocus.

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Is racism creeping into science? – Angela Saini Jun 12, 2019

Show notes

After World War II, mainstream science denounced eugenics and the study of racial differences. Yet there remained a staunch group of scientists who continued to research race. For a few decades, these people remained on the fringes of research. Yet now, in the 21st Century, fuelled by a rise in the far right and extremist views, an increasing number of researchers are framing race as a biological construct rather than a social one.

Yet even well-meaning scientists continue to use racial categories in genetics and medicine, betraying their belief that there are biological differences between us, and that race can explain differences in intelligence and disease susceptibility.

In her new book, Superior, Angela Saini explores the concept of race. She interviews anthropologists, historians, social scientists and geneticists and finds that time after time, the science is retrofitted to accommodate race.

Here, she talks to BBC Science Focus production editor Alice Lipscombe-Southwell.

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Image:Nazi officials use callipers to measure an ethnic German's nose. The Nazis developed a system of facial measurement that was supposedly a way of determining racial descent. The compiled results, based on biased samples, were used to back up the Nazi claim that Germans were a pure and superior "Aryan" race © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

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Can we really predict when doomsday will happen? – William Poundstone Jun 05, 2019

Show notes

In this episode of the Science Focus Podcast, we’re going to try to guess when the end of the world will happen.

Don’t worry, it’s not as gloomy as it might sound. Those people waving ‘The End is Nigh!’ placards are probably completely wrong about an immanent doomsday… Probably.

There is a formula that has circulated for the last 50 years which suggests we can pinpoint the end of something with a reasonable amount of certainty. It has been used to predict any number of things, including successful stock market investments, the run of Broadway shows and even how many Harry Potter books go missing from local libraries.

But since the 1990s, it has sparked considerable debate among theorists about when humanity as we know it will come to an end.

We ask William Poundstone - whose new book How To Predict Everything (£12.99, Oneworld) explains the history of this enigmatic equation - how long we have left as a species on this planet, whether we can shift the odds in our favour, and how we can predict, well, pretty much everything else.

How long do you think we have left, and why? Let us know on Twitter at @sciencefocus, and don’t forget to rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Is body positivity the answer to body image issues? – Phillippa Diedrichs May 29, 2019

Show notes

We live in a society that values looks, but only if they fit into a restrictive set of ideals regarding size and shape, age, skin colour, as well as many other features of our bodies.

The result is an immense pressure to look a certain way. According to a recent survey by the Mental Health Foundation, one in five adults in the UK had experienced shame over their body at some point in the last year.

The rise of social media has provided a platform for a rebellion against these ideals in the form of body positivity, which advocates loving your body, even the parts that don’t fit the ideal standards of beauty.

So, is loving your body the key to defeating body image issues? Or is it making the problem worse?

In this podcast we speak to Professor Phillippa Diedrichs, a psychologist at the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England. She takes us through the importance of a healthy body image and the research into how body positivity could help or harm.

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Why is the Moon landing still relevant 50 years on? – Kevin Fong May 22, 2019

Show notes

If you were to picture the Moon landing in your head right now, you could probably conjure up images of Neil Armstrong’s famous first steps, accompanied by his inspirational (and often misquoted) speech, despite it happening many years before most of us were even born.

But this remarkable achievement did not come easily, and the decade-long mission culminated in the final nerve wracking 13 minutes it took the Moon lander to arrive safely on the surface.

This moment, and the people who contributed to this landmark occasion in our quest to explore space, are the subject of a new BBC podcast series, 13 Minutes To The Moon.

We caught up with the show’s host, Kevin Fong, about the show, and he tells us why the Moon landing still inspires us today, what it was like speaking to the people who ran mission control, and where our next Moon shot will be.

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Can science explain everything? – Michael Blastland May 15, 2019

Show notes

We know a lot. In scientific studies, we can count data, observe trends, infer links and calculate risks. But we also spend a lot of time ignoring noise – the unexplained variations in our results that we can’t account for. Take smoking for example. We all know that smoking kills, but it doesn’t kill everyone, and we can’t predict which lifelong smokers will be struck down by lung cancer, and which won’t.

In his new book The Hidden Half (£14.99, Atlantic Books), Michael Blastland discusses how, even in the most tightly controllable situations, we often still see variations in outcomes. He argues that our unwillingness to admit uncertainty can affect science, economics, politics and business, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

But it’s not all bad news. New research that shows that admitting the extent to which we’re not sure could make us seem more trustworthy. And he explains that even though we don’t know everything, experts and the scientific method are still the most important places for us to turn to for guidance.

He talks to Helen Glenny, editorial assistant at BBC Science Focus Magazine, in this week’s episode of the Science Focus Podcast.

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Is the cure for cancer hiding in human breast milk? – Professor Catharina Svanborg May 08, 2019

Show notes

Two decades ago a group of Swedish researchers chanced upon an intriguing compound with tumour-killing properties hidden within human breast milk. Dubbed HAMLET, short for Human α-lactalbumin, the substance has so far come through in vitro and animal trials with flying colours. With human trials currently underway, could HAMLET be the drug to finally give us the upper hand in the war against cancer?

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Why is Leonardo Da Vinci’s scientific legacy so often overlooked? – Martin Clayton May 01, 2019

Show notes

It’s been 500 years since the death of Leonardo Da Vinci, and he’s remembered mainly for his great works of art, like The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But he was also a scientist, working across disciplines like anatomy, engineering, and architecture.

Sadly, his scientific research was never published and his engineering ambitions went largely unrealised. However, through his sketches and drawings we can see his anatomical discoveries, his plans for machines, and his investigations into the world around him. We can see what was occupying his mind, allowing us to piece together clues about the mysteries he aspired to solve.

So to mark the anniversary of his death, 200 of those drawings will go on display at the Queen’s Gallery next to Buckingham palace in the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing. In this episode, we talked to Martin Clayton, Head of Prints and Drawings for Royal Collection Trust at Windsor Castle, about Da Vinci’s lasting scientific legacy. We ask him about the work he was doing, how he influenced the scientific disciplines he experimented with, and what we should remember him for.

He speaks to BBC Science Focus editorial assistant Helen Glenny in this week’s episode of the Science Focus Podcast.

If you like what you hear, then please rate, review, and share with anybody you think might enjoy our podcast.

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