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Naked Scientists, In Short Special Editions Podcast — Life Sciences
Naked Scientists, In Short Special Editions Podcast

Probing the weird, wacky and spectacular, the Naked Scientists Special Editions are special one-off scientific reports, investigations and interviews on cutting-edge topics by the Naked Scientists team.

Copyright: © The Naked Scientists

Latest Episodes:

Back to School: Mistakes help us learn Sep 14, 2018

Show notes

We've all been there at some point - you raise your hand in class, answer the question, and get it utterly, utterly wrong. These school-day humiliations may stay with us many years later, in fact - I'd love to hear yours, but as our kids are all headed back to school this week, we're trying to find out if perhaps these mistakes are good for us! Georgia Mills is on the case, but only after finding out some of our listeners biggest dunce moments! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Audio cues improve driver safety Sep 05, 2018

Show notes

These days, many of us are heavily dependent on our trusty sat navs to get where we want to go, but looking at these devices whilst driving is incredibly dangerous and can lead to car accidents. Psychologists from Anglia Ruskin University are hoping to minimise the dangers of using this technology by incorporating audio cues with in-car GPS to forewarn the driver of the lay of the land. Tamsin Bell met with Helen Keyes to hear what's driving their work... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Goats prefer happy people Sep 05, 2018

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Goats can tell apart human facial expressions and - what's more - prefer to interact with happy people, according to a new study from scientists at Queen Mary University of London. We knew work animals like dogs and horses could do this, but no-one knew if animals domesticated for food products would be able to. Georgia Mills spoke to lead researcher Alan McElligott to find out how they did it Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Origins of childhood kidney cancer Sep 01, 2018

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Most of the people who develop cancer are adults, although a significant number of children succumb too. The signs are though that childhood cancers could have a different origin than the adult disease, which might also mean they can be treated in a different way. Cambridge University's Sam Behjati suspects that tumours in children form from foetal tissue that has failed to mature properly. And by comparing the genetic instructions operating in normal and cancerous kidney cells from children and adults, he's tracked down evidence to support his theory and found a host of new avenues to explore... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The Science of St John's Aug 31, 2018

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From artificial photosynthesis to the art of statistics, the Naked Scientists take Jenny Zhang and Richard Samworth, two of St John's College's leading scientists, for a trip down the river to hear all about their work. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Testing for Tuberculosis Aug 16, 2018

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Doctors think that one third of the world's population have been exposed to the bacterial infection TB, or tuberculosis. It can damage any tissue in the body, infect the skeleton and joints, and even cause meningitis, but most people develop chest disease and a cough, which is how it chiefly spreads. A major problem with controlling the infection is that the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria can be very hard to culture in a laboratory, and they grow extremely slowly, which holds up diagnosis and also makes it tricky to tell quickly whether someone is actually responding to the treatment... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How did early life evolve? Aug 13, 2018

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We often hear about the search for life on Mars, but could life begin outside our solar system? Izzie Clarke discussed the chemistry involved with astrophysicist Paul Rimmer... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Evolution of the Skeleton Aug 10, 2018

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Since Darwin's time scientists have been studying the skeleton of a type of fish that lived 400 million years ago called Heterostracans. These fish were covered in a tough exoskeleton, but scientists couldn't decide exactly where it came from. Was it a precursor to bone? To teeth? New research is suggesting all those old theories may be as dead and buried as the fish fossils, and this exoskeleton is just another way of making bone. Adam Murphy spoke to Joseph Keating of the University of Manchester to learn more... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Circumcision Prevents HIV Jul 27, 2018

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HIV is a global pandemic. Worldwide, about 37 million people are living with the virus, and there are between 3 and 5 thousand AIDS deaths every day. More worrying is that, despite intensive public health and safe sex campaigns, there are a further 3 to 5 thousand new HIV infections occurring every day, and despite decades of effort, scientists still have not yet managed to develop an effective vaccine. But one very powerful way to prevent infection is for men to be circumcised, which reduces their risk of picking up the virus by up to 80%. So is this a cost effective strategy to halt HIV... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Chemputer: Chemistry goes digital Jul 21, 2018

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Mixing chemicals together causes reactions and produces new molecules. With so many different chemicals in existence, there are infinite combinations that can be made, and millions of chemical reactions yet to be tried. But doing these tests is very time consuming, laborious and has a low success rate; it's also very susceptible to human failings, like bias and fatigue. To surmount this, University of Glasgow chemist Lee Cronin has invented a robot to test his chemical combinations for him. What's more impressive is that this robot can actually learn. By testing random chemical combinations... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

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