Transplanting brain cells & the Big Birdwatch
Brain implants grown in a lab wire themselves into the nervous system. Artificial intelligence joins the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. We take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch 2023. And ar...
3 Feb 202326min
Satellites: forging metal and finding cholera
Much of our daily lives is made possible by the placement of objects orbiting our planet. From GPS, to weather forecasts, even your bank's ATM wouldn't be able to function without a timecode from spac...
31 Jan 202332min
Plastic-eating bugs & paying you to power off
The plan to pay people to dial down their electricity use, the bacteria eating plastic in the ocean, and why antidepressants make it harder for users to enjoy themselves. Like this podcast? Please hel...
27 Jan 202330min
ChatGPT: The chatbot changing how we work
We first chatted ChatGPT last month, and have since been keeping an eye on the incredible ways it's been responding to users from across the world. This week, we consider the implications of this very...
24 Jan 202331min
Lasers lure lightning and carbon computing
How hair follicles might hold the key to reversing scars, but not just in skin: in hearts and other organs too. Also, scientists crack how to grow new brain cells in the laboratory dish. And what a mu...
20 Jan 202329min
Dry January: is giving up booze beneficial?
It's that time of the year where we traditionally make - and usually break - resolutions to eat less, drink less, lose weight, give up meat and take up exercise during the year ahead. And in the decad...
17 Jan 202329min
Shouting dolphins and failed rocket launches
The artificial pancreas to turnaround diabetes control, what went wrong with the UK's first space launch, and the Cambridge-born process that can turn CO2 and waste plastic into fuels and valuable che...
13 Jan 202328min
Q&A: How to avoid being squashed by a whale
How stars burn for billions of years. Can Rishi Sunak turn us into a nation of mathematicians? And how misinformation changes the shape of our brains. Plus, there'll be our customary quiz at half time...
10 Jan 20231h 1min
