Manipulating mouse memory; London pollution; Nature of knowing; Snail fur

Manipulating mouse memory; London pollution; Nature of knowing; Snail fur

Manipulating mouse memory Optogenetics allows researchers to use light to turn the genes involved in memory, in the brain, off and on. It's a powerful tool for seeing exactly where specific types of memory are formed and processed. Researchers at MIT have been using the technique to manipulate fearful or pleasurable memories associated with a particular location, in mice. This is so they can see how memories are overwritten in the brain's processing regions.

London pollution Cities in Britain have moved on a great deal from air pollution events, like the London smog of 1952, where 4000 people died in a week. But a recent report has put London air pollution levels as bad as some of the worst in the world, on a level with Mexico City and Beijing. Pollution is a mixture of gases and tiny particulate matter (or PM) -particles too small to be filtered out by our noses, and which end up going straight into our lungs. Dr Rossa Brugha and reporter Marnie Chesterton take a bicycle ride through London's busy streets and parks with an air pollution monitor. Back in the studio, Rossa and Adam talk through the results...

Nature of knowing Philip Ball, the programme's on-call polymath and author of 'Invisible, the Dangerous Allure of the Unseen', comes into the studio to answer a listener's question about how science can possibly understand the unseeable, if it is supposed to be dealing with the observable universe.

Snail fur and how to grow a new head Why is it that some animals can regrow lost body parts and others, like us, can't? Even some closely related species, for instance salamanders, can regrow a lost tail, but fellow amphibians, the frogs, can't regrow lost legs? One of the best-studied 're-generators' is the sea creature - Hydractinia, or Snail fur, because it grows like fur on the back of the snail-shell homes of hermit crabs. By studying Hydractinia's regenerative powers at the cellular level, researchers think that most animals, including us, may have the potential to regrow lost limbs using stem cell systems lying dormant within us.

Producer: Fiona Roberts.

Avsnitt(614)

Lab-grown leather; Goal line technology; Bacteria outrage; Marine buoy

Lab-grown leather; Goal line technology; Bacteria outrage; Marine buoy

Cultured meat was on the menu earlier this week, but Mark Post's public tasting of his lab-grown burger marks the culmination of decades of research on producing artificial meat. Adam Rutherford talks to one of the other major players in the world of manmade animal products, Gabor Forgacs. However, his company, Modern Meadow, is concentrating on launching a different product first - cultured leather.The football season is about to start, and for the first time electronic Goal Line Technology will be introduced. This year will see the Hawk-Eye system deployed at all Premier League grounds in an attempt to help referees make more informed decisions. But how will it work, and how accurate can it be? Inside Science speaks with the inventor, Paul Hawkins, and the engineers who are testing it to international standards.A bacteria or a bacterium? We sparked a controversy on last week's programme by using bacteria to describe a singular microbe. Adam talks to evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel about how words evolve and whether scientists can halt their adaptation.This week on 'Show Us Your Instrument', oceanographer Helen Czerski introduces her giant marine buoy. She'll be sailing into the eye of a storm just off the south coast of Greenland later this year, where the buoy will measure bubbles to help refine climate models.

8 Aug 201327min

Crash risk; Mary Rose bacteria; History of Science; Greenwich telescope

Crash risk; Mary Rose bacteria; History of Science; Greenwich telescope

July has seen train crashes in Canada, Pakistan, France, Spain and Switzerland. Inside Science asks if this is a trend or just a coincidence. Professor David Spiegelhalter, an expert in the public perception of risk, explains whether there is such a thing as a 'crash season'. Microbiologists working on the Mary Rose in Portsmouth have discovered a new type of metal-eating bacteria which is damaging the ship's wooden timbers. Reporter Gaia Vince goes behind the scenes at Portsmouth's Historic Dockyards to find out how conservation scientists have saved the ship. Last week Manchester hosted the 2013 International Congress of History of Science Technology and Medicine, the biggest ever meeting of historians of science from around the world. The keynote speech was given by Prof Hasok Chang of the University of Cambridge, urging his colleagues to put "Science back in History of Science". Inside Science asked him if there should also be more history in the practice of science... Finally, Dr Marek Kukula Public Astronomer at the Greenwich Observatory shows us his instrument - the 28inch refracting telescope which historians at the time likened to a Spanish onion, or the Taj Mahal.

1 Aug 201327min

2D supermaterials; Inside an MRI; Antarctic architecture

2D supermaterials; Inside an MRI; Antarctic architecture

Nobel Prize and - as of this week, Copley Medal - winner Andre Geim outlined in Nature today his vision for the next generation of super-materials. Chemist Prof Andrea Sella joins Adam to explain how the discovery of graphene may have been the start of a remarkable new class of tailor made materials technically known as 'Van der Waals heterostructures'.This week on Show Us Your Instrument, Prof Sophie Scott introduces the MRI machine and explains why you never press the 'quench' button, unless you want to blow the roof off.Finally, an exhibition on Antarctic architecture opens on Friday 26th July in Glasgow, commissioned by the British Council and curated by The Arts Catalyst. We talk to Hugh Broughton who designed the new Halley VI base, a Thunderbirds inspired building, perched on top of stilts, on top of skis.Plus, Adam calls the current Halley Base Commander, Agnieszka Fryckowska, to find out what it's like to live and work during three months of darkness.Producer: Michelle Martin.

25 Juli 201327min

Animal research; Astronaut selection; Show us your instrument

Animal research; Astronaut selection; Show us your instrument

This week saw the publication of the annual government statistics on scientific research on animals. Overall, it again shows an increase, but does that tell the whole story? Wendy Jarrett of the organisation Understanding Animal Research shares her thoughts.We hear from amateur and professional would-be astronauts about their training regime and selection process from Major Tim Peake, the UK’s next astronaut, to science broadcaster, Sue Nelson.Plus, the first in our new series ‘Show Us Your Instrument’. Material scientist Mark Miodownik introduces the wonders of the Transmission Electron Microscope, with music composed by the New Radiophonic Workshop.

18 Juli 201329min

Bioscience to bioweapons; Synthetic diamonds; Stem cell transplants

Bioscience to bioweapons; Synthetic diamonds; Stem cell transplants

Scientists investigate viruses in order to save lives. But could that same knowledge also help other people create dangerous viruses to use as weapons of terror?This Thursday evening, a public debate is being held by the Society of Biology around these issues of "Dual Use" research. In an age of synthetic biology, mail order genes, and open access publication, what are the pros and cons of sharing virology research?Also this week, a new centre for research into synthetic diamonds was opened by UK Science Minister David Willetts. Inside Science reporter Marnie Chesterton took a tour of the new facility to find out how diamonds might be a quantum computer's best friend.Plus, the first formal trial of a stem cell based organ transplant is happening in the UK. Martin Birchall from University College London is working on replacing the larynx. But if a patient receives a new voicebox from a donor, whose voice will they have?

11 Juli 201328min

Bovine TB; Coral sunscreen; Space junk

Bovine TB; Coral sunscreen; Space junk

Today the government announced a plan to rid England of bovine TB within 25 years. Adam Rutherford looks back at how this issue has evolved and the extent to which scientific evidence has informed the eradication strategies, from culling badgers to vaccination programs.Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines found in nature. Reporter Gaia Vince travels to the seaside to find out how corals could save us from sunburn in summers to come.There are an estimated 23,000 pieces of space junk around the size of a tennis ball floating above us. But there are millions of smaller bits of flotsam and jetsam, from the exploded rocket debris to fleck of paints. Even a 1cm bit of space debris could deliver the same energy as a car impacting on a concrete wall at 30 miles per hour.

4 Juli 201327min

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