Flu Vaccines from Tobacco?

This week, you pit your wits against the Naked Scientists team and challenge us to answer your science questions. Is there an evolutionary reason why humans have rhythm? Do people sneeze in their sleep? Why do crabs walk sideways? And how do stinging nettles sting? Chris Smith, Carolin Crawford and Ginny Smith join Kat Arney get their teeth into your conundra, and take a closer look at the stories hitting the headlines, including a sieve that separates oil from water, how you can sniff happiness in sweat, and the Hubble telescope celebrates its 25'th birthday... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

20 Apr 201547min

The impact of modern medicine is drastically changing our concept of death. Increasingly, people are being resuscitated successfully, sometimes hours after they first died. So this week we toe the line between life and death, learn lessons from those who survived without oxygen for hours, discover how we could live immortally as robots, and hear about a very special type of cryo-ambulance to prep you for long term storage. Plus, news that the Dutch have grown nearly a foot taller in 2 centuries, what your fingers say about your marathon prospects, and the secret language of gibbons... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

13 Apr 201554min

The Naked Scientists take a special holiday look at some egg-cellent Easter science, including a breakthrough in how to unboil an egg, the genetically modified chickens that can't catch bird flu and why the Easter bunny might be knocked off his perch by a toucan. Plus, is a chocolate teapot really useless? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

6 Apr 201553min

From crime scene to court room and all the evidence in between. Join Chris Smith and Ginny Smith at our reconstructed crime scene to find out how science is used to help solve a forensic investigation, including dissecting pig organs, testing for drugs, planting false memories into our audiences' brains and trying out the world's first lie detector suit... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

31 Mars 201559min

This week, how rogue antibodies turned one woman's existence into a living nightmare of delusions, hallucinations and paranoia, we examine the evidence that ME - or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) - might be an autoimmune disease, and why the blues might be down to a hostile immune response. Plus, how tracking eye movements can be used to influence decisions, why remembering causes you to forget, a new 3d-printer inspired by Hollywood's Terminator, and the genetic map of the UK: apparently the Romans didn't fancy breeding with us very much... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

24 Mars 201555min

Is it a particle? Or is it a wave? This week we're looking at light. From its earliest origins and what it can reveal about the Big Bang, to why Newton prodded his eye with a needle to probe the origins of colour, how the brain decodes the visual world and bionic implants to reverse blindness. Plus, in the news, a revelation in the remarkable colour-changing capabilities of chameleons, how an ultrasound can combat Alzheimer's Disease, and what people do with their fingers following a handshake... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

17 Mars 201553min

This week, the world of parasites. We find out what's living in you and on you, how these invaders hijack your immune system and how they can even control the behaviours and body shapes of their hosts. Plus, in the news, the oldest remains of our first human ancestors are uncovered in Ethiopia, scientists weigh a stegosaurus and NASA's Dawn probe reaches the dwarf planet Ceres, but what awaits it there...? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

10 Mars 201555min

From Archimedes leaping from his bath shouting Eureka, to Isaac Newton's falling apples and Volta's piles that produced electricity on tap, this week we recreate some of the scientific experiments that changed the way we view the world. Join Ginny Smith and Chris Smith on a journey through two thousand years of discovery that includes bricks on ropes, a singing Solar System, a hydrogen detonation and a spectroscope... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

3 Mars 201559min