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 are sugar taxes actually effective ways to fight the obesity epidemic Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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 space confirming when your transaction took place. So we're going to explore whether the increasing numbers of satellites up there is a problem, how we can use them to spot potential disease outbreaks before they even happen; why space weather is a threat, and even how one company are planning to forge metals aboard satellites and make things in microgravity for use back here on Earth! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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 help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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 powerful tool that has just landed in the hands of pretty much everyone, and whether we should be excited or concerned by the prospect it might become even more powerful... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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 mutant from millions of years ago is revealing about how ancient animals mated... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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 decade since 2013, thousands of people have also been signing up for "Dry January". Last year 130,000 people in the UK elected to stop drinking alcohol for a month. So we thought this week we'd look at our long term love affair with the bottle, from how the practice of brewing began back in history, to the health harms and benefits of drinking today, and how scientists are now working on synthetic... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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 chemical raw materials... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
10 Jan 20231h 1min
