Have we got the appendix all wrong?
For a long time the appendix was considered disposable. After all, millions of people have theirs removed each year and go on to live healthy lives. But as Heather F Smith, a professor of anatomy at M...
13 Maj 202513min
Surviving 200 snake bites, decoding ancient scrolls and the countries ‘flourishing’
Science correspondent Hannah Devlin joins Ian Sample to discuss three intriguing science stories from the week, from a global study that puts the UK third from bottom when it comes to flourishing, to ...
8 Maj 202521min
How old are we really? What a test can tell us about our biological age
Direct to consumer tests that claim to tell us our biological – as opposed to chronological – age are getting a lot of attention, but what can they really tell us about our health? Science editor Ian ...
6 Maj 202516min
Why did Spain and Portugal go dark?
Authorities are still trying to understand what triggered the massive power outage that left the majority of the Iberian Peninsula without electricity on Monday. To understand what might have been at ...
1 Maj 202516min
Why did Just Stop Oil just stop?
Just Stop Oil, the climate activism group behind motorway blockades, petrol station disruption and tomato soup attacks on major artworks, has disbanded after staging a final action in London this week...
29 Apr 202518min
Evidence of alien life, a clue about the rise of bowel cancer, and a new colour?
Madeleine Finlay and Ian Sample discuss three intriguing science stories from the week. From a hint at alien life on a distant planet to a clue in the search for answers over why colon cancer rates ar...
24 Apr 202520min
Is ‘de-extinction’ really possible?
The American biotech company Colossal Biosciences recently made headlines around the world with claims it had resurrected the dire wolf, an animal that went extinct at the end of the last ice age. But...
22 Apr 202516min
RFK Jr’s mixed messages on vaccines
As a measles outbreak expands across the US, comments by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr have come under scrutiny. Kennedy has said that the best way to prevent measles is to get vaccinated – but...
17 Apr 202517min
