Naked Scientists Special Editions Podcast

As the global population heads toward 10 billion, the pressure on agriculture is mounting. With that in mind, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has announced millions of pounds worth of funding for crops enhanced through synthetic biology by designing entirely new chromosomes and chloroplasts, starting with the potato, as Angie Burnett, the ARIA Programme Director and plant biologist leading this initiative explains to Marushka Soobben... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

"Warp speed, Mr Sulu." It's the kind of command we've only heard in science fiction - until now. Did a team of scientists just bend spacetime using nothing but sparks in a lab? That's right - not black holes, not neutron stars - electrical sparks. A new experiment claims to have created tiny ripples in the very fabric of space and time, right here on Earth. If it holds up, it could be the first step toward technologies once thought possible only in science fiction: warp drives, fusion reactors, even medical time control. But is it the real deal - or just a very flashy illusion? I sat down with... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In the eLife podcast, a university compost heap has turned up Finland's first documented "giant virus". Also, why monkeys de-sand their supper, and how learning more languages actually makes brain tissue thinner. Then, the link between sugar and neonatal sepsis, and how a cancer controls its hydra host by bestowing it with extra tentacles... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Cambridge University have informed us that, for cost cutting reasons, they intend to make Dr Chris Smith redundant. Naturally, this jeopardises the Naked Scientists programme, which is produced under his role. He will also lose his medical job. We regard this as a terrible decision and we intend to protest. Please listen to this short podcast to hear how you can help. Together we hope we can turn around this terrible decision... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In episode 10 of the Cambridge Prisms Podcast, the shocking finding that as many as 2 invertebrate species are going extinct each week in Australia: what can be done? Also, the shot in the arm that AI is administering to the drug discovery industry, how do you measure the microplastic problem, and why climate tipping points are a serious problem for the drinking water industry. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Your personal data could soon be stored not on a phone or server but locked inside a molecule so tiny it's invisible to the naked eye. Researchers have cracked the code on storing digital information in synthetic molecules called polymers - long chains of anything from plastic to protein made from building blocks known as monomers. Each monomer sends out a unique electrical signal that a special electrochemical technique can decode, turning these tiny sequences into passwords or secret messages. This game-changing technology could redefine data security without relying on traditional storage... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

What if a parasite could rewire your brain - not to harm you, but to make you... more romantic? This week on The Naked Scientists, we're exploring the bizarre world of Wolbachia - a bacterium that turns female fruit flies into mating machines. Marushka Soobben with the story... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Using only soft tubes and a continuous stream of air, a team of researchers at AMOLF in Amsterdam have created one of the fastest and simplest soft robots to date. Marushka Soobben with the story... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

What is the impact of an extra year at school on the brain? Also, how poison dart frogs come by their toxins, using movies to track the developing infant nervous system, the insect-spread bacterial plant parasite that is a mastermind of matchmaking, and a new cancer tool to link disease with the best drugs. Chris Smith takes a look at some of the most powerful papers out this month in eLife... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In this episode, how climate change impacts kelp forests, selecting for less animal-friendly variants, refining AI models for better water infrastructure design, classifying extinct marine megafauna and when best to swim with them, the coast consequences of climate change, and why a better understanding of the planet's drylands is critical... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, how films are helping neuroscientists link brain activity patterns to specific thought processes, a breakthrough in managing opiate overdose, a technique to study animal teamwork, extracting more information from brain scan data, and how childhood adversity blunts later fear responses... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Personalised medicine and gene screens for disease, why dinosaurs disappeared, planning for droughts, and new vistas in the drylands arena... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Predicting how influenza viruses will evolve, how deserts decompose matter despite the dry, what worms are revealing about a gene linked to autism, and what makes mice fearful of cat smells. Dr Chris Smith talks to the authors of the latest leading research in eLife... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, signs that cancers communicate with the brain to alter mood, why antibodies are unreliable in research, evidence that social training can cut stress and boost brain volume, and agents derived from birth products that suppress inflammation and kill pain... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In this episode, why approaches to cancer care need a pro-active approach in future, the opportunities arising for the cancer vaccine space, competency-based medical training, the environmental costs of losing large animals, and why water resilience needs careful planning now... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, Chris Smith hears how blood-thirsty bacteria sniff out wounds to trigger infections, how ants navigate at night, how male and female brains respond differently to starvation, and inflammation linked to premature labour... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, evidence that the microbiome is controlling blood pressure - so will we treat hypertension with probiotics in future? Also, plastic is everywhere and an urgent environmental threat, but is the public aware, or do they care? We also consider the economics of animal extinction and species conservation, the price we pay for water, and the role of the "blue carbon" in keeping CO2 in check... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, how animals hibernate and evidence that muscle myosin makes its own heat in the cold, brain scans to reveal how ketamine relieves resistant depression, the way the brain changes when animals build a bond, the evolution of flu outbreaks, and how aphantasia affects autobiographical memory. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A problem that's been puzzling scientists for decades is the way our bodies recognise cold stimuli, and researchers at the University of Michigan have finally got to the bottom of it. They've identified the protein GluK2 acts as a sensor in our bodies for cold temperatures, and Sannia Farrukh has been finding out more... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month we hear what orangutans can tell us about the origins of human speech, we ask if science making life even harder for dyslexics, where do the scientists we train end up and do they stay in science, and new insights into the songs whales sing underwater... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists