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BBC Radio 4


A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.


BBC Inside Science

A shortage of medical isotopes used to detect cancer has experts concerned that the shortfall could be delaying diagnosis and could even be costing lives. 

Exactly what these nuclear medicines are and how they are made is key to understanding the national scarcity. So, we’re going back to basics and learning all about medical isotopes. 

We also speak to world-famous conservationist and primatologist Jane Goodall who, now aged 90, continues to travel the globe campaigning to protect the natural world. 

Dame Goodall reflects on a life of studying our closest living animal relatives, chimpanzees, and as COP29 gets under way, speaks about the “closing window of time” to turn the tide on climate change and nature loss. 

Also this week, we answer the listener question “Why don’t we just throw nuclear waste into volcanoes?” and can Marnie spot AI vs real poetry? 

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton 
Producers: Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.

Nuclear medicine shortages and Jane Goodall on COP29

As conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue to dominate the news, many Inside Science listeners have been in touch with the same question: 

What is the carbon footprint of war? 

How significant is the impact – and is it crass to even talk about it? We’re joined by Benjamin Neimark from Queen Mary University in London. 

Also this week, we chat to the incoming DG of Europe’s particle-smashing facility Cern, what have we learnt by defrosting an extinct big cat and, the beetle that could ruin Christmas... 

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton 
Producers: Florian Bohr, Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

If you want to test your climate change knowledge, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University to take the quiz.

The climate cost of war

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.

Bovine TB; Coral sunscreen; Space junk

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?

Bioscience to bioweapons; Synthetic diamonds; Stem cell transplants

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.

Animal research; Astronaut selection; Show us your instrument

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.

2D supermaterials; Inside an MRI; Antarctic architecture

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.

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

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.

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

Influenza causes up to five million cases of severe illness and half a million deaths globally every year. Yet, as Adam Rutherford finds out, our current vaccination strategy is a seasonal game of chance, based on guessing the strain that will appear next. Research published this week in Science Translational Medicine, by a team from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, offers hope for a universal flu vaccine, based on newly discovered antibodies.

Earlier this week, a game to help combat ash dieback was launched on Facebook, called Fraxinus. Reporter Gaia Vince looks at the growing trend for using games to solve scientific problems. Is this new way of gathering and analysing data changing the way science is done?

Currently half of all clinical trials are not published worldwide. Adam talks to Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Pharma, about his new campaign 'AllTrials', which aims to change that.

Finally this week, physicist Peter Barham shows us his instrument - a spy camera system that he's designed to recognise penguins.

Universal flu vaccine; Science games; AllTrials; Penguin camera

Prof Alice Roberts goes Inside Science this week to discuss the science behind artificial reefs. The 70 concrete blocks around Gibraltar are currently causing a diplomatic controversy as the Spanish government claim they restrict commercial fishing. We look at how artificial reefs are made and what effect they have on the marine environment.

Bees have faced multiple dangers in recent years, from pesticides to parasites. Reporter Roland Pease visits a team at the University of Bath who are putting beehives into a CAT scanner to discover whether they can help breed bees that are more resistant to disease.

Humans are special; our uniquely evolved feet testify to that, allowing us to walk upright. At least, that's what anatomy students have been taught for the past 70 years. Research published his week by a team at the University of Liverpool shows that our feet are much more ape-like than we thought. And some of us may have more 'apey' feet than others.

Finally, this week Prof Andrea Sella from University College London shows us his instrument - an NMR spectrometer. This magnetic beast determines not only the chemical composition of molecules, but also their 3D structure.

Artificial reefs; Scanning beehives; Ape feet; NMR

The Earth’s natural carbon sinks absorb half of our pollution. But now, they appear to be collapsing. Why is this happening – and will we be able to reach our climate goals without them?

Also this week, why a psychologist won the Nobel Prize in Physics, the culprit behind the second biggest mass extinction event, and does playing video games make you smarter?

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Sophie Ormiston, Ella Hubber, Anna Charalambou
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis 
 
BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

Are our carbon sinks failing?

Are our carbon sinks failing?

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