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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

It’s exactly half a century since two Concorde jets took off from Paris and London respectively. The supersonic jet would come to define top end luxury travel. But Concorde has also been retired for nearly half that time, famously making its final flight to Bristol, UK where it was built, in 2003.

What is Concorde’s engineering legacy? And will supersonic speeds ever be a reality for air travellers again?

Tom Whipple is at Aerospace Bristol, back on-board Concorde which these days is stowed safely in its hangar. He meets Concorde’s former Chief Engineer John Britton. He also hears what it will take to overcome the engineering challenges of supersonic flight from Dr Kshitij Sabnis, lecturer in Aerospace Engineering at Queen Mary University of London. And speaks to founder and CEO of US start up Boom Supersonic Blake Scholl who wants to make supersonic air travel accessible to all.

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk, search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University. 
 
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producer: Tim Dodd, Kate White, Clare Salisbury
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

How is air travel returning to supersonic speeds?

The space science world is buzzing. In the next few days, NASA is expected to begin the rollout of its Artemis II rocket to the launch pad with the launch itself expected as early as February. Science journalist Jonathan Amos explains why NASA is interested in travelling around the moon now? And what we will learn from sending humans further into space than ever before. 

Penny Sarchet, Managing Editor at New Scientist brings Tom Whipple her pick of the best new science this week. 

And why are scientists shipping ice cores from around the world to a frozen cave in Antarctica? Dr Liz Thomas, head of ice core research at the British Antarctic Survey explains the science behind the Ice Memory Sanctuary as it officially opens.

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

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Kate White, Katie Tomsett, Tim Dodd and Clare Salisbury
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Why is Nasa sending people around the moon?

President Trump has his sights set on Greenland. If he succeeds, what mineral wealth will he find there? Adrian Finch, Professor of Geology at St Andrews University has been visiting Greenland for more than 3 decades and explains what so called ‘rare earth elements’ are found in Greenland and why.

Professor Danny Altmann talks to Tom Whipple about a new project to understand the genetic and metabolic similarities between two illnesses; Long Covid and ME.
And Lizzie Gibney, senior physics reporter at Nature brings her pick of the best new science this week.

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

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Clare Salisbury
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

How rare are Greenland’s rare earth elements?

This week President Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget announced that a major climate research centre would be broken up. 2025 has brought a wave of reorganisations and funding cuts, reshaping the ways science is done in the USA. Veteran science journalist Roland Pease tells us whether we’re starting to see the impacts.

Victoria Gill gets a subterranean tour of Finland’s new nuclear waste disposal facility. It’s the first country in the world to get one and the UK are interested in learning how they did it. Victoria is also joined by science journalist Caroline Steel to talk about this week in science research.

And 40 years ago, Dian Fossey was murdered at her home in Rwanda where she had spent decades studying mountain gorillas. Gilly Forrester, Professor of Comparative Cognition at the University of Sussex talks about why the data collected from Dian’s ‘gorillas in the mist’ continues to shape science today.

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

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Clare Salisbury, Kate White and Tim Dodd
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

How did President Trump transform science in 2025?

400 thousand years ago our early human cousins dropped a lighter in a field in the East of England; evidence that was uncovered this week and suggests that early neanderthals might have made fire 350 thousand years earlier than we previously thought. Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes is honorary researcher at the universities of Cambridge and Liverpool and author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. She explains what this new discovery could mean for our own ancestors.

Should we genetically modify our farmed salmon to prevent it breeding with their wild relatives? Dr William Perry from Cardiff University thinks this could help the endangered wild Atlantic salmon recover it’s numbers. 

And Lizzie Gibney, Senior Physics Reporter at Nature joins Tom Whipple to dig into the new science released this week.

Think you know space? Head to bbc.co.uk, search for BBC Inside Science, and follow the links to the Open University to try The Open University Space Quiz.

Would our ancestors have benefited from early neanderthals making fire?

Almost 40 years ago, the first treatment was approved for HIV, but it came with a warning: “This is not a cure.” On the week of World AIDS Day, Kate Bishop, principal group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, tells us how science may now have finally found a “functional” cure for the virus that causes AIDS. 

How are tree rings, volcanoes, trade routes and Europe’s deadly Black Death pandemic connected? Professor Ulf Büntgen from the University of Cambridge explains how matching tree ring data with historical records shows that Italian city-states importing grain accidentally introduced the Black Death to Europe. 

Plus science broadcaster Caroline Steel is in the studio to discuss her favourite new scientific discoveries. 

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

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producers: Jonathan Blackwell, Ella Hubber, Tim Dodd, Alex Mansfield, and Hannah Fisher 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

A 'functional' cure for HIV?

This week, a world first gene therapy treats rare Hunter syndrome. Could these personalised medicines be used more widely? We speak to Claire Booth, professor in Gene Therapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital. 

And high in the Chilean desert, the last bit of 13 billion year old light has hit the mirror of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope for the last time. Dr Jenifer Millard, a science communicator and host of the Awesome Astronomy podcast, tells us what it’s been up to for the past 20 years.

And Penny Sarchet, managing editor at New Scientist brings her pick of the latest new discoveries.

Think you know space? Head to bbc.co.uk, search for BBC Inside Science, and follow the links to the Open University to try The Open University Space Quiz. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Alex Mansfield, Ella Hubber, Jonathan Blackwell, Tim Dodd and Clare Salisbury
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Why aren’t gene therapies more common?

COP 30 delegates from around the globe are about to depart the Amazon city of Belem in Brazil. But not before some very important documents are drawn up. Camilla Born, former advisor to Cop 26 president Alok Sharma speaks to Tom Whipple about the scientific significance of the language negotiators choose to use. 

And it’s the eve of The Ashes. As England Men’s Cricket Team line up against their Australian counterparts in Perth, cricket fans on both sides will be hoping for sporting records to fall. But is breaking those records getting increasingly less likely? And can some maths explain all? Tom asks Kit Yates, author and Professor of Mathematical Biology and Public Engagement at the University of Bath.

Plus science broadcaster Caroline Steel is in the studio to discuss this week’s brand new scientific discoveries. 

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. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Jonathan Blackwell, Ella Hubber, Tim Dodd, Alex Mansfield and Clare Salisbury
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

What’s in the wording of the COP 30 negotiations?

This week the UK government set out its vision for a world where the use of animals in science is eliminated in all but exceptional circumstances. Animal experiments in the UK peaked at 4.14 million in 2015 driven mainly by a big increase at the time in genetic modification experiments. By 2020, the number had fallen sharply to 2.88 million as alternative methods and technologies were developed. But since then that decline has plateaued. 

Could we see the end of animals being used in science labs? Presenter Tom Whipple is joined by Dr. Chris Powell, Director of Cambridge BioPharma Consultants Ltd. and honorary visiting scientist at Cambridge University and Dr. Natalie Burden, head of New Approach Methodologies at the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs). 

And as world leaders gather for the COP30 climate conference in Brazil, we speak to glaciologist Dr. Matthias Huss. In the past decade, his data has shown that a quarter of Swiss ice has been lost, with hundreds of glaciers having disappeared entirely. But part of one of those glaciers remains in the freezer of his basement... 

Also Penny Sarchet, managing editor at New Scientist, brings us her take on the new science that matters this week. 

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

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producers: Clare Salisbury, Tim Dodd, Alex Mansfield, Jonathan Blackwell 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Could technology replace animal testing in science?

Astronomers have new evidence, which could change what we understand about the expansion of the universe. Carlos Frenk, Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University gives us his take on whether the dark energy pushing our universe apart is getting weaker.

With the Turing Prize, the Nobel Prize and now this week the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering under his belt, Geoffrey Hinton is known for his pioneering work on AI. And, since leaving a job at Google in 2023, for his warnings that AI could bring about the end of humanity. Tom Whipple speaks to Geoffrey about the science of super intelligence. 

And Senior physics reporter at Nature Lizzie Gibney brings us her take on the new science that matters this week.

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

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Clare Salisbury
Content Producer: Ella Hubber
Assistant Producers: Jonathan Blackwell & Tim Dodd
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Is Dark Energy Getting Weaker?

A new study shows that 210,000-year-old skull found in Greece is the earliest evidence for modern humans in Eurasia. A second skull found in the same site is found to be a Neanderthal from 170,000 years ago. These findings suggest that modern humans left Africa earlier and reached further than previously thought. 

Analysing moon rocks
The Apollo missions were scientific explorations, bringing back hundreds of kilograms of moon rock to help us understand the formation of the Moon, the Earth and life itself. We are still studying the rocks that were bought back from between 1969 and 1972. Roland Pease went to the Diamond Light Source Syncotron in Oxfordshire, where scientists are still studying these moon rocks. 

Viruses lurking in our genomes 
When it comes to our genomes, there is no such thing as 100% human. Our genetic code is a patchwork of DNA that we have picked up or lost along the way. 8% of our DNA comes from viruses. So what does this mean? Much of the viral DNA is thought to have been involved in forming our immune systems, fighting against pathogenic viruses. But it's not all good news, new work suggests that these human endogenous retroviruses or HERVs might also be the missing causative link in major 'unsolved' neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis [MS], amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease [ALS] and schizophrenia [SCZ].

Presenter: Adam Rutherford
Producer: Caroline Steel

Earliest modern human skull, Analysing moon rocks, Viruses lurking in our genomes

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