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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

As the UK and Europe battles with extreme weather warnings, is it time for us to consider some more extreme tactics to tackle the heat? Tom Whipple is joined by Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London, to explore if solar geoengineering can help.

Also on the show, science journalist Lizzie Gibney discusses the "Salah effect", when exposure to celebrities from stigmatised groups can help increase tolerance. She also examines new research into how the atom nucleus contain energy which can be used for telling the time. 

Plus, how laughter in great apes may have paved the way for the evolution of complex human language. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Katie Tomsett, Alex Mansfield & Kate White 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Can we engineer ourselves out of a heatwave?

After this week’s announcement that under-16s will be banned from major social media platforms, we delve into the evidence behind the ban with Professor Amy Orben, Programme Leader of the Digital Mental Health Group at the University of Cambridge, and Dr Catherine Sebastian, Head of Evidence at Wellcome. 

Also on the show, what can penalty shoot-outs teach us about international diplomacy? And how does the valuation of a football player impact the number of crashes seen after their team plays? Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Bath and football fan, Kit Yates, joins Tom to assemble their very own World Cup squad of science. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producers: Kate White, Katie Tomsett, Keiran Manetta-Jones 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Finding the evidence for the social media ban

After 144 years the tallest tower on the Sagrada Familia is finally complete, but when Gaudi first designed it, the technology to build the tower didn’t exist. We’re joined by Tristram Carfrae, structural engineer and designer at Arup who was tasked with this impossible feat over a decade ago. 

With the reappearance of screwworm in North America, we ask – is it ever acceptable to intentionally drive a species to extinction? Tom is joined by Dr Gregory Kaebnick from the Hastings Center for Bioethics to dive into the science that could make it happen and the ethics stopping us. 

Four in five of us will check the weather daily, but do we really know what our apps are telling us? Meteorologist Simon King guides us through the complex models behind these forecasts that govern our daily decisions. 

Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel is in the studio bringing us the scientific discoveries the headlines missed, but that you need to know. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Kate White 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

How do you build an unbuildable tower?

Are we moving away from science as a strictly human endeavour? This is the view of Pushmeet Kohli, head of AI for Science at Google DeepMind. He joins Tom Whipple to discuss the use of the AI tool Co-Scientist as a collaborator in the lab, and the challenges in making Artificial Intelligence that works in science. Clare Bryant from the University of Cambridge also joins the conversation. 

And Steve Brusatte, Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, joins the program to talk about his new book, The Story of Birds, tracing a 150‑million‑year journey from small, feathered dinosaurs to the birds of today. 

Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel joins us to discuss the latest scientific discoveries that you might have missed. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producers: Dan Welsh and Kate White 
Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
Editor: Martin Smith

How is AI going to change science?

From Hay Festival 2026, a dive into a big year for our oceans, with plankton specialist Vincent Doumeizel and physicist turned oceanographer Helen Czerski.

Vincent is author of the Power of Plankton, which describes the crucial history and future of plankton and planktonic life on our planet. Helen's book The Blue Machine looks at the physical oceanic processes that shape the world.

Presented by Tom Whipple
Produced by Alex Mansfield

Plankton's untapped potential

With 2023’s El Niño – a recurring pattern of extreme weather across the pacific basin - still leaving a bad taste in people's mouth, 2026 sees an El Niño stirring in the Pacific Ocean and there are warnings that this will be one of the strongest yet.

Roland Pease speaks with Amanda Maycock, a climatologist from Leeds University, to discuss what this climate phenomenon is and how it will impact the world from October to early next year. 

He also hears from Scott Evans from the American Museum of Natural History, who has been exploring the Mackenzie mountains of Canada’s Northwest Territory to better understand the biology and ecology of life on earth before anything we might recognize - from the Ediacara era. This was before the explosion of different animal types with hard shells and bones in the later, Cambrian, time. In certain places around the world, much older rocks from the ancient ocean floor reveal an ecosystem abounding with soft, squidgy animal wierdness. 

In Canada Scott has found a new trove of these fossils, but from far deeper below the surface of those ancient seas. Did animal life begin deep in the darkest depths rather than paddling in pools nearer the land?

Today, over half a billion years later, bottom trawling, a common fishing method involving dragging heavy nets across the bottom of the seafloor, is an environmentally destructive process that rips up everything in its path to maximise catch. We talked to Amanda Vincent, a professor at the Institute for the Oceans and fisheries of the British Columbia university and founder of the international Project Seahorse conservation group, about what bottom-trawl bans can achieve, in the light of results published about a renaissance of biodiversity off the coast of Scotland in an area where trawling has been banned for several years.

Plus, we talk to science journalist Gareth Mitchell, who explains how bottom trawling can also have negative consequences on technology, as well as other science news you may have missed, including updates on solar storms and robotic wolf shortages in Japan.

Presenter: Roland Pease
Producers: Alex Mansfield and Dan Welsh
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

El Niño is nigh, but so what?

Following three deaths linked to the deadly hantavirus disease on a cruise ship this month, the scientific community is racing to answer the many unknown questions surrounding the outbreak.

Tom Whipple speaks to Dr Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist at the University of Basel and co-founder of Pathoplexus, an online database of pathogen genomes, to explore what the new hantavirus genomic sequences can tell us.

He also hears from Dr Nicole Luri, Executive Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response from the NGO The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), to hear what steps would be taken if the hantavirus strain had the potential to become a pandemic, and how far their "100 days" mission has come. 

With less than a month until the men’s football World Cup kicks off in the United States, Canada and Mexico, there are warnings from climate scientists that football’s global governing body FIFA needs to do more to combat the risks from the high temperatures both players and fans are expected to face. We speak to Dr Theodore Keeping from the World Weather Attribution team at Imperial College London to hear about the predicted conditions and the concerns they are raising.

Plus, mathematician Kit Yates from the University of Bath brings us his pick of the week’s science news you might have missed, including new hearing technology that might help you follow conversations in rowdy parties.

Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producer: Alex Mansfield
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

The science behind hantavirus

"Make Pluto a planet again" was the call this week from Donald Trump’s NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman. 

The icy body was first seen in 1930 and was the only planet whose discovery was claimed by the United States. In 2006, though, it was officially stripped of its planet status. 

Tom Whipple is joined by astronomer Chris Lintott to discuss the debate that has raged ever since over whether Pluto should or shouldn’t be reinstated as the solar system’s 9th planet.

We also hear about the big money scientific prize hoping to lead to breakthroughs in how humans can communicate with animals. Head judge Professor Yossi Yovel, from Tel Aviv University, and finalists Dr Catherine Crockford, from the CNRS Institute for Cognitive Sciences in Lyon, and Professor Nicolas Mathevon, from the University of Saint-Etienne, tell us what the Coller Dolittle Challenge is hoping to uncover.

Plus, Penny Sarchet from New Scientist brings us the science news that might have slipped under the radar this week, including why there’s a scientific gap in the dating lives of over 50s. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producer: Alex Mansfield
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Should Pluto become a planet again?

The latest European State of the Climate report has found that Europe is once again getting warmer, and at a rate that is twice as fast as the global average. Tom Whipple is joined by Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, to understand the driving forces behind this stark difference and anticipate what Europeans can expect in the coming years as a result.

We also remember Dr J Craig Venter, one of the famous founders of what we might now call the genomic age of science who dies this week. 

In the lead-up to the 100th birthday of the world-famous broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, Inside Science is shining a spotlight on a species of scientific importance that has been named after him. This week, Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou shares his treacherous search for a unique species of echidna previously thought to be extinct. 

Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel fills us in on the latest science news that you might have missed - from the surprising growth rates of Neanderthal babies to 10,000 newly discovered planets. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producer: Alex Mansfield
Assistant Producer: Katie Tomsett
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Why is Europe the fastest-warming continent?

A phase 3 clinical trial is underway to determine the effectiveness of an mRNA vaccine for H5N1, a strain of influenza that is currently of concern. The virus, which is commonly found in birds across the world and is rarely transmitted to humans. However, when it is transmitted, the disease is often fatal, and scientists fear that if the virus were to mutate, it could lead to rapid, widespread infection. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world are keen to be better prepared for future threats. These latest efforts aim to develop an mRNA vaccine that could be rolled out on an unprecedented scale if the worst were to happen. John Tregoning, author of Infectious: Pathogens and How We Fight Them and Professor of Vaccine Immunology at Imperial College London, joins Tom to explain how these mRNA vaccines could revolutionise preparedness. 

In the lead-up to the 100th birthday of the world-famous broadcaster and behavioural ecologist Sir David Attenborough, Inside Science is shining a spotlight on a species of scientific importance that has been named after him. This week, Dr Frankie Dunn describes her discovery of a fossil that we now know to be the earliest animal predator. 

And Lizzy Gibney, senior reporter at Nature, shares the latest science news that may have slipped under the radar but is well worth your attention. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Harrison Lewis & Katie Tomsett 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

How do you build an unbuildable tower?

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