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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

In October members of the General Conference on Weights and Measurements are voting to change how we keep time on Earth accurate. Currently an additional second, known as a Leap Second, can be added to make sure modern atomic clocks stay in sync with solar time. However, all of this might be about to change as the rotation of the Earth speeds up and interferes with our measurements. Tom takes a trip to meet Principal Scientist Setnam Shemar at the National Physics Laboratory to learn how our time lords keep us all on schedule. Plus, Associate Professor Claire Nichols from Oxford University helps us understand why the Earth's rotation puts our timekeeping in jeopardy.

Also on the show, professor of Mathematical Biology, Kit Yates, has scoured the news to bring us two of the hottest science stories this week. We find out how scientists can tell the body temperature of the Tyrannosaurus rex from fossils, and whether the record has been broken for the warmest temperature complex life – eukariotic cells – can tolerate on Earth. 

Our coverage of the Royal Society Trivedi book prize is also heating up as the winner is announced next week. Ahead of the ceremony author, former winner and judge Bill Bryson shares with Tom why he holds the prize in such affection. We also hear from shortlisted author Lise Barnéoud whose book, Hidden Guests, uncovers the surprising science of microchimerism and how some of your cells are not your own.
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: Alex Mansfield, Katie Tomsett, and Tabitha Taylor Buck
Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
Editor: Ilan Goodman

Do you have the correct time?

Nuclear fusion energy, the idea of copying the sun’s heat source on earth to make limitless commercial energy is famously always 30 years away. This month, the UK and US have agreed to combine the brains of their nuclear fusion supercomputers in an attempt to improve models of plasma behaviour using AI. Tom Whipple is joined by interim CEO of UKAEA Tim Bestwick to understand what challenges must be overcome to make commercialised nuclear fusion a reality.
 
With under a fortnight to go before the winner of the coveted Royal Society's Trivedi Book Prize is announced, we are marking its imminent arrival by interviewing two shortlisted authors. Deborah Cohen, author of Bad Influence, warns how the internet can influence our health. Plus, Steve Ramirez, author of How to Change a Memory, reflects on a career studying the mechanisms of memory and how grief changed his perspective on its purpose. 

Also on the show, have researchers finally found Nefertiti's tomb? Nature Reporter Lizzie Gibney answers one of the most exciting questions in science news 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: Alex Mansfield, Tabitha Taylor Buck, Katie Tomsett
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

AI to solve the energy crisis?

Is AI really plotting against us? In a week where an Anthropic researcher believes there is more than a 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans' we're delving deeper into the capabilities of AI agents. Tom Whipple is joined by Alex Mallen, from Redwood Research, the team whose recent investigation exposed the surprising, weird, and worrying scale of a website hack conducted by OpenAI agents.

Is this the most important story we will ever cover on Inside Science? Or is this all just credulous sci fi hype? Professor Stuart Russell helps us unpick how we might align AI with humanity’s hopes. 

Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel has trawled the news to bring us the science stories you might have missed. This week Caroline discusses how AI has allegedly helped solve a Millennium Prize maths problem and why planetary scientists are turning their attention to a shrinking Mercury. 
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: Alex Mansfield, Katie Tomsett, Tabitha Taylor-Buck
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

What AI agents talk about behind your back

The quest for Dark Matter just got interesting. Researchers on an international project called the Lux-Zeplin (LZ) Dark Matter Experiment reported they may have discovered the signature of a bit of Dark Matter passing through an underground mine in South Dakota. Kimberly Palladino, professor of physics at Oxford and a member of that LZ collaboration, speaks to Roland Pease to explain how dark matter is being detected. 

Probiotics have long been all the rage in health advice, but this week we discovered they may also be good for corals. Microbiologist turned ecologist Erika Santoro has been testing a probiotic treatment on reefs in the Red Sea and joins us to divulge her findings. 

We’re continuing with a tone of optimism with this week’s shortlisted book for the Royal Society’s coveted Trivedi Science Book Prize. Despite it All: A Handbook for Climate Hopefuls by veteran environmental journalist Fred Pearce, focuses on the progress humanity has made in protecting the planet. 

Plus, mathematician Kit Yates is back, bringing us some of the week’s most exciting science news, including how we might use the earth's magnetic field to authenticate artefacts and a puzzling ten-sided cloud structure on Saturn's south pole. 

Presenter: Roland Pease 
Producer: Alex Mansfield, Katie Tomsett, Keiran Manetta-Jones 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

The quest for dark matter

Reports about the impacts of datacentres, including carbon emissions, water usage and power consumption, vary drastically and the truth can be hard to decipher. Deborah Andrews, Emeritus Professor at London South Bank University, joins us for some myth busting. 

Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel has been scouring the journals and brings us some of this week’s most exciting science news, including the failed attempts to save the Swift space telescope. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producers: Alex Mansfield, Katie Tomsett, Keiran Manetta-Jones 
Editor: Ilan Goodman 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

The day of the datacentres

This week Merck (known as MSD in Europe) and Moderna announced that a personalised cancer vaccine had significantly improved the outcomes of melanoma patients. Is the era of the cancer vaccine, at last, upon us? What does that mean? Anne Willis, a cancer cell biologist at the Medical Research Council, joins us to discuss. 

In just a few weeks the Royal Society will be putting out the red carpet as the most coveted prize in non-fiction science is about to be awarded. We will be speaking weekly to the shortlisted authors for the Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, and we are starting with Kit Chapman, author of the Age of Alchemy. 

Plus, Penny Sarchet has, like an alchemist of old, been scouring the most obscure texts and journals to bring us the latest science knowledge. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producers: Alex Mansfield, Tabitha Taylor Buck, Katie Tomsett, Keiran Manetta-Jones 
Editor: Ilan Goodman 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Is the era of the cancer vaccine upon us?

The extreme possibilities of synthetic biology hit the headlines last week, when researchers at Stanford University in the US announced they had created new kinds of viruses designed by Artificial Intelligence. Roland Pease is joined by microbiologist Dr Simon Clarke from Reading University and Joy Zhang, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, to discuss whether we should be concerned about the prospect of AI viruses. 

Meanwhile, 50 years ago NASA's remarkable Viking space probes touched down on Mars, breaking new frontiers in space science. Claire Cousins, part of the European Space Agency's team working on the ExoMars Rover, joins us to take a look at how today’s ambitious projects built on their success. 

And science and technology journalist Gareth Mitchell joins us to discuss the week’s science news. 

Presenter: Roland Pease 
Producer: Tabitha Taylor-Buck, Dan Welsh, Keiran Manetta-Jones 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Should we be scared of AI viruses?

Large parts of Europe are in the grip of drought. According to the UK Meteorological Office, last week was the UK's driest July on record. Katie Field, professor of plant-soil processes at Sheffield University, joins us to discuss the state of our struggling substrate. 

Next week, a dramatic solar eclipse will be sweeping down the Atlantic. In the past, eclipses have been vital to astronomers exploring the outer reaches of the Sun. Now though, they can make their own on demand. Esther Bastida-Pertegaz, project engineer at the European Space Agency, discusses the flying formation Proba-3 mission. 

A highly pathogenic bird flu has arrived in Australia, threatening local wildlife. Every continent in the world is now affected, and the harm that could be done to bird populations and mammals could be devastating. Thijs Kuiken, virologist at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, brings us up to date with the situation. 

And Lizzie Gibney of Nature Magazine joins us to discuss this week’s science news. 

Presenter: Roland Pease 
Producer: Clare Salisbury, Tabitha Taylor-Buck, Keiran Manetta-Jones 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

The state of our substrate: What is drought doing to our soil?

Scientists have long referred to the Goldilocks zone – the region around a star where conditions are not too hot and not too cold but “just right” for life. Joined by a live audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival in the UK, Tom Whipple asks what are the true limitations of alien life? How do we spot it? And have we been looking too narrowly? 

Planetary scientist at MIT Sara Seagar discusses her team’s mission to Venus where, on the surface, temperatures can reach 500 degrees Celsius and it rains sulphuric acid. Above the rain, up in the clouds, Sara Seagar tells us how there could be life. 

And Lewis Dartnell, Professor of astrobiology at the University of Westminster, describes how he looks for extremophiles. These are organisms on earth that are found in places we once thought impossibly hostile to life. Plus, the missions to find life on Mars.... 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Dan Welsh 
Editor: Ilan Goodman & Martin Smith 
Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Are we alone in the universe?

Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has announced that the US military will be screening military personnel aged 30 and older for testosterone deficiency. Those found with low testosterone levels will be offered voluntary hormone replacement therapy. The secretary says this is to ensure “a healthy, capable, and decisively dominant fighting force”. Tom Whipple is joined by Professor Joe Herbert from the University of Cambridge to discuss why jacking soldiers up with testosterone may or may not be the best idea. 

Marine Biologist Kathryn Ayres, from the non-profit organisation Beneath the Waves, describes a newly observed behaviour in orcas in which they collaboratively swim so hard into a dead sunfish it explodes. Is it a teachable moment for their young or is it just for fun?

Finally, we have Kit Yates, our resident mathematician, to reassure Tom that although AI might one day actually kill us all, at least it can disprove an 87-year-old mathematics conjecture.

 
Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Dan Welsh, Alex Mansfield, Imy Harper, Tabitha Taylor Buck
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Testing testosterone testing

A small but mighty problem: what to do with the radioactive waste we have already made? Professor Clare Corkhill from the University of Bristol gives us the run down on how radioactive waste is created. 

In Onkalo Finland, Victoria Gill visits the first national facility able to provide a long term solution to nuclear waste by burying it deep underground, which is due to begin operations this year. 

But how can you stop future civiliations from digging it up again? Journalist Mark Piesing has written on the issue, and artist Gair Dunlop at the University of Dundee has for several years co-convened an international, interdisciplinary collaboration known as the Nuclear Culture Research Group looking at the best ways of deterring trespass over hundreds of millions of years hence.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton and Victoria Gill 
Producer: Alex Mansfield 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

How to bury radioactive waste

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