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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

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 few years ago a satellite speeding through the Van Allen belt in earth orbit raised concerns that it may include a nuclear weapon. An explosion in that orbit would take out much of our global space infrastructure. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 specifically prohibits such a thing, but it has proven technologically impossible to verify and monitor over the decades. Tom Whipple is joined by Prof Areg Danagoulian, Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT to explore a clever concept to spot such a thermonuclear device in orbit that he has published in this month’s Nature journal.

Also on the show, Professor of Science Communications Gareth Mitchell discusses how the way toddlers waddle can teach robots how to play football, and how to win. He also examines a new global database on food consumption which aims to help answer some of the world’s most pressing questions on our diets and the environment. 

 
Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producer: Alex Mansfield & Tabitha Taylor Buck
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

How might we spot nukes in space?

Synthetic biologist Kate Adamal and her team at the University of Minnesota published their research into the lab-created ‘SpudCell’ in a significant step towards building life from scratch. Science journalist, Kai Kupferschmidt, joins us to discuss the implications of this research, as well as the controversies.

Nature reporter Lizzie Gibney tells us how science has helped us better understand the route that the famous Carthaginian general, Hannibal – and not forgetting his elephants – took across the Alps.

Plus, in this week’s scout of science stories behind the ‘beautiful game’ we learn of research carried out at a Tokyo football match, monitoring seismic waves made by the vigorous celebrations of thousands of fans.

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

Are we one step closer to creating life in a lab?

During this year’s visit to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London, Tom Whipple discovers how sea urchins are being used to develop techniques to digitally preserve natural history, why we haven’t got robot butlers just yet, and what it takes to bottle lightning. 

Plus, in his ongoing quest to assemble a World Cup squad of science Tom recruits health reporter James Gallagher to scout out the best football science from around the world. This week, we want to know if there is robust evidence for a home advantage. 

We speak with Associate Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology Laura Porro from University College London, Dr Alice Leavey and Dr Fernando Alvares from the University of Southampton, Professor Ingmar Posner who leads the Applied Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Oxford and Dr Daniel Mitchard who is co-lead of Cardiff University’s Lightning Laboratory. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producers: Katie Tomsett, Kate White & Tabby Taylor Buck 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

How do you immortalise natural history?

A 17,000 year old tusk contains a remarkable story of the lifetime travels of a woolly mammoth which roamed the grasslands of Ice Age Alaska. The animal travelled 70,000 kilometres over the course of three decades before his premature death north of the Arctic Circle. The University of Alaska's Matthew Wooller tells Victoria Gill how his team pieced together the mammoth's life from isotopic clues captured in the tusk.

Also in the programme: The search for storage capacity underground for all the hydrogen we'll need for a net zero carbon economy, with geoscientists Katriona Edlmann and Eike Thaysen of the University of Edinburgh.

How the 1987 Montreal Protocol (which phased out CFCs) saved us from an even worse climate crisis than the one we're facing, with climate scientist Paul Young of the University of Lancester.

Probiotics may protect corals from death by bleaching, with marine biologist Raquel Peixoto of King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia.

Mammoth Journey

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