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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

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

Can we prevent the next pandemic?

For 40 years scientists have been fascinated by the exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. Professor Jim Smith from the University of Portsmouth is one of those scientists, a frequent visitor over the past 20 years. He joins Inside Science to explain whether the region still suffers after the nuclear fallout and how how it has shaped European energy production.

It is a month for anniversaries, and with David Attenborough turning 100, each week we take a look at a species which has found itself named after the behavioural ecologist.

And finally, the latest science news in the world of astronomy brought to you by astronomer Dr Jeni Millard.

Forty years on from nuclear disaster

This week, humans once again looked down on the magnificent desolation of the lunar surface, from the orbit of the moon itself. They saw earth rise and earth set. They named the craters on the far side. They travelled further from Earth than any human has travelled before. Now, the Artemis mission returns home. Libby Jackson, Head of Space at the Science Museum, joins Inside Science to illuminate whether this lunar flyby is nothing but a test ride or significant for the future of human spaceflight and science. 
 
Nasa believes Artemis II will pave the way to not only land on the moon but establish a lunar base. Kelly Weinersmith, author of A City on Mars, joins Tom to discuss the complications that are likely to arrive when and if humans attempt to establish a semi-permanent presence on the lunar surface. Is it really possible?

Presenter: Tom Whipple 
Producer: Harrison Lewis and Katie Tomsett 
Editor: Martin Smith

Return to the moon

This week, we’re letting you run the airwaves. Victoria Gill puts your science questions to Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, Mark Maslin, Professor of Earth System Science at University College London, and Penny Sarchet, Managing editor of New Scientist. 

If you’ve ever wondered why men have nipples, how gravity slingshots work, or whether photosynthesis could solve our energy problems, that’s all on this week’s BBC Inside Science.

Presenter: Victoria Gill 
Producers: Ella Hubber & Debbie Kilbride 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Responding to your science questions

Are we, at last, getting the spacefaring future we were promised back in the 1960s? This week, NASA has been outlining ambitions for a base on the Moon and, perhaps more surprisingly, the development of a new class of spacecraft powered by nuclear electric propulsion. Dr Hannah Sargeant at the University of Leicester explains the potential of nuclear-powered space travel, how it could take us further into the solar system than ever before, and why it has taken decades for the technology to reach this point. 

Meanwhile, a lorry carrying a very unusual cargo has been making careful laps around the campus of CERN in Switzerland. This week science reporter Caroline Steel has been enthralled by the controlled transportation of antimatter. With insights from Dr Harry Cliff at the University of Cambridge, explore why trapping and moving antimatter is such a milestone for physicists.

Plus, rising beaver populations in the UK and the science of brain preservation. Caroline Steel joins Tom for her pick of the week’s science news. 

Presenter: Tom Whipple 

Producer: Harrison Lewis and Katie Tomsett 

Production co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

Editor: Martin Smith

Plankton's untapped potential

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