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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

What’s been called the storm of the century - Hurricane Melissa – has barrelled through Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas over the past two days. Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading, explains whether Melissa was caused – or made worse - by human-made climate change. 

As the H5N1 bird flu season picks up across British farms, virologist Ian Brown from the Pirbright Institute assesses its threat and turns our attention to a largely ignored strain of bird flu – H9N2 – which a recent study suggests is becoming adapted to human cells. 

The interstellar comet 3I/Atlas has inspired some bizarre theories about alien life coming into our solar system. BBC science journalist Roland Pease, who has been watching these cosmic events and the pseudoscientific myths that follow in their wake for decades, gives us his take. 

And mathematician Katie Steckles brings us her favourite finds from the world of science.

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: Victoria Gill 
Producers: Ella Hubber, Jonathan Blackwell, Tim Dodd
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Is climate change to blame for Hurricane Melissa?

The 'bionic eye' may make you think of Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge. Now, scientists have restored the ability to read in a group of blind patients with advanced dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). And they’ve done it by implanting a computer chip in the back of their eyes. Professor Francesca Cordeiro, Chair of Ophthalmology at Imperial College London explains how bionic technology might provide future solutions for more people with sight loss.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have come up with a way of extracting hormones from human remains dating as far back as the 1st century AD. Marnie Chesterton speaks to Brenna Hassett, bioarchaeologist at the University of Lancashire to find out how pregnancy testing skeletons could cast new information on human evolution. 

In a world of automation and AI, its easy to forget that every day, people around the UK record weather observations which contribute to our understanding of climate science. Marnie meets Met Office volunteer Stephen Burt and climate scientist at the University of Reading, Professor Ed Hawkins to find out more. And science broadcaster Caroline Steel brings us brand new discoveries changing the way we understand the world around us.

If you want to find out more about volunteering to collect rain data, you can email: nationalhydrology@environment-agency.gov.uk. If you’re in Scotland, visit the SEPA website: https://www2.sepa.org.uk/rainfall/GetInvolved

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: Marnie Chesterton 
Producer(s): Clare Salisbury, Ella Hubber, Jonathan Blackwell, Tim Dodd
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Coordinator: Jana Holesworth

Have scientists created a bionic eye?

Inside Science explores the science and maths of games: why we play them, how to win them and the rise of gamification in our lives - with a particular focus on The Traitors - in a special programme with a live audience at Green Man Festival in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. 

Presenter Victoria Gill looks into whether humans are innately programmed to play games with Gilly Forrester, professor of evolutionary and developmental psychology at the University of Sussex, and investigates how maths can help us strategise and win games with mathematician and maths communicator Dr Katie Steckles.

We encounter the Prisoner’s Dilemma with broadcaster Jaz Singh of The Traitors series 2 fame – will he share or steal? Jaz also dives into the immersive world of The Traitors discussing his gameplay, the stakes and what makes an effective Faithful!

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: Jonathan Blackwell and Clare Salisbury 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Why do we love to play games?

This week, renewables overtake coal as the world’s biggest source of electricity. China is leading the renewable charge despite its global reputation as a coal burning polluter. Zulfiqar Khan, Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University and Tsinghua University in Beijing and Furong Li, Professor in the department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath explain what China is getting right and what UK science can learn.

The 2025 Nobel Prize winners have just been announced. The prize for physics has been awarded “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.” But what does that mean? Science journalist and author Phil Ball explains how the winning quantum engineering experiments in the 1980s laid the groundwork for devise used in today’s quantum computers.

Comedian Josie Long finds escapism in extinct megafauna. She speaks to Marnie Chesterton about her new stand up tour ‘Now is the Time of Monsters’. And Managing Editor for the new Scientist Penny Sarchet brings us her pick of the week’s most important 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: Marnie Chesterton
Producer: Clare Salisbury
Content Producer: Ella Hubber
Assistant Producer: Jonathan Blackwell
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

What can the UK learn from China on renewable energy?

Scientists in the US have, for the first time, made early-stage human embryos by manipulating DNA taken from people's skin cells and then fertilising them with sperm. It’s hoped the technique could overcome infertility due to old age or disease. 

Marnie Chesterton is joined by Dr Geraldine Jowett from the University of Cambridge and Emily Jackson from the London School of Economics to discuss the science behind the research, and the ethical and legal issues it could raise. 

We also look back at the life of the pioneering primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall, who died this week at the age of 91. Marnie is joined by one of the scientists she helped to inspire - the biologist Joyce Poole - to reflect on the huge legacy she leaves behind. 

As the European Union discusses the possibility of setting up a Europe-wide ‘drone wall’ to protect against Russian airspace incursions, we discuss the rapid advancements in drone technology with journalist and author of the book ‘Swarm Troopers: How Small Drones Will Conquer The World’, David Hambling. 

And Marnie is joined by journalist Caroline Steel to look through a range of this week’s most intriguing scientific breakthroughs. 

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton 
Producers: Clare Salisbury, Ella Hubber, Dan Welsh, Jonathan Blackwell, Tim Dodd 
Editor: Martin Smith 
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Are embryos made from skin cells the future of fertility treatment?

What do we know about the causes of autism? Laura Andreae, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at King’s College London explains the science. It’s after President Trump made unproven claims the condition is linked to taking paracetamol in pregnancy.

Tim O’Brien, Professor of Astrophysics at The University of Manchester and Associate Director of Jodrell Bank Centre, explains why NASA is planning to send a crew of astronauts around the moon for the first time in 50 years.

Tim Minshall, inaugural Dr John C. Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge dives into the mysterious world of manufacturing. His book ‘Your Life is Manufactured’ is shortlisted for the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize 2025. And we hear from Dave Sexton, conservationist on the Isle of Mull, and his search for one unusual bird.

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.

The science behind autism

Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis broke the sport’s world record again this week at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. It’s the 14th consecutive time he’s broken the record.

Professor of Sports Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, Steve Haake, joins Victoria Gill to discuss this monumental feat of athleticism, and to explain the role physics and engineering play in Duplantis’s unprecedented success.

The actor, comedian and scientist Nick Mohammed explains why he and his fellow judges selected ‘Ends of the Earth’ by Professor Neil Shubin as one of this year’s finalists in the Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize. We also hear from the book’s author about what it’s like doing science at the farthest reaches of the planet.

Neuroscientist Professor James Ainge from the University of St Andrews tells us how he has been mapping our internal mileage clock.

And the author and mathematician Dr Katie Steckles brings us the brand new maths and science shaping our world 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: Victoria Gill
Producers: Clare Salisbury, Dan Welsh, Jonathan Blackwell and Tim Dodd
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

What’s the highest a human could possibly pole vault?

News broke this week that rocks picked up by NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars may have found chemical signatures left by living organisms. 

With the search for life on the red planet capturing our imaginations for decades, Victoria Gill is joined by science journalist Jonathan Amos to look at what we know about the history of life on Mars, and what could be different about this discovery.

As commemorations take place this week for the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we hear about the project helping to protect birds in New York from the effects of a giant annual light display in memory of the victims of the tragedy.

Dr Andrew Farnsworth, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, tells us how they’re working with the organisers of the Tribute in Light memorial to help save the lives of a wide range of birds.

Victoria is joined by managing editor of the New Scientist, Penny Sarchet, to look through this week’s most exciting scientific discoveries.

And in our series profiling the six books shortlisted for this year’s Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, we speak to neuroscientist and clinical neurologist Professor Masud Husain about his book Our Brains, Our Selves, and what his encounters with patients reveal about how our brains make up who we are.

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Clare Salisbury, Dan Welsh, Jonathan Blackwell, Tim Dodd
Editor: Martin Smith

Could we have evidence of life on Mars?

Sweet, caffeinated energy drinks are in the headlines again as the UK Government says it wants to ban under 16s from buying them. Some can contain the equivalent caffeine as 2 to 4 espressos. James Betts, Professor of Metabolic Physiology at the University of Bath, explains the science behind how caffeine affects the bodies of adults and children. 

Earthquake scientist Dr Judith Hubbard from Cornell University in the US explains what we are learning from the magnitude 6 earthquake which hit Afghanistan this week. Professor Dan Levitin is a neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, musician, and the third author shortlisted for the 2025 Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize. In his book ‘Music as Medicine’ he explores whether music can be harnessed to heal us. And BBC science journalist Caroline Steel brings her selection of brand new research.

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: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Dan Welsh, Jonathan Blackwell, Lucy Davis, Tim Dodd, Clare Salisbury
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

What does caffeine do to our bodies?

Summer heatwaves and missed bin collections have created panic in the press that rat numbers in the UK are increasing. We ask Steve Belmain, Professor of Ecology at the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich for the science. 

This summer Wales became the first country in the UK to ban plastic in wet wipes, with the other nations pledging they will do the same. Over the past few weeks there’s been work to remove a giant mound of them, known as ‘Wet Wipe Island’ on the Thames in west London. Marnie Chesterton has been to find out how they got there and what damage they could be doing to the river’s ecosystem.

Professor Sadiah Quereshi, Chair in Modern British History at the University of Manchester explains why we should see the extinction of species as a modern, and often political phenomenon. Her book Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction is the second book we’re featuring from the shortlist for the 2025 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.

And Lizzie Gibney, senior physics reporter at Nature brings us a round up of the news causing a stir in science circles this week.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Ella Hubber, Jonathan Blackwell and Clare Salisbury
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Does warm weather mean more rats in UK towns and cities?

Claudia Hammond looks at the neuroscience behind our sense of touch. Why does a gentle touch from a loved one make us feel good? This is a question that neuroscientists have been exploring since the late 1990's, following the discovery of a special class of nerve fibres in the skin. There seems to be a neurological system dedicated to sensing and processing the gentle stroking you might receive from a parent or lover or friend, or that a monkey might receive from another grooming it. Claudia talks to neuroscientists Victoria Abraira, Rebecca Bohme, Katerina Fotopoulou and Francis McGlone who all investigate our sense of emotional touch, and she hears from Ian Waterman who lost his sense of touch at the age of eighteen. 

Producer: Andrew Luck-Baker

08/10/2020

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