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BBC Radio 4

A weekly show exploring science, its mysteries, and the debates it sparks.

BBC Inside Science

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?

As new research looks at the financial and environmental case for solar panels in space, we explore how likely the technology could be to power our future energy needs back on Earth. 

Marnie Chesterton hears from the author of a new study into the topic, Dr Wei He from King’s College London, and is joined by Professor Henry Snaith from Oxford University to look at the future of solar panel technology.

We also hear from conservation scientist Adam Hart about his views on whether allowing trophy hunting could actually help to protect threatened species in the long term.

Marnie also speaks to the author of one of the books shortlisted for the annual Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, Simon Parkin. His book, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, explores the story of the botanists working at the world’s first seed bank during World War Two, and the extraordinary lengths they went to to protect the specimens they were keeping. We also hear from one of the judges of the awards, the crime writer Val McDermid.

And science journalist Caroline Steel joins us to highlights the week’s most fascinating new pieces of research.

Could solar panels in space be the energy source of the future?

What are you wearing today? What processes, chemical and otherwise, have gone into creating the garments in your wardrobe? And how might they be improved, honed, transformed in the future?

Professor of Materials & Society at UCL, Mark Miodownik, Dr Jane Wood, Lecturer at the University of Manchester and expert in textile technology, and materials scientist, writer and presenter Dr Anna Ploszajaki join Marnie Chesterton to take a closer look at possibly the most familiar materials we own, our clothes.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Clare Salisbury and Lyndon Jones
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

What will we be wearing in the future?

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr announced plans this week to cancel $500 million dollars of funding for mRNA vaccine development. The research was focusing on trying to counter viruses that cause diseases such as the flu and Covid-19.

Marnie Chesterton is joined by Professor Anne Willis, Director of the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge, to explore the claims made by The US Department of Health and Human Services that the technology “poses more risks than benefits”, and to look at the evidence behind the vaccines.

We also visit the most powerful computer the UK has ever seen at the University of Bristol, and explore how the Isambard-AI supercomputer is being used to carry out groundbreaking new research.

After last week’s call for our listeners to pay homage to the satirical songwriter and mathematician Tom Lehrer, who died at the age of 97, we hear a range of your brilliant musical tributes.

And Marnie is joined by journalist Caroline Steel to explore the week’s fascinating scientific discoveries.

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

What’s the evidence for vaccines?

A massive 8.8 magnitude mega earthquake off Russia's east coast sent tsunami waves into Japan, Hawaii and the US west coast this week. While more than two million people across the Pacific were ordered to evacuate, there were no immediate reports of any fatalities. 

After recent devastating tsunamis like the ones that hit Fukushima in 2011 and the Boxing Day disaster of 2004, we speak to Environmental Seismology lecturer at University College London, Dr Stephen Hicks, to ask why this quake didn’t cause anywhere near the same amount of harm.

After the Lionesses successfully defended their UEFA European Women’s Championship, Marnie Chesterton is joined by Professor of Sports Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, Steve Haake, to looks at the role data analysis and Artificial Intelligence is now playing in football and other sports.

We hear about fascinating new research from primatologist Professor Cat Hobaiter at the University of St Andrews into what we can learn about our evolution by studying how apes eat alcoholic fermented fruit.

And Marnie is joined by technology broadcaster Gareth Mitchell to hear about the week’s brand new scientific discovery news, and for a musical homage to the satirical songwriter and mathematician Tom Lehrer, who died this week at the age of 97.

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

Why wasn’t the Russia mega earthquake as damaging as previous ones?

We discuss the incredible science of the animal kingdom, focusing on the latest fascinating research into animal culture, society and communication.

Victoria Gill is joined by a panel of experts in front of a live audience at the Hay Festival to hear about their research all over the world into animal behaviour.

Taking part are:

Jemima Scrase, who is currently finishing her PhD at the University of Sussex investigating matriarchal leadership in African elephants, and has spent most of the last few years out in the field in Kenya, working in collaboration with the charity Save the Elephants.

Dr Manon Schweinfurth, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, who runs a lab investigating the evolutionary and psychological origins of cooperation.

And Andy Radford, a Professor of Behavioural Ecology at the University of Bristol, who studies social behaviour and communication, and particularly how vocalisations are used to mediate cooperation and conflict.

The surprising culture of the animal kingdom

Space junk. 

It might sound like an out-of-this-world problem that we don’t need to worry about here on Earth – but is it? 

As we send more and more metal in the form of satellites up into space, scientists are warning it is becoming more of a risk both here – and up there. 

We dig into the problem and what’s being done to clean it up. 

Also this week, we answer a listener question about oceans and their influence on global temperatures, and we ponder the use – and sometimes abuse – of scientific language. 

And with the Paris Olympics well under way, how much does sex affect sporting performance? 

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

How much of a risk is space junk?

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