BBC Inside Science

A New Volcanic Era?

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As lava consumes homes on the Reykjavik Peninsula in Iceland, evacuated communities have been witnessing eruptions shifting and intensifying. We take ...

Understanding Flood Forecasting

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When Lois Pryce arrived at her boat in Berkshire, the area was already completely flooded. The only way to get to it was via a small pontoon. She is o...

Space Exploration

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

2024 is an exciting year for lunar exploration. For Inside Science this week Marnie Chesterton investigates the planned missions to the Moon over the ...

12 days of Christmas - science version

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Marnie Chesterton & Victoria Gill embark on a science-themed version of the classic Christmas song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ in this festive ...

The Science of the South Pole

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We’re on board the RSS Sir David Attenborough for the vessel’s first big science season in the Antarctic, since it launched in 2020. It’s crewed...

Biggest COP in history

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

COP 28, the largest climate summit in history, has drawn to a close. Marnie Chesterton examines some of the main stories to emerge from this lengthy c...

Vagrant Birds

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Vagrant birds are those that appear in locations where they are not usually found. They might have been blown off course by a storm or have been affec...

Finding Tunnels

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tunnels have been the focus of much attention this week as the war in Gaza continues and 41 workers were rescued in India, after 17 days trapped under...

UK Covid-19 Inquiry

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Key scientific witnesses including former Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance and Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty are called to t...

Iceland Volcano

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An underground river of magma and thousands of tremors have been observed across the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland. We speak to the scientists monito...

Loss and damages for vulnerable countries

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, has died. He was instrumental in pushin...

Metal Mines

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Long abandoned metal mines are having a huge impact on rivers across the UK. BBC Inside Science reporter Patrick Hughes visits Cwmystwyth in Wales, wh...

Forever chemicals

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

PFAS chemicals, also known as forever chemicals, don’t break down in the environment. They can accumulate in the body and are found to have an array...

White phosphorus

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

White phosphorous is an incendiary material and if it were to be used in any built-up civilian areas, the practice would violate international law. We...

Tumbling down the rabbit hole of assembly theory

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A paper recently published in the journal Nature claimed that assembly theory could help explain and quantify selection and evolution. But what exactl...

Life beyond Earth

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Under the mighty radio Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, Victoria Gill brings together some of the UK’s leading experts who were visiting the recent...

The state of nature in the UK

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s episode Victoria Gill speaks to Nida al-Fulaij, conservation research manager at the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, about t...

Why is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rowing back on climate pledges?

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a hastily arranged press conference this week in which he confirmed he would be rowing back on some previously made...

The halfway point for sustainable development

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015 the UN adopted 17 sustainable development goals aiming to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure people everywhere enjoy peace and prosper...

What’s the cost of invasive species?

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Humans have introduced more than 37,000 alien species to places they do not naturally occur. A report launched this week by the Intergovernmental Plat...

How will climate change affect where we can live?

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Extreme weather is forcing communities to leave their homes and it's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. What can we do about it? In this edition o...

What makes a healthy river?

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

River health has captured the public imagination, particularly as overspills from sewers have been getting more attention in the media. But the condit...

Why do we want to go back to the Moon?

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Two plucky spacecraft, one Russian and one Indian, are currently blasting towards the Moon’s South Pole. Both Russia’s Luna-25 and India’s Chand...

Time is still ticking for the Amazon

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After decades of exploitation, time is running out for the Amazon rainforest. Eight South American nations came together this week for the first time ...

Reality check: carbon capture and storage

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week the UK government announced that around 100 new oil and gas licences for the North Sea will be issued. At the same time the Prime Minister s...

Battles with flames

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We're in the heart of summer in Europe, where extreme heat has spiralled into out-of-control wildfires across the Mediterranean, leading thousands to ...

The wide-ranging effects of climate change

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week China hit a record high temperature, a scorching 52.2°C, while Death Valley in California measured 53.9°C. Elsewhere, Europe has been batt...

How social media can affect the health of teenagers

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Threads social media app launched on 5th July. Instagram users were able to sign up with just a few clicks. It joins a plethora of other social me...

Mapping the universe

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A rocket launch, super-massive black holes and ghost particles! This past week’s scientific findings are testament to how hard-at-work cosmologists ...

Heat and health

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last summer saw intense heatwaves across the world. And already this year, global air, surface and sea temperatures have hit the highest levels on rec...

The science of sound

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Scientists, conservationists and other researchers are using audio soundscapes in innovative ways to record the natural world in rich detail and help ...

The Kakhovka dam and global food security

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Tuesday, the United Nations reported that the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River in Ukraine will impact heavily on global food sec...

An ocean of opportunities

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For World Ocean Day, Gaia Vince finds out how the planet’s seas could help us to generate clean power, capture CO2 and feed the world. Gaia is joine...

AI and human extinction

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the headlines this week eminent tech experts and public figures signed an open letter that read “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should...

The benefits and problems of eDNA

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we hear from the University of Florida’s Dr David Duffy. He heads up a team of researchers who are studying sea turtles. In order to trac...

Science in the making

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Royal Society is the oldest scientific academy in the world. Since being established in 1660, it has painstakingly archived thousands of papers, l...

Can we prevent natural disasters?

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and hurricanes all have the power to cause deadly destruction. One event can lead to anothe...

Wild Britain

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2020, the UK government committed to protecting at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. Step seven years into the future with Gaia. The UK...

70th anniversary of the discovery of DNA’s structure

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

James Watson and Francis Crick, who detailed the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, are perhaps two of the most iconic scientists of the 20th Cent...

Rocket Launch Pollution

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Whilst the globe struggles to shift to green sustainable energy sources, one industry has its sights set solely on the stars. Space X just launched th...

Negotiation

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When was the last time you had to use your negotiating skills? Did you walk away satisfied? This week junior doctors are half way through their 4 day ...

Recycling

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this special edition of Inside Science, Vic Gill prepares to rummage through our rubbish, to peek behind the curtain of the UK's recycling habits a...

Net Zero

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Far away and not enough, those are criticisms of the government’s latest net zero initiative – a plan to reduce emissions . We ask Jim Watson Prof...

Covid – missing link found?

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Data collated from swab samples taken in Wuhan’s market in the early days of the Covid pandemic suggest animals sold in the market were carrying the...

Sweet Science

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers from London’s Francis Crick Institute have found a type of artificial sweetener is able to dampen down immune system responses - at lea...

Science superpower?

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The government has launched a new 10-point plan designed, it said to “cement the UK’s place as a global science and technology superpower”. We s...

Covid leaks and conspiracies

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Science writer Philip Ball has followed the relationship between government and its scientific advisors throughout the pandemic. He discusses the role...

Antarctic Ice Special

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sea ice coverage hit a recording-breaking low in the Antarctic this week, but what does this mean for the rest of the world? Why is the region so diff...

Gene Editing Ethics, Killer Whale Mummy's Boys and Ancient Hippo Butchery

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui caused international outrage when in 2018 when he used the gene-editing tool known as CRISPR Cas-9 to edit the genomes...

Abundant energy

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s programme is a thought experiment: What would the world be like if energy became superabundant and very cheap?Energy is vital for every ...

Exploring the New Environmental Improvement Plan

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Defra, the department for Environment, food and Rural affairs, released its latest Environmental Improvement plan this week. Many environmental groups...

Vegetarian school dinners

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if all schools offered only plant-based options for 3 out of 5 lunches a week? Would that be enough to trigger a broader societal shift to eating...

Towards Net Zero

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former Energy Minister Chris Skidmore’s report into Net Zero calls for ambitious policies to drive energy transition, framing it as a huge economic ...

Chatbot plagiarism

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an online conversational chatbot, launched by OpenAI in November 2022. To date it remains an online se...

The UK's first satellite launch

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The UK's first satellite launch faced several delays in 2022, but Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl is prepped for imminent take off. BBC science corresponde...

Game changers

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nations are racing to protect 30% of the planet by 2030 in an attempt to halt biodiversity loss, but one novel approach may be able to safeguard speci...

A Scientifically Superior Christmas Dinner

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How many Scientists does it take to cook Christmas dinner? Marnie seeks help from a food scientist, a geneticist, a doctor and a botanist to create th...

Cancer cure, Strep A research and hopes for biodiversity

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Base editing is a technique for substituting the building blocks of DNA. It has only been around for a few years, so its use to apparently cure cancer...

Biodiversity

05 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity summit, currently taking place in Montreal Canada, intends to develop ways of reducing the global loss of bi...

Killer smog

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For a week at the beginning of December 1952, London was under a blanket of deadly smog. As a result, the Clean Air Act came into force a few years la...

Science funding

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The UK has the opportunity to access European science funding. However disagreements over the Northern Ireland protocol are preventing the UK from joi...

Climate science and politics

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the COP27 environment summit draws to a close we look at some of the issues still to be resolved. BBC Environment correspondents Victoria Gill and ...

COP27

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One key issue on the agenda at the COP27 environment summit in Egypt is how to fund damage from the effects of man made climate change. Often the eff...

Monkeypox

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A new study published in the British Medical Journal suggests monkey pox might be passed from person to person before symptoms show. Esther Freeman, A...

Turtle Voices, a Pandemic Retrospective and a Nose-Picking Primate

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

New recordings featuring the voices of 53 species of turtle, caecilian and tuatara previously thought to be silent have illuminated the evolutionary o...

The BBC at 100

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Recorded in front of an audience at Bradford’s National Museum of Science and Media, we’re delving into the next 100 years of broadcasting, examin...

Avian flu

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Avian or bird flu is normally seasonal, disappearing as migratory birds leave for winter. However a new strain which seems to spread more easily betwe...

Coronavirus - new variants

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The virus which causes Covid 19 is continuing to evolve, but into several different closely related strains rather than more new variants such as Delt...

Fracking Science

27 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The government has lifted a moratorium on fracking imposed in 2019 following a series of small earthquakes caused by exploratory drilling. The Britis...

Science collaborations – with Russia

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The sub Arctic boreal forests stretch across the northern hemisphere. They represent a huge carbon sink , but are also vulnerable to climate change. M...

Is the James Webb Space Telescope too good?

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to beam exciting data back to earth from exoplanet systems, galaxies and stars further away than we’ve ever...

Ancient Amputation

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The discovery of a body missing a foot in a thirty one thousand year old grave suggests our ancient ancestors may have been capable of performing comp...

Dealing with drought

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As parts of England enter drought conditions we ask what are the drivers for drought and what can we do about it? With Dr Jess Neumann, Hydrologist a...

Return of the ozone hole

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Research on recent extreme fire events shows they have a direct effect on the size of the seasonal ozone hole over Antarctica. Climate scientist Jim ...

A Possible Sequel to the Dinosaur Armageddon

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Did the Chicxulub meteor that did for the dinosaurs have a smaller companion? Dr Uisdean Nicholson and Professor Sean Gulick talk to Vic Gill about th...

Amplified Arctic Amplification and Microclot Clues to Post-Viral Disease

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Anna Hogg joins us on today’s programme for some polar explorations, we speak to one team recalculating arctic warming estimates and anoth...

Shaun The Sheep Jumps Over The Moon, Bronze Age Kissing and PPE Rubbish

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

ESA announce that Shaun The Sheep will fly around the moon this month aboard Artemis-1 mission. Philippe Deloo tells Gaia Vince what's in store for th...

Heatwave: the consequences

25 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The severity of last week's heatwave is changing the narrative. Gaia Vince talks to Simon Evans, deputy editor of the climate publication Carbon Brief...

Multiverses, melting glaciers and what you can tell from the noise of someone peeing

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Multiverse Laura Mersini-Houghton is an internationally renowned cosmologist and theoretical physicist and one of the world's leading experts on t...

Deep Space and the Deep Sea - 40 years of the International Whaling Moratorium.

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The James Webb Space Telescope is finally in business - what further treasures will it find? Also, the origins of the International Moratorium on Whal...

Robotic Thumbs, Mending Bones with Magnets, and the State of Science this Summer

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gaia Vince takes you for a mosey around his year's Summer Science Exhibition, held by London's Royal Society. Along the way, PRS Sir Adrian Smith talk...

10 Years of the Higgs Boson

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1964 a theoretical physicist called Peter Higgs suggested a mechanism via which elementary particles of a new theoretical scheme could obtain mass....

Engineering Around Mercury, Science Festivals, and The Rise of The Mammals

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How hard is it to get to Mercury and why are we going? Also, do science festivals work? And why did mammals survive when dinosaurs died? Marnie Cheste...

Inside Sentience

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Marnie Chesterton and guests mull over the saga of an AI engineer who believes his chatbot is sentient. Also, climate scientists propose a major leap ...

Miscounting Carbon, EU Funding Stalemate, and How to Make a Royal Hologram

07 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week on inside science Marnie Chesterton is looking at how companies measure and account for their use of renewable energy, how politics is impac...

A Reign of Science

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Society itself and the ways we live have been transformed in 70 years of science. Marnie Chesterton, Andrea Sella, and Gemma Milne take a tour of the ...

Monkeypox, Pompeii aDNA, and Elephant Mourning Videos

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why are non-African monkeypox cases causing concern? Also, the first complete human genome from a Pompeiian cadaver, and how YouTube is aiding animal ...

Buried Mars Landers, Freezing Species, and Low-Tide Archaeology

16 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since 2018, Nasa's InSight Mars lander has been sitting on the surface listening to the seismic rumbles of the red planet's deep interior. But this we...

Running Rings Around Matter

09 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Astronomers have captured the first image of Sagittarius A*, the gargantuan black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Dr Ziri Younsi, University College...

Precious Metals, Earlier Eggs, and Meaningful Meteorites

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With the cost of living spiralling, many are probably thinking more about the price of food than lithium, titanium, copper or platinum. But the volati...

The Ebb and Flow of the Tidal Power Revolution

26 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we begin with a disturbing medical mystery. Since the start of the year, almost 200 children worldwide have fallen ill with hepatitis—or ...

Building Better Engagement

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Victoria Gill and guests ask why does scientific communication matters in society and how it might be done better, with Sam Illingworth, Berry Billing...

A Trip-Switch for Depression?

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Could magic mushrooms be the key to a revolution in treating depression? Professor David Nutt, director of the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Researc...

Declining Data, Climate Deadlines and the Day the Dinosaurs Died

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Covid-19 infections in the UK are at an all-time high. But most people in England can no longer access free Covid-19 tests, and the REACT-1 study, whi...

How can the UK get to zero carbon?

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Energy is essential: every living thing needs energy to survive, and today’s industrialised societies consume enormous quantities of it. At the mome...

Racial inequality in UK science

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This month the Royal Society of Chemistry released a shocking report on racial inequality at all stages of academia, from research funding to career p...

Global food security during Ukraine conflict

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Russian conflict in Ukraine is already causing hunger there, and as Ukraine and Russia are huge grain exporters, the crisis will be far reaching. ...

High Seas treaty talks and discoveries from the deep

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The High Seas make up most of our oceans but belong to no-one and are largely unregulated, leaving them at risk of plunder. UN talks start afresh this...

Cyber frontlines in Ukraine

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As conflict continues in Ukraine, there are invisible ‘cyber frontlines’ running in parallel to the physical fighting. We hear how the country’s...

Inside Science is now first on BBC Sounds

04 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Looking for the latest episode? New episodes of Inside Science will now be available first on BBC Sounds for four weeks before other podcast apps.If y...