BBC Inside Science

Russian Spy Poisoning

08 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

A former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia are in a serious condition after being exposed to a nerve agent on Sunday. The first poli...

Weird Weather?

01 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

With many parts of the country seeing large snowfalls we ask what's driving our current weather? What factors need to be in place to create snowfalls,...

Science after Brexit

22 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

The UK is one of the largest recipients of research funding in the EU. Marnie Chesterton discusses what the future of UK science funding will look lik...

Shipping air pollution; Cheddar Man; Millirobots in the body;Dog brain training

15 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sulphur belched out of vessels' smokestacks is a serious health problem for coastal communities around the world. Four hundred thousand premature deat...

Democracy in Space

08 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This week a US based billionaire launched a giant space rocket and sent a car vaguely in the direction of Mars. As a space mission it was to say the l...

Scientists on Trial

01 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In 2016 there was an attempted coup in Turkey. This led to many people who the government saw as opposition figures being sacked from their jobs and i...

Did typhoid kill the Aztecs, DNA stored in Bitcoin, Glow-in-the-dark plants and levitating humans

25 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What killed the Aztecs? In some areas of the Americas, as many as 95% of the indigenous population died of diseases brought in by the discoverers of t...

African swine fever, Oil spill update, CRISPR gene editing, Rat eradication in New Zealand, Chimp kin recognition

18 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

African Swine fever is deadly to pigs and is spreading west from Russia across Europe. The virus that causes it is very resilient and can stick around...

Sanchi oil tanker, Gut gas-monitoring pill and Chimpanzee portraits

11 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

After the Sanchi oil tanker collided with another ship it discharged its cargo of 1 million barrels of condensate oil. This could cause one of the big...

Tabby's Star, Space 2018, Mosquito sounds, C diff and food additive link

04 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford talks to astronomer Tabetha Boyajian at Louisiana State University about the wierd star that's perplexed astronomers since its discove...

Ancient DNA and Human Evolution

28 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty years ago, a revolution in the study of human evolution began. A team in Leipzig in Germany successfully extracted DNA from the bones of a Nean...

Antisense RNA therapy, Fossils vs Trump, Printing mini-kidneys, Electric eel power

21 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Promising results from a small clinical trial of Huntingdon's disease patients have led to RNA-directed therapy such as antisense RNA being hailed as ...

The Future of Coral Reefs, Little Foot, Arthur C Clarke

14 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Oxford is hosting the European Coral Reef Symposium this week. Climate change is seen as the number one threat to the future of coral reefs. Adam talk...

Trophy hunting, Gene drives, Nuclear lightning, Peregrine falcons and drones

07 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Trophy hunters are always after the lion with the largest darkest name and the stag with the most impressive antlers. Research by Rob Knell at Queen M...

Prehistoric Strong Women, Semi-synthetic Life, Listener Feedback, Artificial Superintelligence

30 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

More than 5,000 years of heavy agricultural labour by women can be read from the bones found in ancient cemeteries from the Neolithic to Iron Age time...

Interstellar visitor, Svante Paabo, Synthetic biology, Plight of the Axolotl

23 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

On 19th October, a mysterious object sped through our solar system. It was first spotted by astronomers with a telescope in Hawaii. Its trajectory and...

Can we forecast earthquakes?, Britain's space race rocket Skylark, Francis Galton

16 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What might the length of the day have to do with the likelihood of destructive earthquakes around the world? According to Professors Rebecca Bendick a...

Boy gets New Skin, The York Gospels, Stephen Hawking's Thesis

09 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers in Italy and Germany have saved the life of a boy with a life threatening genetic skin disease, using a combination of stem cell and gene ...

Climate Change and Health; Moth Snow Storm Feedback; Whale Brain Evolution; Pharoah's Serpent

02 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford talks to researchers on a major global study that aimed to quantify how climate change has already damaged the health of millions of p...

Insects disappearing, DNA Biosensor, Dog faces, Bandit dinosaur

26 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The total biomass of flying insects in the environment has decreased by 75% in the last quarter of a century. That's the conclusion of research publis...

Colliding Neutron Stars, Krakatoa, Centigrade vs Celsius

19 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford talks to astrophysicists about the astronomical discovery of the year, if not the last couple of decades: the collision of two neutron...

HiQuake, Plate Tectonics@50, Sonic Weapon Puzzle, The Chinese Typewriter

05 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Gareth Mitchell talks to Gillian Foulger of Durham University about HiQuake, the world's largest database of human-induced earthquakes. Professor Foul...

Gravity wave breakthrough, The antibiotic pipeline, Microbial waste recycling, Fausto - an AI opera

28 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The gravitational waves produced by two massive black holes colliding have for the first time been detected by three gravitational wave detectors. Pro...

Cassini's finale; Science and Technology Select Committee; Crick's lecture; Cave acoustics

21 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

After last week's Inside Science's edition devoted to Cassini ended, the Cassini spaceship plunged into the atmosphere of Saturn, and became part of t...

Farewell to Cassini, the epic 20 year mission to Saturn

14 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As Cassini's epic journey to Saturn finally ends tonight, Adam Rutherford celebrates the incredible discoveries of a mission that has changed the way ...

North Korea Bomb Tests, Warming Antarctic Sea Life, the Microbiome, Cuckoo Chuckle

07 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea claims to have successfully tested a thermonuclear weapon, a hydrogen bomb. Tom Plant, director of Prolifera...

Noxious haze over south coast; In Pursuit of Memory book; technosphere; Big Wasp Survey

31 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Last weekend a chemical ‘haze’ on the East Sussex coast saw 150 people needing hospital treatment after something in the air led to streaming eyes...

Killer robots; Myths and superstitions and conservation; Science book prize nominee - Cordelia Fine; Taxidermy

24 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Once again, the ethical side of fully autonomous weapons has been raised, this time by over 100 leading robotics experts, including Elon Musk of Space...

Antarctica's volcanoes, science book prize nominee - Mark O'Connell, US solar eclipse and 40 years of NASA's Voyager mission

17 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Not so much hiding in plain sight, but tucked under the ice-sheet in Antarctica are 91 volcanoes. This adds to the 47 volcanoes already known on the c...

European heatwave and climate change, Eugenia Cheng, Next generation batteries for electric cars, Joseph Hooker exhibition.

10 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The current heat wave in Europe is proving deadly. High day and night temperatures, coupled with high humidity, can be a very dangerous combination. A...

Gene-editing human embryos, Spaceman's eyes, Science book prize, Sexual selection in salmon

03 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the heart condition that can lead to seemingly super-fit athletes collapsing with heart failure. It affects one in 500 ...

Cod fisheries, Our connection to nature, Domestic electricity and Gamma ray bursts

27 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

News that the Marine Stewardship Council has reopened the North Sea cod fishery is met by some concern from marine biologist Professor Callum Roberts ...

Genetics and privacy, Global plastic, Great Ape Dictionary, Ocean Discovery X Prize

20 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Should our genomes be private? Professors Tim Hubbard and Nils Hoppe join Adam Rutherford to discuss concerns about data security and privacy of our g...

Genetic testing; Pugs on treadmills; Frankenstein

13 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

What can genome science do for you? Chief Medical officer Dame Sally Davies recently published her annual report, issuing a plea for a revolution in t...

Neonics dispute, Hygenic bees, Hip-hop MRI

06 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The results of the first large-scale field study looking at neonicotinoid pesticides and their impact on bees has caused controversy. It was carried o...

Sex bias in biology, Engineering prize, Olympic bats, Angry Chef

29 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Teams from all over the world have been looking at the differences between male and female mice. They've assessed hundreds of characteristics, from we...

Forensics Centre in Dundee; D'Arcy Thompson centenary; Scottish science adviser; Coffee and climate

22 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee has expanded to test new psychoactive substances. Adam Rutherford talk...

Science in Fire Prevention

15 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Applying scientific techniques to reduce fire risk in tall buildings. We look at practical measures to prevent building fires and also how science can...

Early Humans Were Even Earlier Than We Thought

08 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Early human fossils from Morocco suggest our ancestors walked the earth much earlier than previously thought. Human ancestral fossils from the area we...

The Importance of Basic Research

01 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford discusses the relationship between basic and applied scientific research with guests at the Hay Festival. Adam is joined by the Astron...

Sherpas - dolphin rescue - quantum computing - hot lavas

25 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The superior performance of Sherpa guides on Mountain Everest is legendary. New findings reveal how their bodies make the most of low oxygen levels at...

Childhood cancers - Ghana telescope - Nano-listening device for cells - Ancient whales

18 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford goes the pathology archive of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to hear how tumour samples from child patients about one hundred ...

Violins - Social networks and cliques in great tits and snow monkeys - Exploring DNA and art

11 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Classical music fans will know well the legendary violins made by the likes of Stradivarius and Guarneri in the 17th and 18th century. But new acousti...

The moral brain, stem cell developments, ancient DNA in cave dirt, mangrove forest

04 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford talks to neuroscientist Molly Crockett about moral decision-making in the brain. She combined brain scanning with a test involving mon...

Homo naledi, First humans in America, Dark matter detector, New theory of dark matter

27 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Controversy has followed the remains of a new species of human, Homo naledi, since it was described in 2015. Buried deep in a South African cave, its ...

Cassini’s death, scrapping diesel, weather balloon, satellites monitoring volcanos

20 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The Cassini-Huygens mission has been monumental for science. For thirteen years the probe has gathered data on Saturn, revealing more about the gas gi...

23andMe Genetic Sequencing, Human Knockout genes, Coral Bleaching

13 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

23andMe is one of the biggest providers of home genetic testing kits and if you live in the UK, it's the only one that also includes various genetic a...

Creation of island Britain, Sleep gene, Mary Kelly forensics, Global Tree Search survey

06 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford examines a new study published this week which reveals how a megaflood and giant waterfalls severed our connection to what is now Fran...

Climate change and extreme weather; Primate brain size; Earthquake forecasting; Planet 9

30 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Following yesterday's US House Committee on Science,Space,and Technology's controversial hearing on scientific method and climate change, Adam Rutherf...

Comet 67P images; Etna eruption; Brain navigation; Octopus intelligence

23 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The recent Rosetta mission to image and land a probe on a comet was an astounding achievement. Rosetta took thousands of photos mapping the entire sur...

Boaty McBoatface in Antarctica, Aeroplane biofuels, Bakhshali manuscript, Goldilocks zones

16 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The submarine famously named Boaty McBoatface is deployed this week for its first mission to examine a narrow submarine gap in the South Atlantic. Mik...

Rise of the Robots: 3. Where is my mind?

15 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From Skynet and the Terminator franchise, through Wargames and Ava in Ex Machina, artificial intelligences pervade our cinematic experiences. But AIs ...

Cells and Celluloid: Aliens on Film

09 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

With Adam Rutherford and Francine Stock.

Rise of the Robots: 2. More human than human

06 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford explores our relationship with contemporary humanoid robots

Rise of the Robots: 1. The history of things to come

03 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The idea of robots goes back to the Ancient Greeks. In myths Hephaestus, the god of fire, created robots to assist in his workshop. In the medieval pe...

Earth's Earliest Life, The Benefits of Pollution, Sexuality and Science and New ideas on Evolution

02 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The World's oldest sedimentary rocks reveal traces of our earliest ancestors. New analysis shows life forms existed more than 3.7 billion years ago wh...

The perils of fake science news, The neanderthal inside us, What The Beatles really sang - statistically speaking

23 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

A woolly story about resurrecting mammoths raises serious questions for medical ethics. News of a scientist's plan to resurrect mammoths has spread ar...

Science and cyber security, Dinosaur babies, Winston Churchill and level crossings

16 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Testing cyber security with science. The UK now has a new National Cyber Security Centre. However there is very little scientific evidence against whi...

Measuring human impact on earth, Awards for engineers, Sounds of space junk.

09 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Quantifying the impact of humanity on the earth's natural systems. Why human activity now has a larger effect on our planet than the forces of nature....

Wildlife trafficking, New quantum computers, Ancient bird beaks, Glassblowing.

02 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Conservation and conflict. A year long BBC investigation has exposed an illegal animal trafficking network stretching from West Africa to the Middle E...

Crime, volcanoes, ghosts and how we are influenced by the genes of unrelated others

26 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The genes of unrelated others can influence our health and behaviour. New research suggests the genetic make up of our partners can have a profound in...

Antarctic science rescue, Killing cancer with viruses, Measuring wind from space and the Last man on the moon

19 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Why the British Antarctic science base is being temporarily abandoned. New cracks have appeared in the Ice shelf on which the Halley research station ...

The perils of explaining science, Living to 500, What's good for your teeth and The future of stargazing

12 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Why the simplest explanations are not always the best when it comes to science. Where you read about a scientific subject can affect not just what you...

RIP Granny the oldest Orca - Graphene + Silly Putty - Moving a Giant Magnet - Space in 2017

05 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The world's oldest known killer whale is presumed dead. At an estimated age of 100 years, 'Granny' was last seen with her family in October. The scien...

Listeners' Questions

29 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford puts listeners' science questions to his team of experts: physicist Helen Czerski, cosmologist Andrew Pontzen and biologist Yan Wong. ...

Inuits and Denisovans, Sex and woodlice, Peace through particle physics, Caspar the octopus in peril?

22 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Can Inuit people survive the Arctic cold thanks to deep past liaisons with another species? Adam Rutherford talks to geneticist Rasmus Nielsen who say...

Rock traces of life on Mars, Desert fireball network, Gut microbes and Parkinson's Disease, Science Museum's maths exhibition

08 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Could rocks studied by the Mars rover Spirit in Gusev Crater in 2007 contain the hallmarks of ancient life? Geologist Steve Ruff of Arizona State Univ...

Alzheimers research, Lucy in the Scanner, Smart bandages, From supernovae to Hollywood

01 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Alzheimers disease is now the leading cause of death in the UK, but there are as yet no treatments to halt or reverse it. There was huge disappointmen...

Predator bacteria therapy, New money for UK science, Stick-on stethoscope, Taming fears in the brain scanner

24 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Bdellovibrio is a small bacterium which preys and kills other bacteria. A team of researchers in the UK has shown in animal experiments that injection...

Does Pluto have an ocean, Antarctica's oldest ice, Meat emissions, Swifts fly ten months non-stop

17 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Does the distant dwarf planet Pluto have an ocean beneath its thick crust of ice? It's certainly possible, according to a group of researchers who are...

Climate change questions, Animal computer interaction, Sounds and meaning across world's languages

10 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change is in the news this week. The international Paris agreement to curb global temperature rise has just come into effect but President Ele...

Italy's quakes, Ebola virus, Accidental rocket fuel, China in space

03 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the past three months, central Italy has been shaken by several large earthquakes. The quake near Norcia on 30th October was the most powerful for ...

Making mozzies safe with a microbe, CO2 at 400 ppm, Chixculub crater rocks, Why Mars Lander failed

27 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford meets the Australian scientist behind a radical new technique to prevent mosquitoes from spreading the zika and dengue fever viruses t...

HFC Ban; Human Cell Atlas; Origin of Hunting with Dogs

20 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Biologists are to begin a 10 year international project to map the multitude of different kinds of cell in the human body. The average adult is built ...

Life on Mars? Quantum Gravity. The deep origins of bird song

13 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Mars is about to be visited by the first space mission for 40 years which is designed to seek signs of life on the Red Planet. Adam Rutherford talks t...

Microbead impact, Remote animal logging, Royal Society book prize, Surgewatch

08 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The government has announced that tiny pieces of plastic in personal beauty products that end up in the oceans will be banned from sale in the UK. But...

Proxima b exoplanet, The Hunt for Vulcan, East Antarctic lakes, Deep sea shark hunting

25 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The nearest habitable world beyond our Solar System might be right on our doorstep . Scientists say their investigations of our closest star, Proxima ...

Autonomous cars, Bees and neonicotinoids, Marden Henge, Royal Society Book Prize

18 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ford has just announced that by 2021 it's going to have a driverless car on the road with no steering wheel. It sounds ambitious, since it is the inte...

Blow to the LHC "bump", Crow intelligence, Robot mudskippers, Royal Society book prize

11 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

New results have squashed the hope that the hints of a new particle detected by the Large Hadron Collider would confirm the existence of something ext...

Signs of life on planets, Royal Society Book Prize, Queen Bee control, Galactic Prom 29

04 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What should we be looking for when searching for life on other planets beyond our solar system? Scientists urgently need to come to a consensus on thi...

Dinosaur extinction, Neanderthals in Gibraltar, Music appreciation, A year of New Horizons

14 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The dinosaurs met their end with a massive bang when, 66 million years ago, a 6 mile-wide rock crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. This was bad news for ...

Juno, Space debris, Fake tumours, Risky plants

07 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this week, the US space agency successfully put a new probe in orbit around Jupiter. The Juno satellite, which left Earth five years ago, had ...

Juno, Nanotech art conservation, Robots fix the city, Eel conservation

30 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

NASA's Juno Probe arrives at Jupiter on 4th July, where it will execute a daring loop-the-loop in order to get closer to the giant planet than any oth...

National Insect Week, Venus' electric field, Green mining, Wimbledon grass science

23 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This week is National Insect Week. Almost all animals on Earth are insects, and entomologist Adam Hart told us why we're celebrating and studying them...

More gravitational waves; Ocean floor mapping; Selfish Gene 40th; Spoonies

16 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Gravitational waves have been detected for a second time. These waves are ripples in the curvature of space time, predicted by Einstein in his General...

Fighting Antimicrobial Resistance

09 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're dedicating the whole programme to one of the biggest threats to humanity. We're already at 700,000 preventable deaths per year as a re...

Fixing the Future

02 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We face many global problems, such as drought, flooding and climate change. All of these issues are rooted in science. It'll take politics and people ...

GM plants; Svalbard Seed Vault; Directed Evolution; Dolphin Snot

26 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The topic of GM plants raises strong opinions and many questions. This week, the Royal Society published answers to some of those questions. Adam spea...

Climate Change, State of the World's Plants, Antibiotic Resistance, Telephone Metadata, Bat Detective

19 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Today we're asking how anyone can make sense of the deluge of climate change data that is almost continually published. By the end of last month, near...

Genetics and education, Eyam plague, Pint of science, Labradors and chocolate

12 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The biggest study of the relationship between genes and educational attainment - in this case, basically the measure of how long you stay in education...

Human embryos, Transit of Mercury, Fishackathon, Fat labradors

05 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In a major advance in the field of embryology, scientists this week have kept human embryos alive in petri dishes for record amounts of time. The lega...

Chernobyl, Drones, Tree crickets, Cern

28 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

30 years ago this week an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. A fire raged for 10 days, spewing radioactive materials on the surrounding area an...

EU membership and UK science, Quantum games, Fixing genes

21 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The UK science community draws vital benefits from EU membership and could lose influence in the event of an exit, says a House of Lords report out th...

Breakthrough Starshot, Moon mining, QB50, Solar Q&A

14 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This week Russian internet billionaire Yuri Milner announced a project to send tiny spaceships to Alpha Centauri. Milner, alongside Stephen Hawking, a...

Air pollution monitoring, Britain breathing, Tracking Hannibal

07 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This week a "Faraday Discussion" - a unique way of presenting and sharing cutting edge science - is underway at the Royal Society of Chemistry in Lond...

Solar farm, Gravity machine, Kakapo

31 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The world's second largest floating solar farm has just started generating power. Built on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir in West London, it's the s...

Flu, Coffee yeasts, Wave machine, Cochlear implants

24 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The flu season is running later this year. And it has been unusually virulent. Professor Wendy Barclay, virologist at Imperial College London, tells T...

Recovering lost memories, Storks eat junk food, Oldest pine fossil, Spring flowering

17 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Research in Nature this week shows that lost memories in mice can be rescued by reactivating a group of memory cells in the brain called 'engram' cell...

Gain-of-function research, Mindfulness, Women in science, Snake locomotion

10 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This week in the US, public discussions are taking place into controversial Gain of Function research. Who should decide the limits of studies where s...

UK's longest-running cohort study, The Brain prize, Hairy genetics

03 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This week is birthday time for the 3000-strong group of 70 year olds who might qualify for the title of longest-serving science guinea pigs. Participa...