Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
A Taste for Poison
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you really want to develop an appreciation for those early pathologists who went so far as to tas...
Book club – Fresh Banana Leaves by Jessica Hernandez
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Indigenous communities are among the most affected by climate change, yet their work and knowledge h...
Book Club - Racing Green
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode examines the science behind auto racing by digging into Racing Green: How Motorsports ...
Book club – Sticky by Laurie Winkless
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why is duct tape the answer to fixing everything? How do geckos cling to walls? And what, exactly,...
Her Hidden Genius
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we discuss Her Hidden Genius. It’s the new book by Marie Benedict, a lawyer and ...
Book club – Murder isn’t Easy
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re delving deep into the science of one of the best-selling fiction writers of...
Life as We Made It
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is for anybody interested in how human beings have altered the world around us since we...
Book club – The Icepick Surgeon by Sam Kean
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we’re reading The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastard...
Book club – Deep Sniff by Adam Zmith
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’ll tackle Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures by Adam Zmith. I...
Book club – Lessons from Plants by Beronda Montgomery
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is for all those people who have turned to gardening or amassed houseplants during the ...
Book club – Science in Black and White by Alondra Oubré
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s episode we’ll talk about Science in Black and White: How Biology and Environmen...
Book club – Vampirology by Kathryn Harkup
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Get your garlic and crucifix ready as we tackle Kathryn Harkup’s latest book Vampirology: The Scie...
Book club – Handmade by Anna Ploszajski
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How do you make a chemical-resistant beaker out of a material as fragile as glass? And how do you te...
Book club – The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We might like to think that science is purely objective, driven only by scientific principles and fr...
Book club – Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science by Luke O’Neill
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re looking for answers to the important questions in life like ‘Why do you b...
Book club – The Poison Trials by Alisha Rankin
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month we find out drug testing has come a long way, as we read The Poison Trials: Wonder Drugs,...
Book club – Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks
13 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month we’re celebrating 20 years of a popular science classic: Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a...
Book club – Science books for children
16 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you’re looking for a sciencey Christmas present for the young readers in your life or just...
Written in Bone
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This time, we’re reading Written In Bone: Hidden Stories in what We Leave Behind by forensic ant...
The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the end times in this episode as we’re reading The End of Everything (Astrophysically Spe...
United We Are Unstoppable
28 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we’re reading United We Are Unstoppable: 60 Inspiring Young People Saving Our Wo...
Half Lives
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month we’re reading Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium by historian Lucy Jane Santo...
Three books on pandemics
08 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we’re tackling the coronavirus information overload by comparing three books on pa...
The Alchemy of Us
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From photographic film to scientific glassware, Ainissa Ramirez’s new book The Alchemy of Us off...
Smoke & Mirrors
06 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we take a peek behind the curtain with Gemma Milne’s Smoke & Mirrors. In her first ...
Ingredients
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This time we're reading Ingredients, a book that promises to make chemistry more fun than Hogwarts....
Say Why to Drugs
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why don't we think of coffee as a drug? Are you hooked on heroin the moment you take it...or is the ...
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we’re talking about giraffes, a magic sandwich hole and the question of whether robots...
Antimony, Gold, and Jupiter’s Wolf: How the Elements Were Named
20 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we’re delving deep into chemistry’s history as we discuss Peter Wothers' book Antimo...
Transcendence
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time Gaia Vinc...
Language Unlimited
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we’re delving into the science of language as we’re discussing linguist David Adger’...
How to: absurd scientific advice for common real world problems
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever considered the practicalities of building a swimming pool out of cheese? Or wondered ...
Book Club – The Chemical Detective
02 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Enjoy a fast-paced thriller but wish they were a bit more believable when it comes to the science? I...
Superior: The Return of Race Science
08 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Superior: The Return of Race Science, Angela Saini examines the history of race science and th...
The Periodic Table
12 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This time in our Book Club podcast, we celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Primo Levi, the man beh...
Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table
14 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For this month’s Book Club podcast, it’s a highly unusual review scenario, as we get to grips wi...
Clearing the air
09 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This time in Book Club, we follow sustainability journalist Tim Smedley as he pursues one of humanki...
The truth about fat
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s book club podcast, Anthony Warner – ‘The Angry Chef’ behind the popular blog...
Humble Pi
08 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s podcast, Australian author Matt Parker looks at the unique relationship that exist...
Inventing Ourselves
07 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month's podcast features Inventing Ourselves by cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore...
Gene machine: the race to decipher the secrets of the ribosome
02 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This time, we discuss and scrutinise Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome,...
I'm a Joke and So Are You
06 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month’s podcast features I’m a Joke and So Are You, in which comedian Robin Ince examines w...
Losing the Nobel Prize
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month’s podcast is about the Nobel prize and the hype that has surrounded it for decades, as ...
Liquid
25 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month’s podcast features material scientist Mark Miodownik’s latest book Liquid: The Deli...
Cat Zero
06 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For this month’s podcast, we take a slight diversion from our usual non-fiction theme, and take a ...
The Beautiful Cure
27 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Emma Stoye presents this month’s podcast about immunology professor Daniel Davis’s latest book ...
Unthinkable
27 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s podcast presented by Emma Stoye, Helen Thomson reveals fascinating insights about ...
Chemistry World at the Hay Festival
08 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Join Emma Stoye at the Hay Festival of Literature & Arts in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. She speaks to New Sc...
Seeds of Science
15 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For this month’s podcast, we explore the world of anti-GM campaigning which Mark Lynas was a part ...
Enlightenment now
03 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Are things getting better, or are we on the decline? In Enlightenment now, Steven Pinker argues that...
The Element in the Room
09 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For this month’s podcast, we peruse Steve Mould and Helen Arney’s new book: The Element in the...
Testosterone rex
16 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month we take a look at Testosterone rex. Cordelia Fine dismantles various ideas about gende...
More molecules of murder
26 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss More molecules of murder, in which John Emsley meets your morbid fascination...
Chemistry
01 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss Chemistry, in which First-time novelist Weike Wang takes us inside the mind of...
The angry chef
09 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Dodgy dietary advice is everywhere, from bite-size morsels on social media to an all-you-can-eat buf...
A crack in creation
19 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We are the products of nature and nurture, but the invention of Crispr, which enables us to alter ou...
A course in deception
15 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Things go from bad to worse for Mackenzie Smith when her data disappears, her lab rats are killed, a...
Frankenstein: annotated for scientists and engineers
04 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Next year will see the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelly's classic, Frankenstein;...
We have no idea
04 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Everything you need to know about everything we don’t yet know. This month’s book is We have no...
The death of expertise
07 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The mass disparagement of knowledge is a recent phenomenon. Apparently we’ve all had enough of exp...
Bring back the king
02 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Almost a decade after its extinction, the Pyrenean ibex became newly un-extinct thanks to cloning. B...
The telomere effect
07 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
We would all love the gift of eternal youth. That remains a dream, but there are things we can activ...
The master algorithm
24 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
If there’s one thing we can learn from histroy it’s everything that there is to know. Or at leas...
Furry logic
13 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Evolution has created ingenious solutions to life’s problems. Some animals use physics in a way th...
The secret life of fat
24 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Fat might not be fashionable, but it is essential. It is a living organ that communicates with the b...
Homo deus and the best books of 2016
16 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Yuval Noah Harari likes the big topics. His last book, Sapiens attempted to explain everything that ...
I contain multitudes: the microbes within us and a grander view of life
22 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Some cleaning agents claim to kill 99.9% of all bacteria, but if preventing disease is the main aim,...
Big data: does size matter?
08 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we discuss the benefits of big data and whether these are offset by their threat to priv...
Science and the city: the mechanics behind the metropolis
13 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s book club we discuss the technologies that help modern cities function
Grunt: the curious science of humans at war
30 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss Grunt: the curious science of humans at war by Mary Roach. The military is a ...
Herding Hemingway's Cats
28 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss Herding Hemingway's Cats: understanding how our genes work by Kat Arney. In...
Sorting the beef from the bull
22 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss Sorting the beef form the bull by Richard Evershed and Nicola Temple. The ho...
Scientific Paper Writing – a Survival Guide
22 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss Scientific Paper Writing - a Survival Guide by Bodil Holst. Every budding res...
Why science is sexist
22 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss Why science is sexist by Nicola Gaston. That science is sexist isn't a ques...
The Elements of Power
22 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss The Elements of Power by David Abraham. New technologies like smart phones an...
Adventures in the Anthropocene
22 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss Adventures in the Anthropocene: a journey to the heart of the planet we made ...
Thing explainer
22 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we discuss Thing explainer by Randall Munroe. In this book the xkcd creator attempts t...
Why does asparagus make your wee smell?
20 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we answer the profound qustion Why does asparagus make your wee smell? This is the titl...
Scientific Babel
20 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
This month we examine the history of scientific language, with Michael Gordin's book Scientific Bab...
A is for Arsenic
18 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to our new monthly podcast, theChemistry World Book Club. Each month we’ll be sharing our ...