Discovery

The Life Scientific: Steve Brusatte on the fall of dinosaurs and the rise of mammals

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Steve Brusatte analyses the pace of evolutionary change and tries to answer big questions. Why did the dinosaurs die out and the mammals survive? How ...

The Life Scientific: Shankar Balasubramanian on decoding DNA

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Shankar Balasubramanian is responsible for a revolution in medicine. The method he invented for reading, at speed, the unique genetic code that ma...

Tooth and Claw: Wolves

14 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We look at wolves and the programme is a little different, because the predator we’re talking about is very much a predator of our imaginations. Wo...

Tooth and Claw: Army ant

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The army ant might be small enough to squash under foot but, make no mistake, it’s a formidable predator. When they club together in their thousands...

Tooth and Claw: Venomous snakes

28 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Hart discovers why rattlesnakes make good mothers and how deadly their venom is. There are over 600 different species of venomous snakes around ...

The Evidence: Drug-resistant superbugs

26 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today, Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts focus on what’s been called “the silent pandemic”, the threat to modern medicine of anti-microbi...

Tooth and claw: Spotted hyena

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cursed as a worthless scavenger and cast as villainous cowardly sidekicks in Disney’s The Lion King, the spotted hyena is one of the world’s most ...

Deep sea exploration

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

UCL oceanographer Helen Czerski explores life in the ocean depths with a panel of deep sea biologists. They take us to deep ocean coral gardens on sea...

A new space age?

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021, Captain James Kirk, aka William Shatner, popped into space for real for a couple of minutes, transported by space company Blue Origin's touri...

African science, African future

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Tom Kariuki has spent his career battling for science in Africa, both as a leading immunologist and as the former director of the Alliance f...

The Evidence: Africa, the pandemic and healthcare independence

29 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a special edition of The Evidence, Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts focus on Africa, on how the more than fifty countries on the continent,...

The venomous vendetta

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whilst watching a documentary about some poisonous frogs, Curio Janni in Amsterdam, started to wonder what would happen if a frog licked itself or ano...

The slippery situation

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'What is the slipperiest thing in the world?' asks 8 year old Evelyn? 'Why do my feet slip on a wet floor but when my feet are even slightly moist it'...

The painless heart

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Mitch Lomax is a sports scientist at the University of Portsmouth. She helps actual Olympic swimmers get faster. She explains how most of the muscl...

The weirdness of water, Part 2 of 2

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“I don’t really understand why water has so many properties on different scales ranging from very large and cosmic to very small quantum and quark...

The weirdness of water, Part 1 of 2

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“I don’t really understand why water has so many properties on different scales ranging from very large and cosmic to very small quantum and quark...

The Evidence: When will the pandemic end?

25 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Everybody hopes that the new super-charged Omicron variant of coronavirus will be less severe, but even if it is, it’s spreading so fast and infecti...

The guiding hound

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dogs and humans have gone paw in hand for thousands of years. Historic and genetic evidence shows we’ve shaped each other's existence over millennia...

The James Webb Space Telescope

13 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is only days away. Scheduled for lift off on 22 December, the largest and most complex space observator...

Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

CRISPR is the latest and most powerful technique for changing the genetic code of living things. This method of gene editing is already showing great ...

Genetic dreams, genetic nightmares

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Matthew Cobb looks at how genetic engineering became big business - from the first biotech company that produced human insulin in modified b...

The Evidence: Healthcare pushed out by the pandemic

27 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As all eyes have been on the virus, other serious killer diseases took a backseat. Resources and staff were diverted, lockdowns were common all over t...

Genetic dreams, genetic nightmares

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Biologist Matthew Cobb presents the first episode in a series which looks at the 50-year history of genetic engineering, from the concerns around the ...

Listening to coral reefs

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, and also some of the noisiest. Up close, a healthy reef teems with trills, whoops, b...

Geoengineering The Planet

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Geoengineering is already underway from Australia to the Arctic as scientists try to save places threatened by global heating. It’s time for a globa...

Geoengineering The Planet

01 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Even with the best efforts, it will be decades before we see any change in global temperatures through our mitigation efforts. Given the pace of globa...

The Evidence: When misinformation kills

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A maelstrom of misinformation and its sinister cousin, disinformation, have been swirling all around us about Covid-19. The rumours and conspiracy the...

Chilean mummies

25 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Think of ancient mummies, and you might imagine Egyptian pharaohs in their highly decorated cases. But in actual fact, Chile has the oldest mummies in...

Earthshot 3 - The prize winners

18 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last 2 weeks we have featured the 15 finalists in the Earthshot prize, an initiative to highlight and award projects designed to conserve and...

Earthshot 2 – Tackling our energy crisis

11 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Just how do we balance the growing demand for electricity worldwide with the need to reduce fossil fuel emissions to address climate change? In our s...

Earthshot 1

04 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While international meetings to discuss climate change and polices that affect the world can seem rather distant to us as individuals, on a local leve...

The Evidence: To boost or not to boost?

02 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The divide between the Covid vaccine haves and have-nots has been described as “criminal”, with only 20% of people in low and middle income countr...

China's great science leap

27 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

President Xi Jinping is investing seriously into his strategic vision of turning China into a nation of scientific pace-setters. China’s past contri...

China's great science leap

20 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

President Xi Jinping is investing seriously into his strategic vision of turning China into a nation of scientific pace-setters. China’s past contri...

Covid origins: The science

13 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Presenter: Roland PeasePicture: Wuhan Residents Told Not To Leave As Coronavirus Pneumonia Spreads, Credit: Stringer/Getty Images

Future vaccines

06 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID19 pandemic has revolutionised the way vaccines are made, and underlined the inequalities in access to vaccines. But will it leave a legacy? ...

Tamsin Edwards on the uncertainty in climate science

30 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Certainty is comforting. Certainty is quick. But science is uncertain. And this is particularly true for people who are trying to understand climate c...

The Evidence: How will the pandemic end?

29 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When all restrictions are lifted in a highly vaccinated country, how manageable is the coronavirus? Both Israel and UK’s experiments to do just that...

The Life Scientific: Professor Martin Sweeting

23 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When Martin Sweeting was a student, he thought it would be fun to try to build a satellite using electronic components found in some of the earliest p...

The Life Scientific: Dr Nira Chamberlain

16 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When does a crowd of people become unsafe? How well will the football team Aston Villa do next season? When is it cost-effective to replace a kitchen?...

Lost for words

09 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Struggling to find words might be one of the first things we notice when someone develops dementia, while more advanced speech loss can make it really...

A sense of music

02 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Music can make us feel happy and sad. It can compel us to move in time with it, or sing along to a melody. It taps into some integral sense of musical...

Whatever happened to…those Covid-19 stories

31 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Whatever happened to those sniffer dogs who were seeking out any passengers infected with Covid-19 at Helsinki airport? And did plans to sample sewag...

Dare to repair: Fixing the future

26 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Miodownik, explores the environmental consequences of the throwaway society we have become and reveals that recycling electronic waste comes seco...

Dare to repair: The fight for the right to repair

19 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Many electronics manufacturers are making it harder for us, to fix our broken kit. There are claims that programmed obsolescence is alive and well, wi...

Dare to Repair: How we broke the future

12 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Materials engineer Professor Mark Miodownik looks back to the start of the electronics revolution to find out why our electronic gadgets and household...

Tooth and claw: Tigers

05 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“As it charges towards you, you can actually feel the drumbeat of its feet falling to the ground”. Nothing quite says fear more than standing befo...

Tooth and claw: Bears

28 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Teddy bears might be popular with children but real bears are anything but cuddly. Brown, Black and Grizzly bears are the most well-known and have a w...

The Evidence: How Covid damages the human body

26 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A year and a half in, and in many ways Covid-19 is still an enigma. All over the world, doctors and scientists are still struggling to understand exac...

Tooth and claw: Lions

21 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From Aslan to Simba, from the Wizard of Oz to heraldry, children in the West probably recognise this king of beasts before they can name the animals i...

Peter Goadsby on migraine

07 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

neurological condition is far more common than you might think, affecting more people than diabetes, epilepsy and asthma combined.While medications, t...

The Evidence: Sharing Vaccines – what’s gone wrong?

29 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The lofty ambition of the global community was that across the globe, those with the highest risk of losing their lives to this virus should be vaccin...

Patient zero: Back from the brink

24 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A six-year old boy in Papua New Guinea woke up one day in 2018 and was suddenly unable to stand up. Less than a year later, children in three other As...

The noises that make us cringe

03 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why do some people find noises like a fork scraping a plate so terrible? asks Findlay in Aberdeenshire. Rutherford and Fry endure some horrible noises...

The Hamster Power Hypothesis

26 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"How many hamsters on wheels would it take to power London?" asks Judah from Virginia in the USA. Rutherford & Fry return with engineering, ethics...

The Martian Mission

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What would it take for humans to live permanently on Mars? asks Martin in Weston-super-Mare, UK. The doctors dig into requirements and possibilities o...

The equal rights stuff

12 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1976, Nasa launched a campaign to help recruit the next generation of Astronauts. It was fronted by African-American actress Nichelle Nichols, Star...

Lithium: Chile’s white gold

05 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2019 was awarded to John Goodenough, Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino "for the development of lithium-ion batter...

The Evidence: Mental health and the pandemic

27 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Year two of the pandemic, and in tandem with rising rates of illness, death, acute economic shock and restrictions on everyday life, mental health pro...

The Life Scientific: Jane Hurst

08 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mice, like humans, prefer to be treated with a little dignity, and that extends to how they are handled.Pick a mouse up by its tail, as was the norm i...

The Life Scientific: Cath Noakes

01 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Cath Noakes studies how air moves and the infection risk associated with different ventilation systems. Early in the pandemic, she was invit...

The Evidence: Keeping out Covid-19

27 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From flight bans and entry bans to compulsory quarantine and virus testing, most countries have introduced travel restrictions in an effort to control...

The Life Scientific: Giles Yeo

22 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work.

The power of night

15 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Lucy Cooke meets some of the animal kingdom’s nocturnal inhabitants to understand why it pays to stir once the sun goes down.She examines some of th...

The power of one

08 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We humans are a supremely social species, but the coronavirus pandemic has forced many of us into solitary confinement.It feels like an unnatural, reg...

The power of celibacy

01 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

You might think that sex is essential for life, but you'd be wrong!Lucy Cooke travels to the Hawaiian island of Oahu to meet a community of mourning g...

The Evidence: The Shapeshifting Virus

30 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

News that at least three new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged in three separate continents have sent a chill throughout the scientific community. A...

Science Trumped

25 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When US health expert sighed last week that science could now speak again, his sense of relief was shared by many scientists. Since the start of the T...

Plant scientist Dale Sanders

18 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Dale Sanders has spent much of his life studying plants, seeking to understand why some thrive in a particular environment while others stru...

Astrophysicist Andy Fabian

11 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Andrew Fabian from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy has spent his career trying to unravel the mystery of how some of the most dramatic ev...

Marine conservationist Heather Koldewey

04 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Heather Koldewey wants to protect our oceans from over-fishing and plastic pollution. An academic who is not content to sit back and let the...

Climate meltdown

28 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The year 2020 started with wildfires raging across parts of Australia, exceptional floods in East Africa, and a heatwave in the Arctic. Extremes persi...

Hopes and fears for Covid-19 vaccines

26 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Less than a year in, and the first vaccines are already being rolled out, with many more in the pipeline. It is an unprecedented scientific response t...

Evolutionary biologist Alice Roberts

21 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s amazing what we can learn from a pile of old bones. Having worked as a paediatric surgeon for several years (often doing the ward round on roll...

Steve Haake

14 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Steve Haake has spent much of his career using technology to help elite sports people get better, faster and break records. He has turned his hand to ...

The Space Burrito

07 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Is there a point in space where the Sun could heat a burrito perfectly? asks Will. The doctors tackle this and a plethora of other conundrums from the...

The Zedonk Problem

30 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Today I learnt that tigons and ligers are what you get when lions and tigers interbreed?!’ surprised listener Jamz G tells the doctors. ‘What dete...

The Evidence: Pandemic rules: follower or flouter?

28 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of us, across the world, are subject to curfews, stay-at-home orders and lockdowns but what makes us stick to the rules, bend them or ignore ...

The end of everything

23 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone knows about the Big Bang being the beginning of the universe and time - but when and how is it going to end? ask brothers Raffie and Xe from ...

Broad spectrum

16 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Autism is a lifelong condition, often seen as particularly ‘male’. Yet a growing number of women, and those assigned female at birth, are being di...

Birds: singing for survival

09 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As large areas of the world have locked down this year, many of us have become more aware of the birdsong around us. The relative silence has allowed ...

Digital touch

02 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Claudia Hammond asks if touch can be replicated digitally? What devices exist already and how likely are we to use them? Michael Banissy, co-creator o...

The Evidence: Are national lockdowns evidence of policy failure?

31 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As a surge of cases risks overwhelming health services in parts of Europe, Claudia Hammond and experts from around the world examine the evidence behi...

Affectionate touch

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 th...

Unwanted touch

19 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Claudia Hammond explores unwanted touch and who we do and don’t mind touching us – and where. She draws on insights from the largest study that’...

Touch hunger

12 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Claudia Hammond explores our experience of touch hunger, and asks if we have enough touch in our lives. Covid-19 and social distancing have changed ho...

Megadrought in Chile

05 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Drought is a massive problem for Chile. Jane Chambers has been living in the capital Santiago for more than ten years and has seen huge changes in tha...

The sting in the tail

28 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"What’s the point of wasps?" asks listener Andrew, who is fed up with being pestered. For this series, with lockdown learning in mind, Drs Rutherfor...

The Evidence: Covid lessons for safe school reopening

26 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Claudia Hammond and experts from around the world consider the evidence behind schools, colleges and coronavirus spread. Listeners from India, Cuba, I...

The seeded cloud

21 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"Could you make a machine to make it rain in minutes?" asks listener Alexander from Hampshire, aged 12. For this series, with lockdown learning in min...

The growling stomach

14 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

"Why do our tummies rumble - and when they do, does it always mean we are hungry?" asks listener James, aged 12. For this series, with lockdown learni...

Return to Mars

07 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In February 2021, three spacecraft will arrive at Mars. One is the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter - the first interplanetary probe sent by the...

Liz Seward

31 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to Liz Seward, Senior Space Strategist for Airbus Defence and Space. Liz's young interest in Science Fiction led to a c...

Professor Emma Bunce

24 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Bunce, Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics at the University of Leicester, was inspired to study the solar system as a child by a TV programme ...

Frank Kelly

17 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Long before most of us gave air pollution a second thought, Frank Kelly was studying the impact of toxic particles on our lungs. In a pioneering set o...

On the menu

10 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Shark, bear and crocodile attacks tend to make the headlines but humans fall prey to a much wider variety of predators every year, from big cats and s...

Human Genome Project's 20th Anniversary

03 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Rutherford celebrates the 20th anniversary of one of the most ambitious and revolutionary scientific endeavours of all time - the Human Genome Pr...

Brian Greene

27 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Brian Greene studies the universe at the largest and smallest scales imaginable. When he was just twelve years old, Brian wandered round Columbia Univ...

Jane Goodall

20 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Goodall, aged 86, reflects on the years she spent living with the wild chimpanzees in Gombe in eastern Tanzania and tells Jim Al Khalili why she ...

Bed

13 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After a long journey, there’s nothing nicer for Katy than climbing into her own bed. It’s often the first major purchase we make when we grow up a...