Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea

Futureproof Extra: What makes Roman concrete so duarble?

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Think of those greatly-preserved Roman structures like the Pantheon and you might marvel that they are still standing after all these centuries. So ...

How to build the first city on Mars

15 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The notion of human beings getting to and settling on Mars has been a staple of science fiction for decades. But what are the social, scientific, and...

Futureproof Extra: The Benefits of Sperm Swimming in Groups

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We would traditionally associate sperm as solitary swimmers but new research suggests that the male reproductive cell can sometimes move into groups. ...

Is it getting harder to maintain focus?

08 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It may come as no great surprise to any of our listeners that it is our goal here at Futureproof to educate and reveal the world of science to you. I...

Futureproof Special: The Best of 2022

01 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode of Futureproof, Jonathan looks back at some of our favourite pieces from throughout 2022. - Martin Wikelski, Professor at th...

Futureproof Extra: Beyond Our Five Senses

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our senses are at the heart of how we navigate the world - coalescing in any moment, in any combination, to varying degrees, to relay what is going on...

Do Dark Matter & Dark Energy Actually Exist?

18 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over the 13 years of doing this show one of the things that we, and indeed all of the field of Astrophysics, has been trying to get our collective hea...

Futureproof Gold: Evolution's Bite

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Evolution is constantly adapting us to our environment, making species more suited and better equipped to survive in their natural habitat. So why di...

Futureproof Extra: The Origins of Sentience

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From day one we feel our way into, and through, the world. By utlising a complex array of sensory receptors that grow and evolve as we mature, we co...

Is Human Hibernation A Possibility?

11 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most blindingly obvious problems facing human space travel is that space is very big. It’s like REALLY big. Space being big means thing...

Futureproof Extra: The Art of Making the Invisible Visible

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Photography may, at a cursory glance, appear to dwell in the domain of the humanities and artistic expression but it is a vital tool to science as wel...

Evidence of the Multiverse

04 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For most of us, the word “multiverse” probably conjures up some sort of fun sci-fi episode like the universe in which we all have hot dogs for fin...

Futureproof Gold: Enemies of the State

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this special insatllment of Futureproof Gold, we take a listen back to our award-winning episode 'Enemies of the State'. Among other guests, Mara ...

Futureproof Live: Is there a limit to our intelligence?

27 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this very special episode of Futureproof, recorded live at the TU Dublin Grangegorman Campus, Jonathan was joined by a panel of guests to explore ...

Futureproof Live: Is it possible to run forever?

20 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this very special episode of Futureproof, recorded live at the TU Dublin Grangegorman Campus, Jonathan was joined by a panel of guests to explore ...

Futureproof Extra: Neurostimulation in E-Sports

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Joining Jonathan to discuss how the skills needed to perform laparoscopic keyhole surgery as well as e-sports can be significantly enhanced by applyin...

Gravity Batteries

13 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When you walk out your door today, it may be sunny, it may be windy, the waves may be crashing against the shores with an awesome fierceness. Or, you ...

The Sounds We Cannot Hear & What Can We Take To Make Us Live Longer?

06 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan is joined by Karen Bakker, Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies and author of 'The Sounds of Life: How Digital Tech...

Using AI to fight blindness

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As well as trying to sell you products you’ve just been talking about but don’t want, and beating humans at chess or Go or Mario cart, AI can actu...

What is energy anyway?

30 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Physics, while absolutely fascinating, can be impenetrable. And it isn't just cutting-edge ideas that can melt our brains, often we accept basic prin...

Futureproof Extra: How do we tackle chronic pain?

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pain is a deeply subjective thing. When it’s with us it’s all we can think about. So, what is life like then for someone for whom pain never l...

Can Humpback whales be altruistic?

23 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It can be easy to think poorly of humans. When we're not destroying the planet or starting wars, we're likely off somewhere making fools of ourselves...

Is “Gamification” making fools of all of us?

16 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Yiddish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem; the man whose stories formed the basis for 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof once proposed that “life ...

Futureproof Extra: The science behind bees' waggle dance

16 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have covered the lives and behaviors of bees a few times here on the programme. So much so we thought we’ve seen and heard it all. Well, we may...

Futureproof Extra: The new science of the heart

09 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Average adults' heart beats 72 times a minute. In a lifetime it creates enough energy to drive the truck to the moon and back and generates astonishi...

Human Organs-on-Chips

09 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Drug development is notoriously slow and expensive to bring a new compound from the lab bench to market. A major cause of this inefficiency is the tra...

Futureproof Extra: The End of Medicine As We Know It

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you have acute migraines, your doctor might refer you to a neurologist. If your Asthma is really bad, maybe you’ll be sent to a respiratory spec...

Thorium Nuclear Reactors

02 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, the Chinese government has been testing a thorium nuclear reactor that uses molten salt as a coolant. Although this radioactive element has ...

Futureproof Extra: The Large Hadron Collider & The Search for a Fifth Force

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Depending on your social media proclivities you may or may not have noticed that your feed is awash with images from the JWST. Certainly science Twitt...

Longevity, Immortality and the quest to defeat death with Aubrey De Grey

25 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do you eat an elephant? One spoon at a time, right? Well It's the same with living forever. No one is going to find a magic potion that will make ...

The Future of Transport

18 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A recent Newstalk survey on commuting has found that people are spending longer on their journeys to work since the pandemic. And so all week we’ve...

Futureproof Extra: Survival of the Richest

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You’ve probably seen the likes of '2012' or more recently 'Don’t Look Up' - disaster movies where there’s a race against time to save humanity. ...

Exploring the Idea of Plant Intelligence

11 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sometimes in science, a question can be so hotly debated that attempting to answer it can become a lifetime project. And more often than not these qu...

Futureproof Extra: What Animals Can Teach Us About Living Longer

10 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Steven N. Austad is the Chair and a Distinguished Professor within the UAB Department of Biology and the author of 'Methuselah's Zoo: What Nature Can ...

Futureproof Extra: The Genetic Age

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of a nuclear chain reaction in 1933 he immediately tried to suppress his own discovery culminating in 1945 with...

Chemputers & The Future of Chemistry

04 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Prof. Lee Cronin, Regius Chair of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow joins Jonathan to discuss working on taking the gu...

The Futureproof Language Special

28 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Language is fundamental to who we are and what has makes us so successful as a species, and while all species have their own means of communicating, w...

Futureproof Extra: Prader-Willi Syndrome

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a genetic disorder that occurs in approximately one out of every 15,000 births. It affects males and females with equ...

The Science of Attraction

21 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us could probably put together a list of things we find attractive in a potential partner and a lot of those things will likely come down to o...

Futureproof Extra: The Last Days of the Dinosaurs

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There has been a lot said about the extinction of the dinosaurs. But aside from the actual extinction event itself, when it comes to the days, weeks,...

Inside The Mind of a Bee

14 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In years gone by, if a bee was annoying you, it was usually "bye-bye Mr. Bee" but nowadays, we’re more likely to put out plates of sugary water to h...

Futureproof Extra: The Trouble with Cloning Birds

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jurassic Park came out in 1993, then "Dolly" the sheep was cloned in 1996, and yet here we are more than two decades later and we still haven’t got ...

Why Usain Bolt Can’t Outrun Your Cat

07 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

While you may be King or Queen of your local park run, no matter how much training you do, even if you were to use performance-enhancing drugs, you'll...

Futureproof Extra: Why Do We See Ghosts?

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever seen a ghost, or a UFO, or had some seemingly supernatural experience that you can’t explain? If you haven’t, we'd be willing to be...

Is Animal Translation Possible?

31 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you are a pet owner you probably have plenty of experience trying to get a basic message across to your dog or perhaps if you own a cat you gave up...

Futureproof Extra: The Science of Bisexuality

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Julia Shaw, a psychological scientist at University College London and the author of ‘Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexualit...

The Hidden Depths of Animal Perception

24 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For us humans, our overall sensory capabilities - the scope of our sense of smell, our sight, our hearing, and touch - feels all-encompassing, like th...

The Dream Machine

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a complex relationship with psychedelics. To some, they can be gateways to a higher level of consciousness, to others, a poison that should b...

Gazing Into the Deepest Depths of the Cosmos

17 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The biggest story this week was the release of some absolutely spectacular views of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope, which include the ...

Futureproof Extra: The Secret Perfume of Birds

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There's much to admire about birds. They can soar through the skies, build durable nests, sing the most beautiful songs, and possess a visual acuity t...

How To Change Someone's Mind

10 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do we get someone to change their mind? Is it by arguing them into submission or is it by letting them explain the story about how they arrived ...

Futureproof Gold: DARPA - The Pentagon's Brain

07 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Annie Jacobsen, author of 'The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency' joins Jonathan to disc...

Futureproof Extra: The Cutting-Edge Tech of Modern Operating Theatres

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For most of us, our image of what goes on in an operating theatre comes from television and movies; we think scalpels, scrubs, facemasks, and beeping ...

A Brief History of Weaponised Insects

03 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve seen classic B Movies like 1954’s 'Them' or the criminally underappreciated classic, 'Starship Troopers', the words “Insect Warfare”...

Futureproof Gold: What is Time?

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We conventionally think of time as something simple and fundamental that flows uniformly, independently from everything else, from the past to the fut...

Futureproof Extra: Fair Seas & Potecting Our Marine Habitats

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We here at Futureproof don't need to tell you that biodiversity is in crisis. This is true in our seas as much as in our oceans, and despite that, o...

SIRT 6: The Longevity Gene

26 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to maintaining that youthful luster, we have, over the years, concocted all manner of things - from cosmetics, dietary plans, and exerci...

Could Google's LaMDA Really Be Sentient?

19 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whether AI is capable of reaching the point of sentience has long been debated; and with the news this week around Blake Lemoine - an engineer at Goog...

How The Science of Dogs Changed The Science of Life

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan is joined by Jules Howard - Zoological Consultant & Correspondent and Author of Wonderdog: How the Science of Dogs Changed the Science of Lif...

Futureproof Extra: Treating Spinal Cord Injuries

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An injury to the spinal cord can be hugely traumatic and life-changing in nature. And while inroads have been made in terms of the development of tre...

Futureproof Extra: How Sensors Shape Our Everyday Life

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From thermostats, to step counters, pressure gauges, and chips that guide the Roomba around your living room, there are now more electronic sensors in...

What Does It Mean To Be Alive?

05 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For centuries, stories about the origin of life have gripped us, while attempts to understand and define it have confounded us as for every metric we ...

Futureproof Gold: The Science of Smell

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Of the five (traditionally accepted) senses, smell is definitely the one that gets overlooked. But it can also be one of the most evocative. If you’...

Futureproof Special: United By DNA

29 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Knowing where we come from can be one of the most important pillars by which we establish and develop our sense of who we are. Not only that, unders...

Futureproof Extra: The Sound of The Universe & Everything In It

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whether you’re aware of it or not, right now, you are vibrating. In fact, the natural frequency of a human body while standing is roughly between 5...

The Cutting-Edge Science of Transplants

22 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The incredible science behind organ transplant surgery is perhaps something that has become a bit normalised as for the majority of us, these life-sav...

Futureproof Extra: A Genetic History of the Americas

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The peopling of the Americas has long been a hot topic. After all, there are no written records and scant archaeological evidence to tell us what happ...

What Happened Before The Big Bang?

15 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you ask most people how the universe began, they might say “the Big Bang” - but it’s hard to be satisfied with that answer and to resist the...

The Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In our efforts to better understand the very fabric of the universe we sometimes have to think outside the box. So it might seem strange then to think...

Futureproof Extra: Upcycling CO2

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The climate change problem can often seem intractable and in a political sense, painfully slow. But it's important to remember that some progress is b...

A New Understanding Of Epilepsy

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Joining Jonathan on Futureproof this week was Dr Matthew Campbell - Associate Professor in Trinity’s School of Genetics and Microbiology . Dr Campbe...

What Goes In To Designing A Rollercoaster?

01 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Joining Jonathan on Futureprooof this week was Kory Kiepert - Engineer & Partner at The Gravity Group. Kory is a rollercoaster engineer who design...

Futureproof Extra: Are Smaller Scorpions More Deadly

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Evolution has a funny way of equipping creatures that are small in size with attributes that make them deadly to deal with - the poison frog, blue-rin...

Sequencing the Complete Human Genome

24 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the first draft of a human genome sequence was completed in 2000, genomics research has led to huge strides in the understanding of our biology,...

Futureproof Extra: Paleoburrows

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We can learn a lot about the animals of the past by studying the fossils we find in the ground but there’s something else that pre-historic creature...

50 Years of the The Dunedin Study

17 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this month the Dunedin Study into health and behaviour marked its 50th birthday. In 1972, a researcher in the city set out to track the develo...

Futureproof Extra: What We Don't Know About Gravity

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Gravity is everywhere. We and every other thing in the cosmos experience its force at all times no matter how small, no matter how oblivious you might...

Creating Synthetic Alcohol

10 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We have a funny relationship with alcohol. Many of us enjoy how it can make us more outgoing or ready to laugh but for others, it can be a source of s...

Futureproof Extra: The Joy of Science with Jim Al-Khalili

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Futureproof Extra: The Joy of Science with Jim Al-Khalili

Designing a Vaccine for Covid-19

03 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Designing a Vaccine for Covid-19

Futureproof Extra: Why Do We Hate?

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For millenia the people’s and states of western Europe were at war with each other. They fought the 9 years war, the 100 years war, the Napoleonic w...

The End of the Age of Astronauts

27 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For many people, the single greatest human achievement of the 20th century happened on July 20th, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on t...

Futureproof Extra: Genomics

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One of the things we here at Futureproof talk a lot about is the genome, the complete IKEA instructions to building you that exists in nearly every on...

How Motorsport Science Can Save The World

20 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When you think of motorsport, your mind might think of the speed, the danger, or the excitement. But it might surprise you to find that it is the moto...

Futureproof Extra: The Expectation Effect

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Futureproof Extra: The Expectation Effect

Can Animals Detect Natural Disasters?

13 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Can Animals Detect Natural Disasters?

Futureproof Extra: Measuring Intelligence

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Futureproof Extra: Measuring Intelligence

NeoMimix: The New Sperm Selection Technology

06 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

NeoMimix: The New Sperm Selection Technology

Futureproof Extra: The Winchcombe Lockdown Meteorite

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Winchcombe Lockdown Meteorite

A Forensic Look at Solving Crimes

27 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How to Solve a Crime with Science with Dr. Angela Gallop

Futureproof Extra: Hybrid Humans

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Futureproof Extra: Hybrid Humans

Unraveling the Mysteries of our Ancient Dead

20 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Unraveling the Mysteries of our Ancient Dead

What Sleep Can Teach Us About Epilepsy

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What Sleep Can Teach Us About Epilepsy?

Can Geoengineering Help in the Fight Against Climate Change?

13 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Can Geoengineering Help in the Fight Against Climate Change?

Why Are We So Obsessed With Measuring Time?

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Now, while we may not be aware of it, each and every one of us is a slave to an unseen and unknowable master. It rules the sun and the earth, roving t...

Why Is Chewing So Important?

06 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When we eat it may not occur to us how important chewing is. Food impaction is when a morsel of food is blocking the oesophagus or needs to be taken o...

Could We Be On The Verge Of A Vaccine For MS?

30 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease affecting the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). MS occurs when the immune system attacks ne...

Futureproof Extra: How Do We Navigate?

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Futureproof Extra: How Do We Navigate?

Where Are All The Irish Dinosaurs?

23 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Where Are All The Irish Dinosaurs?

Futureproof Extra: A Natural History of the Future

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Futureproof Extra: A Natural History of the Future