Naked Scientists, In Short Special Editions Podcast
Episodes
Sperm Movement: Swim 'N' Roll
17 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
New research means we're going to have to think again about how human sperm swim. You might have seen movies of them looking a bit like tadpoles in a ...
ITER - The build begins
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The world took a step towards our goal of harnessing nuclear fusion as an energy source last week when the construction officially began of ITER, the ...
Covid outbreaks: local lockdowns
12 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In early August, the UK stepped back from some of the proposed lockdown easing measures. So how are public health officials managing these situations,...
Red light restores vision in aged eyes
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The millions of rods and cones in the retina at the back of each of your eyes, which turn light into nerve signals to send to the brain, use a lot of ...
Artificial liver progress
05 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The liver is an incredible organ that does a number of different jobs - including cleaning our blood and breaking down chemicals and drugs - to keep u...
Painted fruit and veg reveal plant origins
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Colourful still life paintings of bowls of fruit have been a favourite of artists for generations, and there are thousands of examples in art gallerie...
Deafness gene identified
29 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After 22 years of searching, researchers at the Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands have successfully identified the genetic cause be...
Covid: Are we facing a second wave?
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kim Hill catches up with virologist Chris Smith to review the Covid-19 current state of play, from Leicester's lockdown, the WHO stance on masks and a...
Is COVID-19 causing a global food crisis?
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How has the pandemic affected the global food supply? That's the subject of a recent report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. Their messa...
Mining for metals in the deep sea
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cobalt is one of the 118 chemical elements, and it's a vital ingredient in making batteries for everything from your mobile phone to electric cars. La...
Chatty chimps: we hear you!
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Do you consider yourself something of a Dr Doolittle? According to new research from the University of Amsterdam, we're all actually pretty good at un...
Sugar on the brain, HIV, and science sex bias
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month on the eLife Podcast we look at how sugar takes away the pleasure of consuming and makes you eat more, we find out what loneliness does to ...
Baby planet: image shows signs of formation
19 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Astronomers have taken what might be the first ever picture of a baby planet being formed. It looks like a beautiful tornado-shaped spiral of light, a...
Do eggs prefer one sperm over another?
17 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You might think that when you're choosing a partner to have children with that your decision is entirely yours. However it turns out that biology has ...
Mini human livers transplanted into rats
15 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Everyday in the UK over 40 people die from liver disease, some of whom could be saved by having a liver transplant - but there aren't enough donor liv...
COVID-19 six months in: are we managing it?
12 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Where are we now, six months into the COVID-19 pandemic? The official global death toll is over 380,000 with well over 6 million confirmed cases accor...
Storks: a cultural history
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago some stork babies made the news as the first white stork chicks to hatch in the UK for over 600 years. Despite the very long gap, here...
Covid: conspiracies, chloroquine and immunity
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Phase 2 of the hydroxychloroquine debacle, how the race to publish is leading to rapid retractions, whether Sweden's having second thoughts, did Covid...
Far-UVC light to kill the coronavirus
04 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump got a lot of stick when he talked about using disinfectant and light to kill off COVID-19 - seemingly implying people should drink bleach...
8000 coronavirus cases a day in the UK
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this week's coronavirus update, the impact of blood groups on Covid risk, progress towards a vaccine, and the UK still has 8000 cases a day: what d...
Goats get the point
01 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A herd of fluffy wild Kashmiri goats made the news back in March at the onset of the lockdown when they descended on the Welsh town of Llandudno to ex...
Care homes: how badly has COVID-19 hit?
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The UK government has come under fire for failing to protect care homes from the spread of the coronavirus. The facilities have seen more than 14,000 ...
Vaccines, antibodies and Covid19 in Sweden
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Progress in vaccine trials, the longevity of immune responses to Covid-19 and coronavirus vaccines, animal models of Covid-19, genetic stability of SA...
Covid-19 news update
23 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A special Covid-19 news update: Have you had a test for COVID-19? Some results from the symptom tracker app. Also, how blood plasma from Covid-recover...
Covid-19: Here to stay?
16 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Will SARS-CoV-2, the cause of Covid-19, continue to circulate for years to come? What's the story with infection in children, and how is Kawasaki Dise...
Are ring-tailed lemurs sniffing out a date?
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If, before a date, you like to spritz yourself to smell great for that special someone, you could be in good company, as this week, scientists in Japa...
Cancer gene vital for heart regeneration
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes scientists try to study one thing and end up accidentally discovering something else. Cancer researcher Cathy Wilson from the University of ...
Catching coronavirus twice: fact or fiction?
02 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists discover why Covid-19 causes some people to lose their sense of smell and taste, that patients probably don't catch coronavirus for a secon...
Cambridge University and Covid: Stephen Toope
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Across the world, universities have been closed, researchers sent home and many classes are either not taking place or they've shifted online; so how ...
Phthalate linked to premature births
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers have discovered a link between certain chemicals found in plastics and the premature births. The chemicals are from a class called phthala...
Grow your own veg: a novice's guide
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We're all spending more time at home right now, and being cooped up indoors can feel rather challenging. And with spring very much sprung here in the ...
Covid-19: Vaccines and facemasks
25 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As human trials of Covid-19 vaccines kick off in the UK, what kind of protection might we expect, and when will we know. Also, the thorny issue of fac...
Science Stand Up: Supernovae and Forks
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Recorded back in early March for our Cambridge Science Festival event, before the current lockdown measures were put in place, Cambridge University ph...
Social distancing: is 2 metres enough?
19 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Will a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus be forthcoming, and what other measures are effective at fighting Covid-19? We're setting great stor...
Covid-19: Can you catch it again?
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's close-call with Covid-19, reversing the lockdown, how contact tracing can control outbreaks, changing public...
Can I catch coronavirus from my shopping?
11 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The risk of bringing home coronavirus on your groceries is very low, but what's the best way to minimise the threat? Chris Smith explains... Like this...
Smart birds flourish in cities
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As our high streets are becoming increasingly deserted by humans, it's becoming apparent that we aren't the only creatures roaming our cities. Birds a...
Coronavirus: do facemasks help or hinder?
04 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the lockdown tightens and a quarter of the world's population are forced to stay at home, Chris Smith and RNZ's Kim Hill link up to talk about the ...
Is space lettuce good for you?
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Space-grown lettuce may sound like something from science-fiction, but astronauts on the International Space Station, or ISS, have been enjoying their...
COVID-19: Will lock-down work?
21 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the UK goes into lock-down and the government announces unprecedented spending to support businesses and workers, Chris Smith rejoins Radio New Zea...
Seagulls prefer food touched by humans
18 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last year scientists from the University of Exeter discovered that staring at seagulls can discourage them from stealing your food. Not content with s...
The World's Wasted Wastewater Potential
18 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Every household across the world produces wastewater. While usually we think of it as waste that has to be treated, a new study by the UN Institute fo...
Covid-19: is the UK's reaction the right one?
14 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the focus shifts to Europe, now regarded as the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, Chris Smith rejoins Radio New Zealand National's Kim Hill to...
The plants with three parents
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month, new hearing tests to spot those likely to struggle with speech in noisy environments, how your DNA is at risk from hacking on a public dat...
Covid-19: What's happening?
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Smith rejoined Radio New Zealand National's Kim Hill on Saturday 29th February as New Zealand declares its first case of Covid-19. So far the no...
Cannabis and False Memories
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cannabis has all sorts of effects on the body, including - it seems - on memory. A new study has shown that questioning people who are acutely high on...
Improving zoos
15 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Zoos are big players in conservation, investing 750 million dollars in conserving species in the wild. Researchers from Trinity College Dublin discove...
Pop the question with a lump of coal?
14 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Listener Paul got in touch wondering, given that diamonds are made of carbon, how big a diamond you could make if you turned all the carbon atoms in a...
Wasp nests help date ancient aboriginal art
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ancient wasp nests have enabled scientists to, for the first time, accurately pinpoint the ages of rock paintings dating back thousands of years in a ...
Coronavirus outbreak: where do we stand?
08 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Smith joined Radio New Zealand National's Kim Hill on Saturday 1st February in the wake of the World Health Organisation's decision to declare t...
Coronavirus: What is happening?
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Smith appeared on Radio New Zealand National to speak with Kim Hill 0n 25th January 2020 to discuss the emerging coronavirus situation in Wuhan ...
Zika immunity and falling body temperatures
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Have these paralysed patients helped to reveal the brain basis of why we gesticulate when we talk? Also, new insights into how the body clock keeps tr...
Should kids run a mile a day?
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Daily Mile is a programme for primary school children, that gets them to spend 15 minutes jogging or running at their own pace during the school d...
Self-cleaning surfaces
02 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers at McMaster University in Canada have developed a new cling-film-like wrap that can be used to coat objects to make them bacteria-, water-...
Wuhan City coronavirus: an update
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
An update on the emerging viral infection from Wuhan City, in China: the disease was first picked up by the Chinese in early December and notified to ...
Towards an HIV cure
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Around the world, millions of people are infected with the AIDS virus, HIV. And although drug treatments can successfully suppress the virus to undete...
Doug Cockle: The voice of The Witcher
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Naked Gaming Podcast presenters Chris Berrow and Leigh Milner catch up with voice of "The Witcher" video game series, Doug Cockle to find out what he ...
Motor neuron disease: a link to cholesterol
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Motor neuron disease, in its many different forms, affects about one in every 2,500 people in the UK - it's incurable, and can be debilitating, as ove...
Smokers: less dependent, less likely to quit
15 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
One other lifestyle change people tend to embrace at this time of year is to quit smoking. And the good news is that, according to a study from Univer...
CO2-consuming bacteria
12 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists have found a way to make organisms not need food at all. Bacteria usually rely on some sort of sugar to survive, but a group at the Weizman...
Large planet orbiting a white dwarf
03 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
And now onto something out of this World. For the first time, scientists have found evidence of a giant, Neptune-size planet orbiting a white dwarf st...
The voice of Ash from Pokemon!
30 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Join the Naked Gaming Podcast team for a special bonus episode, with an in-depth interview with the voice of Ash Ketchum from the pokemon TV series. W...
The Holly and the Ivy: why go evergreen?
24 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Taking a leaf from the holly and the ivy's book, Katie Haylor explores the virtue of being evergreen...? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporti...
Why are Christmas trees a thing?
23 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How did the popular concept of Christmas trees get started? Extolling the virtues of a real tree, including a superior short-term carbon footprint and...
AI to Detect Tuberculosis
19 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The lung disease tuberculosis is still one of the world's top ten causes of death. And while it's completely treatable, patients need constant monitor...
How measles suppresses immunity for years
18 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Measles was thought to have been eradicated from the UK in 2017, but following an outbreak the very next wear, we lost this elimination status. Measle...
Deprivation and male depression
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mental health awareness has been improving in the past few years, but there still isn't universal, accessible support for vulnerable people. A recent ...
Avalanche survivor: Lawrence's story
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 2001 Lawrence Jones set out on a freeskiing trip with his mates. It was not the first adventure trip they had been on, but it was the last one that...
Climate change: what does net zero look like?
09 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The UN Climate Change Conference - COP 25 - has been taking place in Madrid. The purpose of the conference is to take the next crucial steps in implem...
Why planting trees isn't always a good idea
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This is a response to a story we covered earlier this year about planting trees for climate change. A study in the journal Science claimed that the Ea...
Lakes, carbon and microbes: a hidden world
25 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
While forests do a great job of taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, as soon as the trees decompose, all that carbon goes straight back up aga...
Food micronutrient-protecting capsules
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you have access to a healthy, balanced diet, hopefully you'll be getting adequate supply of micronutrients. Going without can lead to serious healt...
Staphylococcus aureus biofilm vaccine
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A vaccine that can protect against infection with the skin bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which causes everything from wound and joint infections to...
Bird societies
18 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You might think we are special as humans for forming societies with complex structures. But we are not actually so different from other species in thi...
Voyager 2: leaving the Solar System
15 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In recent months the satellite Voyager 2, launched in 1977, became the second man-made object to escape from our Solar System and begin its journey in...
Oil wastewater makes earthquakes stronger
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Oil production has multiple environmentally-devastating consequences - including creating of billions of gallons of salty, chemical-filled wastewater....
Glass recognises numbers just by looking
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We have smartphones, smart watches, even smart fridges. But now, from a paper published in the journal Photonics Research, we could be seeing smart gl...
How many new mutations from Mum and Dad?
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month, join Chris Smith to hear how sleep deprivation sends your endocannabinoids skyrocketing and triggers a tendency to binge, how many new gen...
Brain changes in obese children
29 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One in five UK children are obese. The biological and social factors behind this are complex, but the long term consequences range from cardiovascular...
Old books reveal how happy we once were
25 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Considering people's wellbeing in making policy decisions is becoming more and more important, but it's only in recent years that governments have sta...
Gene boost makes cancer more visible
23 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Immunotherapy is the term used to describe techniques that provoke the immune system to attack and remove cancer. The argument goes that because the i...
Robots in blood vessels
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You're probably familiar with the 1966 science fiction film "Fantastic Voyage", where a submarine crew are shrunk to microscopic size and venture into...
Cooling that comes with a twist
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What if the next refrigeration technology could be based on twisting and untwisting strands? A new paper published in Science by an international team...
Prostheses that can restore lost sensation
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Can we help people who've lost a leg to feel it again? Mariana Marasoiu has this report... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked S...
Astronauts, geese and realistic retinas
26 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month, doctors doing U-turns: the medical practices without much evidence to prop them up, wind-tunnel experiments reveal how geese fly at extrem...
Are phone masts going to get larger?
05 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mobile phone companies could be set to erect bigger and taller phone masts as part of government plans to roll out 5G networks and improve coverage in...
Antimicrobial resistance and future plastics
21 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to many of the agents we use to deal with them, including antiseptics. The bacterium Acinetobacter bauman...
Stronger earthquakes from oilfield wastewater
02 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A research team from Virginia Tech, led by Ryan Pollyea, has found that earthquakes 8 kilometres below the earth's surface are increasing in intensity...
The science behind heatwaves
29 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A heatwave has been sweeping across Europe recently, causing record temperatures across the continent and creating a lot of consternation in the Naked...
Decoding the Minimum Genome
26 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Your genome contains all of your genetic information, and it's pretty long - the Human Genome Project estimated that humans have between 20,000 and 25...
The world's biggest patch of seaweed
24 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The world's largest patch of seaweed appears every summer in the mid-Atlantic. And since 2011, the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has been growing to e...
The nervous systems of worms
23 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The nervous system is a complicated network of specialised cells - neurons - that transfer information from one part of the body to another. To help o...
Oumuamua NOT Alien Technology
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You might remember from a year or so ago stories of an alien fly-by. The unidentified object was famously referred to as Oumuamua, which means "scout"...
Extremely Fast: The Future of Electric Racing
02 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In June, Izzie Clarke explored the extremely fast science of speed and headed to the race tracks with McLaren in their 600LT Spider supercar. But whil...
Making crops more light-sensitive
27 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With a rising global population, and the impending impacts of climate change, we need more food, and reliable food sources safeguarded for the future....
Boaty McBoatface and the Antarctic mystery
26 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2016 the public voted to name a new polar research vessel "Boaty McBoatface", ultimately though, it was decided that "RRS Sir David Attenboro...
Smarter, safer robots
25 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Robots are increasingly used to take over repetitive tasks in industry and agriculture, but they are still limited in what they can do. This also mean...
Fish: a small world after all
24 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The world is facing a global fish issue - a fissue, if you will. One third of all fish stocks are being overfished, and most of the efforts to prevent...
Asthma: mapping the human lung
23 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The chest disease asthma is becoming more common. It can lead to life-threatening breathing difficulties when the airways constrict and the lung tissu...
Cracking the secret of Antarctic ice holes
20 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Large holes in Antarctic sea ice remain a mystery to scientists despite their discovery over four decades ago. These vast areas of unfrozen water, oft...