The Naked Scientists Podcast

The Nobel prizes feature on the Naked Scientists this week alongside a bumper crop of your science questions! We find out why water expands when it freezes, whether animals have regional accents, and how many rockets you would need to crash into the moon to knock it off course. Plus, how the insects splattered on windscreens are helping scientists to study biodiversity, the virus linked to chronic...

This week, we catch up with the latest from the front line of cancer research. Kat Arney reports from the National Cancer Research Institute's annual conference, we find out how proton therapy is promising for targeting tumours and look at the hormones and stem cells involved in breast cancer. Also, the role of aspirin in the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, how recession could be healthy and tuning in...

We bring you the highlights from European Researchers Night 2009, which filled the Great North Museum with explosions, music and laughter. We meet Brainiac's Jon Tickle to discuss the physics of custard, find out why My Little Ponies belong in a museum and explore the murder mystery of the Lindow Man. Also, how embryology inspired fashion design and how Spanish rocks point to North Sea oil. Plus,...

Join us in a peek at the secret lives of birds. We find out just how a cuckoo convinces others to care for it's young, and the tragic outcome for the cuckoo chick when the rouse is discovered. We meet the clever corvids, capable of problem solving feats that may even outfox the great apes. Also, how green tea makes strong bones,the genes involved in prostate cancer and online robotic surgeons. Plu...

This week we find out about bionic bodies. We discover whether it's possible to mend a broken heart with stem cells as well as investigate if soft nanobots could soon be delivering drugs around our bodies. We also bring you the highlights from this years British Science Festival. Plus, in Kitchen Science, we hit the kitchen to investigate one of natures composite materials - a chicken bone! Like t...

This week we're taking on the questions you've waited all summer to find the answers to. We find out whether humans can run faster on the moon than here on Earth, if tea tastes better in china cups, and if talking to plants can help them grow. Plus we look into the world of statistics to learn how many ants it would take to carry a human and discover how many people in the world are having sex rig...

Diana and Meera select their favourite bits of Naked Science, including parajetting over the Himalayas, digging up Greek brothels and making the perfect cup of tea scientifically. Plus, Dr Hal blows up an ostrich egg and blasts a 'barking dog' down a seven-foot test tube. *No animals were harmed in the making of this podcast* Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Ben and Dave select their favourite bits of Naked Science: from taking an MRI of outer space to orange fireballs and chocolate teapots. We explore the boys' best Naked capers. Plus, we join Dr Hal for a gassy set of explosive experiments. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

It's big, it's blue, it's where life began and life certainly wouldn't be the same without it: yes, that's right, it's the sea. This week Helen Scales is taking the show underwater to explore her favourite realm. Among the marine menagerie she'll be revisiting the incredible story of squid that see with their entire body, once again be meeting the humming toadfish, which is teaching us a thing or...

This week, Kat Arney has been through the archives and picked out her personal Naked highlights, including making experimental jelly, sneezing at computer screens, stabbing potatoes and Ben dancing (badly) in the studio. She looks back on advances in cancer therapy, developments in making people bionic and how new diseases emerge, as well as reliving the chance to meet Alan Titchmarsh, for a chat...

What happens if you urinate on an electric fence? We find out the answer to this and some of your other science questions on this week's Naked Scientists, including why chilli peppers are red, how does squinting help you see further and what's the best way to align your laundry with the wind? Plus, why blue food colouring could reduce the damage of spinal injury, how shrimps could catalyse biodies...

We dig deep into the science of rubbish, refuse, waste and recycling... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The latest in the science of fertility, IVF and pregnancy... We find out how pre-implantation tests could improve the success of IVF and how stress during pregnancy affects foetal development. Plus, why knowledge is its own reward, how a jockey's posture makes horses run faster and how science publishing on the web is about to change. In Kitchen Science, Dave finds out how a bag of liquid cushions...

Award winning Canadian hip hop artist Baba Brinkman brings us his Rap Guide to Evolution, an hour of clever, witty and scientifically accurate rhymes that will have you seeing Darwin from a whole new perspective. Baba explores the history and current understanding of Darwin's theory, combining hilarious remixes of popular rap songs with clever lyrical storytelling that covers Natural Selection, Ar...

We seek the Science of Sight on this week's Naked Scientists, discovering how deep sea fish use clever bioluminescence and biological mirrors to cope with the darkness of the deep. We hear how our brains choose what sights to pay attention to, and what a bees brain can teach us about how we see optical illusions. Plus, salt-tolerant GM crops, statins stalled by sluggish blood and how the turtle go...

This week, we're taking on your science brainteasers! We find out why toothpaste ruins other flavours, whether humans have a mating season and why food goes in multicoloured, but comes out brown... Plus, fighting Fido's fleas with fungus, stressed men take more risks, and predicting if hepatitis B will lead to liver cancer. In Kitchen Science, we make a fruity fireball with orange peel. Like this...

This week, we look into new ways of putting a tiger in your tank! We find out how pond life could help make eco-friendly biodiesel and how new types of batteries can power electric cars for further than ever before without running out of juice. Plus, how Margaret Thatcher's face can tell us how monkeys recognize each other, what sharks have in common with serial killers and why dolphins are a bit...

This week we dig into into the science of farming and food production. We find out how transgenic plants can help us dispense with the need for chemical pesticides and how giant greenhouses at the shoreline can be home to super-efficient farms of their own. We explore the problems faced by our sweet honey bee and in Kitchen Science we do some plant modification of our own - no transgenics knowledg...

On this Naked Scientists Question and Answer show, we discover how storms create slow earthquakes and how a local star, betelgeuse, could explode very soon. We also hear of an accurate way to date pottery and explore the physics of helicopter seeds. Plus, why hurricanes rotate in opposite directions either side of the equator, the ultimate fate of stars and how to boil your fishtank without harmin...

This week, we seek the science of Architecture. We find out how rapid prototyping technology could help us print out entire houses, and how natural light and ventilation could cut our energy bills. Plus, giggling gorillas tell us how laughter evolved and birds that learn from their neighbours. In Kitchen Science, Dave challenges you to build the best bridge, using only a single sheet of A4 paper!...

How does nature inspire technology and engineering? We find out how bamboo may make effective wind turbines, and how the material that makes up locust tendons could soon be in your shoes and electronics! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Science gets under your skin on this week's Naked Scientists, where we find out how human skin colour evolved to make the best of our sunlight. We explain why albino people have no skin pigment at all and how to heal wounds without leaving scars. Also, the nano-scale media storage that will last a billion years, the toxic bite of the komodo dragon and the biological link between cancer and depress...

We're open to your questions on the Naked Scientists this week, finding out how photosynthesis works underwater, exploring the sex lives of barnacles and discussing if rockets punch holes in the ozone layer. Plus, a viral cause of hypertension, how bees stick to petals like velcro, and a new, super-dense deuterium - 130,000 times denser than water! We hear about the new generation of eBook readers...

This week, we're diving into the science of clean water, finding out why rivers and ponds are essential for wildlife, and how alien invaders are colonising our waterways. Plus, how a diet of glycerol makes yeast live longer, how microbes in mosquitoes can block malaria and how planting trees could reduce your electricity bills. We hear about the European Space Agency's Planck and Herschel missions...

On this week's Naked Scientists, we explore the engineering and materials science that will give rise to the future of transport! We find out how jet engine parts grown as a single crystal of superalloy will make flights more efficient, and how clever computer control make it easier for trucks to turn. Plus, pain-free injections for the needle-phobic, Boogie with birds and the synthesised sound of...