Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea

The way we sleep has dramatically changed in recent years. Our alarm clock used to be the only piece of tech we associated with sleep, but we now have apps that track our sleep, evaluate its quality, and how much more or less we may need on a day-to-day basis. But how do all of these advances in sleep-orientated actually technology affect us? Katie Coveney is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Loug...

Did you know your gut might be able to tell you about the strength of your relationships? A recent study from Arizona State University shows that the strength of a couple’s emotional connection is correlated with the diversity of their individual microbiome. Joining Jonathan to discuss their findings is Rosy Krajmalnik-Brown, Director of the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes and a Pr...

Dr. Kit Yates, senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and co-director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath, joins Jonathan to teach him ‘How To Expect The Unexpected: The Science of Making Predictions and the Art of Knowing When Not To’.

With the advancement of artificial intelligence, deepfakes are becoming easier and cheaper to produce and as a result, scientists are testing the potential benefits and risks of incorporating them into your movie-going experience. Joining Jonathan to discuss is Dr Gillian Murphy, a lecturer in Cognitive Psychology at the School of Applied Psychology in University College Cork, who supervises proje...

Weapons of the Future We can see it in our newsfeeds every single day, as war rages on the eastern frontiers of Europe - so too are the changing dynamics evident in the way war is conducted in the 21st century. But as tactics and strategies continue to evolve, so too do the technologies that underpin the armed forces of nations the world over. So, when it comes to the weapons of the future, what c...

Jonathan is joined by Jon Blundy, Royal Society Research Professor, Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford who proposes we utilise volcanic power to help metal extraction.

You might think of MDMA as more of a recreational drug but actually it is being clinically trialled in a therapeutic setting as a potential treatment for PTSD among a number of health conditions. To break it down, Jonathan is joined by Rachel Nuwer, science journalist & author of 'I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World'.

According to the World Economic Forum, 99% of the world’s population experiences air pollution levels exceeding WHO guidelines. But recent studies have shown that air pollution doesn’t just impact our lungs, but can also lead to heart attacks and strokes. Joining Jonathan to discuss is Annette Peters, Chair of Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine at LMU Munich, Director of the Institute of Epid...

The biology underpinning a rare genetic mutation that allows its carrier to live virtually pain-free, heal more rapidly, and experience reduced anxiety and fear, has been uncovered by new research from University College London. Dr. Andrei Okorokov, Associate Professor at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at UCL joins Jonathan to discuss.

As our energy consumption continues to grow, we will need to find more and more ways to actually create the electricity we need. But soon you might be able to generate clean energy from thin air and that’s just one of the potential uses of a new device created by Dr. Jun Yao, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his team at the University of Massachuset...

According to new research, the drug dimethyl fumarate has been shown to block blood clotting during infection, which could make a sizable impact on people who are suffering from a number of different conditions, one of which being the life-threatening disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC). Joining Jonathan to discuss this development is one of those behind the research, Professor Luke O’Ne...

Have we just been made futile as a reproductive species? This week researchers in the University of Cambridge and in the US announced their creation of synthetic human embryos that won’t need eggs or sperm. To explore how they did this and its practical implications, Dr David Walsh, chairman of First IVF joins Jonathan to discuss.

Generally speaking, Ireland is a pretty safe place. For example, when it comes to natural phenomena, insects, or animals, very few things can do you serious harm. We have no snakes, bears, wolves, or venomous species, and our spiders are 99.9% benign. And it's also the case that seismic activity is very rare here and even if it is detected, it pales in comparison to our nearest neighbour, the UK....

Recently hundreds of leading technology experts, journalists, and policymakers from across the world released a statement saying that: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war”. But as we are just now beginning to grapple with this brave new world of generative artificial intelligence it can still be difficult to know what the futur...

When you look up into the night sky and you see the incredible array of stars and planets that are visible to us here on Earth, it is impossible not to feel something. Wonder. Amazement. Insignificance. Inspiration - maybe all of these things and more. Either way, it’s truly humbling to see just how small we really are. But soon you might have a very different experience - one where there is nothi...

Nature is, without over-egging things, an unstoppable force – one which we pale miserably in comparison to with all our brio and intellect. But we do try to understand nature and the world we live in and perhaps the most fundamental way that we do that is through numbers. And while we like to think we have a pretty good grasp of them, that’s unfortunately, not always the case. Georgina Sturge, aut...

Induced temporary hibernation for surgery and long-term space travel, creating energy from nothing, skin patch immunotherapy for peanut allergies, and the mechanism of our foot arches- Jonathan looks back at the latest breaking stories from the world of science this week with Catherine McGuinness, science communicator and Dr Shane Bergin, physicist, and an assistant professor in science education...

Immunotherapy is a type of treatment which helps the immune system fight cancer. It enhances the system ability to recognize, target, and eliminate cancer cells, wherever they are in the body, making it a potential universal answer to cancer. However, not all cancers respond to this type of treatment. Why is it only effect in 20-40% of cases? And is there anything we can do to improve the response...

People with prosthetic limbs are able to feel warmth in their missing hands, a type of bacteria in babies being a predictor of future weight struggles, car racers seemingly blink in synchronicity, and new research suggesting chronic and acute pain are two different things. The latest science news is brought to you by Dr Ruth Freeman from Science Foundation Ireland, and Dr Jessamyn Fairfield from t...

Speech to text, text to speech, but what about thoughts to text? A new technology has been developed which allows AI to convert your thoughts into text. The person behind the research is Alexander Huth, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He joins me on this week’s Futureproof Extra to discuss “semantic decoders”.

On this week’s episode, Eoin Murphy and Dr Jessamyn Fairfield take us through the latest stories in our Newsround. We hear about the world’s deadliest mushrooms, gender disparity in science referencing, dream gloves and what bears are telling us about blood clot prevention. Not only that, but we get to hear from a lung and evolutionary expert on why humans can’t breathe underwater and what the lik...

It is not a matter of how we become immortal, it's a matter of when- that’s according to this week’s guest, José Luis Cordeiro. He is the author of ‘The Death of Death’, and believes we are getting closer to discovering the secrets of nature by identifying cells that do not age.

Have you ever wondered how humans came about the concept of ‘measuring’ things? How did Ancient Egyptians use giant rulers to predict the harvest in coming months? James Vincent is the author of ‘Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants’ and he joins me this week to talk about how this concept shapes the way we see the world. I'm also joined by Dr Lara Dun...

Helen Czerski, bubble physicist and the author of 'Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World', joins Jonathan McCrea to discuss the secrets of our seas.

In this episode of Futureproof, Dr Susan Kelleher and Dr Lara Dungan join Jonathan McCrea for Newsround, and he explores the future of lab-grown blood with Dr Rebecca Cardigan, National Head of Component Development from NHS Blood & Transplant.