Newstalk

Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea

Science EN ↓ 473 episodes

Jonathan responds to your texts and tweets, is joined in studio for all the latest science stories for Newsround and speaks to one of our two guests featured on the show. CONVERSATION THAT COUNTS | Ireland’s national independent talk station for news, sport, analysis and entertainment Listen to Newstalk at  http://newstalk.com/listenlive  | Download the GoLoud app now, the new home for Newstalk

Author

Newstalk

Category

Science

Podcast website

pscrb.fm

Latest episode

Jul 11, 2026

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Episodes

Extra: Why can’t we figure out static electricity? 14.04.2026

Guest: Scott Waitukaitis, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg

The Dawn of Writing 12.04.2026

Guests: Genevieve Von Petzinger, Paleoanthropologist and Rock Art Researcher and Project Director of the LIAACAR Project (The Living, Intelligent Archive of Ancient Culture, Art and Relational Archeology) Dr. Ruth Freeman from Science Foundation Ireland Shane Bergin, Physicist & Assistant Professor in Science Education at UCD

Extra: Why Are We Going Back To The Moon?  07.04.2026

Guest: Dallas Campbell, BBC Space Presenter and author of ‘Space Journal: The Art and Science of Cosmic Exploration’

Building a Robotic Oesophagus 05.04.2026

Guests: Dr Eoin O'Cearbhaill, Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at University College Dublin Dr Shane Bergin, Physicist at UCD Dr Lara Dungan, Immunologist and Medic

Why should we avoid creating contrails? 29.03.2026

Guests: Dr Jessie Smith, Research Associate in Sustainable Aviation at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge Dr Fergus McAuliffe, Head of Research Engagement and Impact at Trinity College Dublin Dr Shelley Brady, Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics at DCU

Extra: Movies reconstructed from mouse brain activity 24.03.2026

Guest: Dr Joel Bauer, Research Fellow at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at UCL

What happens during a hallucination? 22.03.2026

Guests: Dr Anna Georgiades, Lecturer in Early Intervention in Psychosis at King's College London Dr Ruth Freeman Dr John Regan

Extra: The Origins of Our Musical Ability  17.03.2026

Guest: Dr Ani Patel, Tufts University, Massachusetts

How The Brain Can Recover Forgotten Memories 15.03.2026

Guests: Dr Benjamin J. Griffiths, University of Nottingham Dr Ruth Freeman, Research Ireland Dr Tara Shine, Environmental Scientist

Extra: Why animals see the world at different speeds 10.03.2026

Guest: Dr Kevin Healy, Lecturer in Zoology at the University of Galway

What you don’t know about respiration 08.03.2026

Guests: New York Times bestselling author and Science Journalist James Nestor Dr Ruth Freeman Dr Lara Dungan

Extra: What influences your willingness to be helpful towards strangers? 03.03.2026

Guest: Dr Todd Vogel, Research Fellow in Psychology at the University of Birmingham

Clothes with health tracking technology 01.03.2026

Guests: Professor Steve Beeby, Chair in Emerging Technologies and Director of the Centre for Flexible Electronics and E-Textiles at the University of Southampton Dr Tara Shine, Environemental Scientist Professor Matthew Campbell, Head of Department at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin

Extra: What drives the power of our tides and waves? 24.02.2026

Guest: Prof Iris Möller, Coastal Geomorphologist and Chair of the Geography Department at Trinity College Dublin

Predicting Scorpion Strikes 22.02.2026

Guests: Dr Michel Dugon, Assistant Professor in Zoology and Principal Investigator of the Venom Systems Lab at the University of Galway Dr Jessamyn Fairfield, Lecturer in the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Galway Dr Laura Hayes, Research Fellow at the School of Cosmic Physics at DIAS

Extra: Does the Earth’s core hide vast hydrogen reservoirs? 17.02.2026

Guest: With Prof Jon Wade , Associate Professor of Planetary Materials, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford

Making Life with Artificial Biological Intelligence 15.02.2026

Guests: Dr Shelley Brady, Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics at DCU Dr Shane Bergin, physicist at University College Dublin  Adrian Woolfson, author of ‘The Future of Species: Authoring Life by means of Artificial Biological Intelligence’ 

Extra: Solar Maximum and the Northern lights explained 10.02.2026

Guest: Dr Alexandra Ruth Fogg, Postdoctoral Fellow in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

What is Aphantasia? Why some brains can’t visualize 08.02.2026

Guests: Dr Lara Dungan, immunologist, and Dr Shane Bergin, physicist at University College Dublin Prof Adam Zeman, Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, at the University of Edinburgh

Extra: What Is Childhood Dementia? 03.02.2026

Guest: Prof Matthew Campbell, Head of the Genetics Department and Chair of Neurovascular Genetics at Trinity College Dublin

Building a womb lining in the lab 01.02.2026

Guests: Dr Susan Kelleher, School of Chemical Sciences at DCU Dr Shane Bergin, physicist at University College Dublin Dr Peter Rugg-Gunn, group leader at the Babraham Institute at the University of Cambridge 

Extra: Turning muscle signals into speech 27.01.2026

Guest: Professor Luigi Occhipinti, Research Professor of Smart Electronics, Biosystems and AI, at Cambridge University

Why some wounds won’t heal 25.01.2026

Guests: Professor Kimberly Kline, Professor in Microbiology and Molecular Medicine at The University of Geneva and Visiting Scholar at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Dr Shelley Brady, DCU’s Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics Dr John Regan, Research Fellow in the Department of Theoretical Physics at Maynooth University

Extra: What if stopping Alzheimer’s means targeting one gene? 20.01.2026

Guest: Dr Dylan Williams, Principal Research Fellow in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology at UCL

Tackling Space Debris 18.01.2026

Guests: Dr Penelope Wozniakiewicz, Senior Lecturer in Space Science at the University of Kent Dr Shane Bergin Dr John Regan

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