Naked Scientists, In Short Special Editions Podcast

In today's podcast we hear how gene therapy can be used to target a variety of respiratory disorders such as Cystic Fibrosis and how scientists are trying to grow organs such as lungs in the lab. We also discover how alternative methods of therapy could be used to treat muscular dystophy and how pancreatic cells are being created, by the re-programming of other cells, in a bid to treat diabetes......

In this first podcast from the 2011 BSGT/ESGCT Conference in Brighton we bring you the highlights from the Public Engagment day including an introduction to gene therapy and stem cell therapy, life from the perspective of a haemophiliac, public opinions on gene therapy and how a DNA race can help teenagers get to grips with DNA fingerprinting... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the...

Dr. Linda Sharples gives an insight into the workings of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and how new medical treatments, drugs and procedures are analysed and assessed for use within the UK National Health Service... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - how scientists find out about life in the oceans' deepest trenches; how identifying proteins from 50 milion year old reptile skin could help us store radioactive waste; and studying the effects of climate change in the Arctic. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, how hikers and walkers could be unwittingly changing the landscape by spreading alien species; what it's like to work as a marine biologist in the Arctic in temperatures of minus 40C; and exactly how stable is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month we look into the light to discover how Diamond's new Imaging and Coherance beamline is helping scientists see with greater clarity than ever before! We hear how the beamline works to provide greater resolution imaging, how rocks deep beneath the earths surface can be analysed for potential storage of carbon dioxide in the future, and how imaging the internal structure of metal alloys co...

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: in a geoengineering special edition, we take a closer look at some of the technologies we may have to resort to using to avert dangerous climate change. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Reader in evolution at Wits University, Lee Berger, made a life-changing discovery when he uncovered the remains of a new species of hominid, Australopithecus sediba, in South Africa. Here, Chris Smith gets to meet the newest addition to the human family tree... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, why scientists are working with the National Trust to restore the chalk grasslands around Stonehenge; how researchers are using satellites to study microscopic plants; and the etiquette of dining and bullying in baboons. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, how scientists are using fish scales to figure out why the UK salmon population is falling; and how carbon dioxide emissions from power stations could be used to make household bricks. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A species of tropical vine attracts its bat pollinators using acoustic signals, rather than bright colours or smells, according to a study published in the journal Science this week. In this special podcast, Dr Marc Holderied discusses this unique discovery. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: why scientists are planning on drilling three kilometres beneath the Antarctic ice sheet in one of the most ambitious exploration projects ever undertaken; and how worms that feed on dead whale bones at the bottom of the ocean may be distorting the whale fossil record. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, why understanding rip currents at Perranporth in north Cornwall could help save lives; how exactly does carbon capture and storage (CCS) work and how can scientists be sure that carbon will be stored forever? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, why weathermen are using a converted World War II bunker to monitor clouds; how thug species such as bramble, nettle and bracken can be just as damaging to woodlands as alien plants; and why scientists are going to Greenland to deploy a network of sensors in some of the country's glaciers. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, we venture into the synchrotron along with members of the public to bring you a glimpse of the Inside Diamond open days. We meet the engineers and technicians that design the components of the synchrotron to keep it running smoothly, hear from Diamond CEO Gert Materlik about the main highlights of these open days. Plus, we talk to a scientist working on one of Diamonds latest Beamlines...

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - what UK farmers are doing to protect the country's vanishing bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinating insects; how scientists are trying to figure out how many types of microbes there are on our planet and why they all matter; and why birds are more amazing than we ever imagined. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Professor Jenny Morton provides new insight into the cognitive abilities of the supposedly dim-witted sheep and explains how these quick learning animals can be used to model Huntington's Disease... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Anything in the deep sea, whether that's the microbes that live down there, or the research vehicles sent down to take samples of them face the same challenges from being way down deep. So why study the deep ocean depths? And how do we do it? For this naked scientists special, Sarah Castor-Perry went to Scripps Institution of Oceanography to find out, from Professor of Marine Microbial Genetics, P...

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - the cunning tricks the cuckoo uses to get another bird to do the parenting, why researchers are studying snow in Sweden, and how an improved radiocarbon dating technique may put a few scientists' noses out of joint. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

One of the biggest problems when it comes to caring for the ocean realm is that it is out of sight and out of mind. It's hard to care about something you don't know about, and most people, most of the time, don't have a chance to see ocean life for themselves. Underwater photography is helping to bridge that gap between people and the oceans. In this special podcast, Helen Scales chats to National...

How do marine animals hear, see, touch, and smell the world around them? Life underwater is obviously very different to life on land and it can be difficult for us air-breathing humans to imagine what goes on down there beneath the waves. But understanding how animals find their way around the ocean plays a vital role in our efforts to conserve marine life. In this special edition of the Naked sci...

The saying goes that we known more about the surface of the moon than we do about the deep sea - and that's probably true. But modern technologies are opening up the mysterious depths allowing scientists to venture further than ever before into this alien realm. In this special podcast, Helen Scales explores the wonders of the deep with biologist Tim Shank from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu...

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, why removing some man-made coastal flood defences might not be such a harebrained idea, what it's like studying gas exchange in the wilds of the Southern Ocean, and, in what could be the first case of 'natural' geoengineering, how forests could be whitening the clouds right above them. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen explores human empathy and explains what empathy is, how it differs amongst the population and the neurological and environmental causes of these differences... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how a specially-designed twin turboprop research plane is helping scientists in a huge range of subjects from archaeology to ecology, and why a violent space storm could spell trouble for communications systems across the world. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists