Ri Science Podcast

Why has engineering always been the backbone of civilisation? And why do we enjoy making things? This month, Lord Browne in conversation with Vivienne Parry, explains what engineering is, what it has done for us and how it can deliver a brighter future. Robots, our health, security, climate change as well as autonomous vehicles are discussed. Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last We...

The ribosome is the mother of all molecules without which nothing lives. This month, the Nobel Prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan in conversation with Vivienne Parry, tells the story of the race to uncover the structure of the ribosome - a fundamental discovery that resolves an ancient mystery of life itself and could lead to the development of better antibiotics to fight the most deadly diseases. Ri...

Stress is our natural reaction to physical or emotional pressure, encompassing everything from too much work to being tortured. But what goes on in our bodies and minds to cause stress? And how does stress affect our memory, mood and thinking? This month, Vincent Walsh hosts an expert panel of Joe Herbert, Julie Turner Cobb, and Shane O’Mara, to explore the science of stress. Ri Science Podcast ep...

We take the advance of science as given - but how does science really work? This month, Jeremy Baumberg sheds light on a cutthroat and tightly tensioned enterprise that even scientists themselves often don’t fully understand. Jeremy Baumberg is a leader in nanoscience and nanotechnology, working for much of his career at the interface between academia and industry. He has led interdisciplinary nan...

What does the future have in store? Medicine, robotics, artificial intelligence, energy production and genetic engineering are all fields that will change our world - but how? This month, Jim Al-Khalili and a panel of experts debate the topic and predict the answers. Jim Al-Khalili OBE is a theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is the host of the Life Scientific on BBC Four and was awa...

How was the code of DNA cracked? How did it confirm the theory of evolution? And why did life evolve the way it did? This month, Matthew Cobb and Nick Lane unravel the tangled story of DNA, and why life began in the first place. Nick Lane is an evolutionary biochemist in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London. His work focuses on the origin of life, and th...

Where should humans inhabit next? The Moon? Mars? Or further beyond? This month, Apollo Astronaut Al Worden and space experts Chris Welch and Stuart Eves will will argue their case for each. Who will win your vote? Al Worden is an American astronaut and engineer who was the Command Module Pilot for the fourth lunar landing mission in 1971, Apollo 15. After his time in space, he was Senior Aerospac...

How can you turn failure into success? This month, journalist and table-tennis champion Matthew Syed will explain the science of success using real life stories and practical takeaways. Matthew Syed is a British journalist, broadcaster and author. He has won numerous prizes for his writing including Feature Writer of the Year at the SJA Awards and Sports Journalist of the Year at the British Press...

Frankenstein’s creature is a classic example of a monster in popular culture. But what can fictional beings tell us about the hopes and fears of the society in which they were created? This month, Phil Ball chairs a panel of experts discussing how monsters survive in our culture, how they reflect gender and power dynamics, and what happens in our brains when we see monsters on screen. Liz Gloyn is...

First dates, police interviews, doctor-patient communication and commercial sales – they are all driven by talk. And an understanding of how talk works is crucial for success. This month, Elizabeth Stokoe explains how conversation analysis can produce a scientific understanding of talk. Rather than being messy and disorderly, talk is in fact organised systematically, and small changes in words or...

We intuitively feel that we know what we are talking about when we talk about time, but from the perspective of physics, time is far from straightforward. This month, Carlo Rovelli takes us on a journey through the philosophy, the science and the emotional experience of time. Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He has wo...

Throughout history there have been revolutions in technology, in economics, in society, in politics. Now for the first time Yuval Noah Harari argues that humanity itself is likely to undergo a radical revolution as a result of new technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology and brain-computer interfaces. Dr Yuval Noah Harari has a PhD in History from the University of Oxford and now l...

In 1950, Bruno Pontecorvo, one of Britain's brightest atomic physicists, disappeared without trace. He re-surfaced six years later: in the USSR. In this talk, based on unprecedented access to archives, letters, surviving family members and scientists, Frank Close exposes the truth of Pontecorvo’s life behind the Iron Curtain, and reveals why he went so suddenly. Frank Close is a particle physi...

'Breaking Bad' was a TV show with science at its core. With a genius chemist as its main protagonist, it explored complex themes of morality and what can cause a person to change. Chemist Dave Smith and psychologist Julian Boon delve into the science behind the show, while screenwriter Paul Viragh discusses the challenge of representing science on screen. The discussion is chaired by autho...

This month, three researchers explain how quantum theory is being applied to their own work in this cutting-edge field of scientific discovery. Nigel Scrutton explores proton tunnelling in enzymes, Alexandra Olaya-Castro discusses her latest research in photosynthesis and Jenny Brookes explains her work on a quantum model of olfaction. Nigel Scrutton is Professor of Molecular Enzymology at the Uni...

Style guides set out strict rules for writing well, but how much of that grammar policing is just dogma, and how much is helpful for communication? Drawing on the latest research in linguistics and cognitive science, Steven Pinker uses reason and evidence to tell us how to communicate effectively in this talk hosted by Melvyn Bragg. Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the worl...

For centuries we’ve been using chemicals to improve health, but technology is set to transform the way medicine works. This month, five scientists on the cutting-edge of pharmaceutical research talk about the latest in gene therapy, cancer treatment and more. Ijeoma Uchegbu is a professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at UCL. Her research focuses on designing drugs that can cross the blood-brain b...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to find yourself strapped to a giant rocket? Or to look back on the earth from outer space? Or to repair the Hubble Space Telescope? Join chair Helen Keen for an evening with astronaut Mike Massimino as he looks back on his remarkable 18-year career as a NASA astronaut. Mike Massimino spent 18 years as a NASA astronaut and flew on two shuttle missions....

Memories give us a sense of who we are. But how can we be sure that what we remember is what really happened? And why is it that some unwanted memories just won’t go away? Vin Walsh is a Professor of Human Brain Research at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. Julia Shaw is a memory hacker and psychological scientist at UCL. She is best known for her work in the area of false memories: me...

This month Kate Jones tells us about the amazing technology being used to monitor wildlife worldwide and how it is helping us to learn about the fascinating world of bats. Kate Jones is Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity in the Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment (GEE) at University College London. Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednesday of every mo...

What will the world of tomorrow be like? Kelly and Zach Weinersmith give us a snapshot of the transformative technologies that are coming soon(ish), from space elevators to origami robots, and explain how they will change our world in astonishing ways — maybe for the better, maybe for the worse. Kelly Weinersmith is a Huxley Fellow at Rice University in the BioSciences Department. She studies how...

For millennia, humans have been firmly rooted to the Earth, but haven't you ever fancied a change of scenery? This month, science writer and broadcaster Dallas Campbell talks to former Christmas Lecturer and fellow space nerd Kevin Fong about all things space travel, and Dallas’ new book: Ad astra: An illustrated guide to leaving the planet. Dallas Campbell is an actor, author and TV presenter...

2018 marks 200 years since the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a book that is just as relevant now as it was in 1818. Today, Shelley's creature lives on, as an embodiment of society's anxieties about where science is taking us. In this episode, Philip Ball is joined by Miranda Seymour, Frank James and Angela Wright to discuss the context in which the book was written and how th...

Australian author and presenter Dr Karl Kruszelnicki gives a whirlwind tour of incredible science facts and questions. Like who put a nuclear reactor in africa 2 billion years ago? And is there life on a moon of Saturn? Dr Karl Kruszelnicki is an Australian science populariser with degrees in Physics and Maths, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine and Surgery. He has held a wide range of jobs, from do...

Our sense of reward motivates us and is essential for survival, so when the system malfunctions, it can lead to big problems. This month, Ray Dolan, Wolfram Schultz and Peter Dayan, winners of the 2017 Lundbeck Foundation Brain Prize, discuss their ground-breaking work on how the brain recognises and processes reward with Claudia Hammond. Ri Science Podcast episodes are released on the last Wednes...