Special Editions

Greenfield housing developments are residential communities built upon land which was not previously occupied by anything else. These modern homes are often very energy efficient, but a new report by Transport for New Homes has found that these developments are offsetting their positive contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions because of a lack of planning around sustainable modes of tran...

Krzysztof wrote in to ask 'Why don't plants freeze to death during Winter?' and James Tytko tracked down Professor Howard Griffiths, from the University of Cambridge, to break the ice on this question. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Black holes are known for their awesome destructive powers, ripping stars apart piece by piece. But now, scientists have seen evidence of a black hole helping to form stars. Using the Hubble Telescope, researchers at Montana State University have seen a massive black hole at the centre of a small galaxy called Henize 2-10 triggering star formation around it. Robert Spencer spoke to Zachary Schutte...

Planting trees has a great impact on creating a greener environment. The Queen's Green Canopy is an initiative to encourage people to plant a tree in honour of the Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee. Robert Spencer and Anoushka Handa take a dive into the science of trees to find out more about these fantastic plants and to discover what they can do around Cambridge to help... Like this podcast? Please...

Mathematicians Ville Salo and Ilkke Toermae from Finland have solved a long-standing problem in the field of cellular automata (The Game of Life). Despite being quite simple systems to describe, these automata often show quite complex behaviour. Now, though, we are starting to find out more about situations when these systems aren't quite so dynamic. Robert Spencer has more... Like this podcast? P...

Memories form a large part of human interaction. Scents, tastes and touch all can invoke us to remember particular events. But how do we know the order of these events? How do you remember that this time last week you were listening to our show... or at least we hope so! New research has shown that the human brain contains time cells to understand when an event has occurred. Anoushka spoke with Dr...

Blood smear analysis is a repetitive, laborious, and time consuming job. Research at the University of Cambridge has led to developing a 3D printed device which both speeds up the smearing process and the quality of the blood smears. Julia Ravey talks to Samuel McDermott... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

It's the new year, and with that comes a tradition to commit to new year's resolutions. But the typical goals of giving up drinking, or losing weight, can be hard to achieve, especially without support from friends and family. Tricia Smith asked sport psychologist Helen Davis whether there was a smarter way to go about achieving her goal to "get fit" in 2022... Like this podcast? Please help us by...

The astonishing discovery of this jurassic era creature has been covered on our show before, but this recording features special insight into the dig itself. Mark Evans from the British Antarctic Survey and Emily Swaby from The Open University describe the significance of finding the skeletal remains of this marine reptile to Harry Lewis... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked...

Tropical rainforests are deforested at an alarming rate to make way for cultivating crops and rearing livestock. But what happens when these forest areas are abandoned and left to recover in their natural way? Research published in the journal Science gives a message of hope, explaining how forests are able to recover to their original state on a much faster time-scale than first thought. Katie Ki...

Changing the way the brain controls how we sleep, as a new study suggests, might be a way to cut the risk of Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's is the commonest form of a group of conditions known as senile dementia. They occur when brain cells are lost, progressively robbing us of our mental faculties. In Alzheimer's Disease it's caused by a buildup of a toxic chemical called a-beta; also known as...

Katie King interviews Huw James, from the Royal Astronomical Society, about the reality of the chances planet-killing asteroids could collide with Earth. What these objects are, how they are found, and what methods are being trialled to prevent any potential collisions... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Hearing and listening... is there a difference? I am sure that we have all been guilty of letting our minds drift out of a conversation before realising and immediately trying to tune back in. New research published in Cell Reports describes how brain activity varies during listening and hearing and how this work sheds light on neural pathways linked to attention. Katie King spoke with author Tani...

Understanding the human brain and how it completes complex tasks, like processing other people's speech as well as producing its own, is a complex task in and of itself. As it stands, neuroscience isn't able to tell us the underlying computations that lead to human language. New research from the US has taken an interesting approach to working this out: instead of just studying how real, human int...

Astronomers believe that nearly every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its centre, this being true for our very own Milky Way. These objects exert such strong gravitational forces on the matter contained within them that it cannot escape the black hole's pull. Scientists using the LOFAR telescope in the Netherlands have been studying the impact that such black holes have on the Universe on...

During IVF or in-vitro fertilisation, sperm and eggs are mixed together in a dish to produce fertilised embryos, one or two of which are placed in the uterus where the hope is they will trigger a successful pregnancy. Previously, embryologists would pick out and use only what they judged to be the most promising looking embryos. But now new research from the reproductive genetics company, Igenomix...

While the coronavirus pandemic is at the forefront of our minds, it's not the only health crisis looming on the horizon. Antimicrobial resistance has been called the "hidden pandemic". One of the ways to counteract resistance is by developing drugs that make current antibiotics more effective, and new research published by the University of Oxford reveals some promising candidates. Tricia Smith sp...

Dr Chris Smith joins Indira Naidoo on the ABC's Nightlife programme to discuss the latest developments in science and answer questions from listeners. This time they look at the difficult decisions confronting politicians and policymakers internationally and how they should react to the omicron new variant, which appears super transmissible but potentially a lot less lethal than other existing for...

Us humans are thought to have appeared on Earth around 300,000 years ago. But how much have we changed since then? New research from Shanghai Jiao Tong University has found many of our most complex traits have continued to be tweaked, even in the past two to three thousand years. Julia Ravey spoke to Guan Ning Lin about our ancestors and how alike we really are. Like this podcast? Please help us b...

2021 marks 100 years since insulin was first discovered. The World Health Organisation estimates that 422 million people around the world have diabetes, a disease where the body either can't produce enough insulin or doesn't respond properly to insulin. In the UK, 1 in 15 people are affected, and that's only set to rise as more and more of us are overweight or obese. So what is insulin, how was it...

More than 50% of the world's population now lives in urban areas and, in recent years, many major cities have been hit with extreme weather events due to the effects of climate change, like the flooding that hit the London underground - and Queen guitarist Brian May's basement - in the summer of 2021. A key reason for this might be that the urban environments themselves are exacerbating the heatin...

Cities have been found to be warming at faster rates than the rest of the planet due to the materials used such as concrete absorbing heat more readily than organic materials. This is known as the "urban heat island" effect. One antidote, scientists have found, is to plant trees. But flipping the issue around for a moment, what do the trees make of these urban jungles? According to Lin Meng, at th...

As we near Christmas, we will be subjected to a fair few more hugs than usual! Some of them can be great, and others... just downright awkward. But what makes a bad hug? What makes a good hug? New research has been published investigating the most pleasant hugging style. Katie King spoke to Anna-Lena Duren to find out why hugs are an important area to study. Like this podcast? Please help us by su...

We know that sleep is critical for our physical and mental wellbeing, but as it turns out, the answer doesn't simply lie in the number of hours we spend unconscious each night. New research from digital healthcare company, Huma, suggests that a goldilocks bedtime between 10-11PM is linked with a lower risk of heart disease. Katie King spoke to Dr David Plans, Head of Research from Huma to find out...

Virologist Chris Smith talks with Radio New Zealand National's Kim Hill on Saturday 27th November as the world contemplates the discovery of the Covid-19 variant that the WHO has dubbed "Omicron" and labelled as a "variant of concern". How will scientists investigate this agent, and how are policymakers responding? Will the vaccines rolled out internationally continue to work, or do they need to b...