Podcast Episodes

Sweet Science

Researchers from London’s Francis Crick Institute have found a type of artificial sweetener is able to dampen down immune system responses - at leas…

3 years ago

Science superpower?

The government has launched a new 10-point plan designed, it said to “cement the UK’s place as a global science and technology superpower”. We speak …

3 years ago

Covid leaks and conspiracies

Science writer Philip Ball has followed the relationship between government and its scientific advisors throughout the pandemic. He discusses the rol…

3 years ago

Antarctic Ice Special

Sea ice coverage hit a recording-breaking low in the Antarctic this week, but what does this mean for the rest of the world? Why is the region so dif…

3 years ago

Gene Editing Ethics, Killer Whale Mummy's Boys and Ancient Hippo Butchery

Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui caused international outrage when in 2018 when he used the gene-editing tool known as CRISPR Cas-9 to edit the genome…

3 years, 1 month ago

Abundant energy

This week’s programme is a thought experiment: What would the world be like if energy became superabundant and very cheap?

Energy is vital for every a…

3 years, 1 month ago

Exploring the New Environmental Improvement Plan

Defra, the department for Environment, food and Rural affairs, released its latest Environmental Improvement plan this week. Many environmental group…

3 years, 1 month ago

Vegetarian school dinners

What if all schools offered only plant-based options for 3 out of 5 lunches a week? Would that be enough to trigger a broader societal shift to eatin…

3 years, 1 month ago

Towards Net Zero

Former Energy Minister Chris Skidmore’s report into Net Zero calls for ambitious policies to drive energy transition, framing it as a huge economic o…

3 years, 2 months ago

Chatbot plagiarism

ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an online conversational chatbot, launched by OpenAI in November 2022. To date it remains an online s…

3 years, 2 months ago