Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe latest twist in a Canadian medical mystery
In March 2021, the Toronto-based reporter Leyland Cecco heard about a memo sent by New Brunswick health officials that warned about a possible unknow…
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Is it time to try geoengineering?
Geoengineering, the controversial set of techniques that aim to deliberately alter the Earth’s climate system, may be inching a step closer to realit…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Have we got the appendix all wrong?
For a long time the appendix was considered disposable. After all, millions of people have theirs removed each year and go on to live healthy lives. …
11 months, 3 weeks ago
Surviving 200 snake bites, decoding ancient scrolls and the countries ‘flourishing’
Science correspondent Hannah Devlin joins Ian Sample to discuss three intriguing science stories from the week, from a global study that puts the UK …
1 year ago
How old are we really? What a test can tell us about our biological age
Direct to consumer tests that claim to tell us our biological – as opposed to chronological – age are getting a lot of attention, but what can they r…
1 year ago
Why did Spain and Portugal go dark?
Authorities are still trying to understand what triggered the massive power outage that left the majority of the Iberian Peninsula without electricit…
1 year ago
Why did Just Stop Oil just stop?
Just Stop Oil, the climate activism group behind motorway blockades, petrol station disruption and tomato soup attacks on major artworks, has disband…
1 year ago
Evidence of alien life, a clue about the rise of bowel cancer, and a new colour?
Madeleine Finlay and Ian Sample discuss three intriguing science stories from the week. From a hint at alien life on a distant planet to a clue in th…
1 year ago
Is ‘de-extinction’ really possible?
The American biotech company Colossal Biosciences recently made headlines around the world with claims it had resurrected the dire wolf, an animal th…
1 year ago
RFK Jr’s mixed messages on vaccines
As a measles outbreak expands across the US, comments by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr have come under scrutiny. Kennedy has said that the bes…
1 year ago