Episodes

  • Public Success, Private Grief: remembering Peter Cowley

    Public Success, Private Grief: remembering Peter Cowley
    Sep 23 2025
    Peter Cowley was an entrepreneur, angel investor, and for many years was the Naked Scientists technology commentator, a role he fell into by accident when we met one evening at an investment meeting. He became a good friend. But his life, in many respects, despite being incredibly successful, was also touched by great sadness: he lost two sons and struggled with alcohol for a time. But he came through it all and lived his life with energy, curiosity, and generosity... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    37 mins
  • Keeping humans healthy in orbit

    Keeping humans healthy in orbit
    Sep 10 2025
    With only a few walls between an astronaut and a rapid death, what do we know about the various dangers to the human body during space travel? Chris Smith spoke with Mark Shelhamer, a professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at John Hopkins Medical School - about which space hazards are deemed most pressing for our up-and-coming astronauts... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    7 mins
  • Ants doing gene therapy, and tadpole microbiomes

    Ants doing gene therapy, and tadpole microbiomes
    Sep 8 2025
    This month, as the eLife Podcast hits its century, we hear how getting frog dads to cross-foster tadpoles has revealed the way in which some frogs come by their microbiomes, the ants that do gene therapy, signs that disease causes a breakdown in nutrient exchange between the elements of the microbiome, how fungi reprogram immune cells to cause over-reactions in sepsis, and new insights into how tapeworm larvae in the brain cause seizures... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    43 mins
  • Synthetic sustainable spuds

    Synthetic sustainable spuds
    Jul 9 2025
    As the global population heads toward 10 billion, the pressure on agriculture is mounting. With that in mind, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has announced millions of pounds worth of funding for crops enhanced through synthetic biology by designing entirely new chromosomes and chloroplasts, starting with the potato, as Angie Burnett, the ARIA Programme Director and plant biologist leading this initiative explains to Marushka Soobben... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    6 mins
  • Scientists say they've bent spacetime

    Scientists say they've bent spacetime
    Jun 23 2025
    "Warp speed, Mr Sulu." It's the kind of command we've only heard in science fiction - until now. Did a team of scientists just bend spacetime using nothing but sparks in a lab? That's right - not black holes, not neutron stars - electrical sparks. A new experiment claims to have created tiny ripples in the very fabric of space and time, right here on Earth. If it holds up, it could be the first step toward technologies once thought possible only in science fiction: warp drives, fusion reactors, even medical time control. But is it the real deal - or just a very flashy illusion? I sat down with... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    5 mins
  • Finland's giant virus, and monkeys take care of their teeth

    Finland's giant virus, and monkeys take care of their teeth
    Jun 19 2025
    In the eLife podcast, a university compost heap has turned up Finland's first documented "giant virus". Also, why monkeys de-sand their supper, and how learning more languages actually makes brain tissue thinner. Then, the link between sugar and neonatal sepsis, and how a cancer controls its hydra host by bestowing it with extra tentacles... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    39 mins
  • Naked Scientists SOS

    Naked Scientists SOS
    Jun 16 2025
    Cambridge University have informed us that, for cost cutting reasons, they intend to make Dr Chris Smith redundant. Naturally, this jeopardises the Naked Scientists programme, which is produced under his role. He will also lose his medical job. We regard this as a terrible decision and we intend to protest. Please listen to this short podcast to hear how you can help. Together we hope we can turn around this terrible decision... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    4 mins
  • Insect extinctions, and AI shot in the arm for drug design

    Insect extinctions, and AI shot in the arm for drug design
    Jun 5 2025
    In episode 10 of the Cambridge Prisms Podcast, the shocking finding that as many as 2 invertebrate species are going extinct each week in Australia: what can be done? Also, the shot in the arm that AI is administering to the drug discovery industry, how do you measure the microplastic problem, and why climate tipping points are a serious problem for the drinking water industry. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    37 mins