Synopsis
The Naked Scientists flagship science show brings you a lighthearted look at the latest scientific breakthroughs, interviews with the world's top scientists, answers to your science questions and science experiments to try at home.
Episodes
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Titans of Science: Trevor Robbins
07/01/2025 Duration: 29minTitans of Science continues, where we talk to some of the major movers and shakers leading the way in their respective fields. This time we're hearing from Cambridge neuroscientist, and expert on obsessive compulsive disorder - OCD - Trevor Robbins... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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What science will thrive in 2025?
03/01/2025 Duration: 28minIn this edition of The Naked Scientists, a look ahead to 2025. We ask experts in the field of health, AI, astronomy, marine science, and archaeology what we should look forward to over the next 12 months... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Titans of Science: Marc Abrahams
31/12/2024 Duration: 29minIn this edition of Titans of Science, Chris Smith chats with co-founder of Annals of Improbable Research, and the master of ceremonies for the Ig Nobel prize, Marc Abrahams... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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The science that defined 2024
27/12/2024 Duration: 28minIn this edition of The Naked Scientists, we ask leading experts in the fields of health, AI, space, marine biology, and archaeology about the moments that defined 2024... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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The best of 2024!
20/12/2024 Duration: 53minIn this edition of The Naked Scientists, we look back at another brilliant year of science and select some of our favourite stories to come out of it... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Titans of Science: David Baker
17/12/2024 Duration: 28minOur Titans of Science season continues with the man who used AI to create an unprecedented number of custom proteins: Nobel Prize winning biochemist David Baker... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Food science, ancient human genes, and dark comets
13/12/2024 Duration: 33minIn the news pod, Chris van Tulleken tells us what he's got planned for this years Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. Then we hear about the innovation to harness energy from radioactive carbon-14 atoms, and learn more about when humans and Neanderthals got to know each other. Then, we look skyward, where astronomers have described a series of mysterious near-Earth objects similar to the famous Oumuamua... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Titans of Science: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
10/12/2024 Duration: 30minTitans of Science returns with Jocelyn Bell Burnell who discovered radio pulsars as a postgraduate student at Cambridge. Her work not only revolutionised the field of astrophysics, but inspired one of the most famous pieces of music artwork too... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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AI takes weather forecasting by storm, and crabs use aspirin
06/12/2024 Duration: 33minIn the News pod, Google DeepMind's weather forecasting AI model outperforms traditional tools. Also, new data from volcanoes on Venus dampen theories it was once a watery world, and is this double action weight loss drug the successor to Ozempic and Mounjaro? Then, we hear the proof that crustaceans can feel pain, and will seek drugs to relieve it... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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OCD and balance in the brain
03/12/2024 Duration: 31minObsessive compulsive disorder - OCD - is a mental health condition where intrusive, unwanted thoughts can become all consuming. Some people report anxieties over something terrible happening to them or someone they love for example, and, in some cases, in a bid to alleviate these fears, they may carry out compulsive actions repetitively to the point they become extremely disruptive to their lives.Due to pervasive misconceptions around this serious psychiatric condition, a lot of people suffer with their symptoms for a long time before getting help. It's also complicated to unpick the... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Jab to alleviate asthma attacks, and amber in Antarctica
29/11/2024 Duration: 32minIn the news, a potentially game-changing new injection to ease the suffering caused by asthma attacks shows success. Also, who should fix the gas leak on the International Space Station? Then, fossilised footsteps fuel speculation over interactions between early human ancestors, and we find out what the presence of amber in Antarctica reveals about the history of this now desloate land... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Can nuclear innovation help meet our energy needs?
26/11/2024 Duration: 30minIn this edition of The Naked Scientists, how much of a part do innovations in nuclear energy production, like SMRs and microreactors, have to play in our nuclear future? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Amazing animals: bats on treadmills, and showering elephants
22/11/2024 Duration: 32minIn this animal-themed edition of the news: What prompted scientists to put vampire bats on a treadmill? Also ahead: why medicinal leeches are returning to the UK's waterways. Plus, the spiders that know what kind of food will satisfy their dietary needs. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Are we on track to end new infections of HIV?
19/11/2024 Duration: 35minOn today's programme, we are going to examine attempts to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by the end of the decade.The AIDS pandemic is unarguably the worst health threat to confront the population in the modern era. We believe close to 100 million people have died of the disease so far since it first emerged in the early 1900s.It's proved a very tough nut to crack; when I first went to medical school in 1993, a patient with advanced AIDS and just weeks away from dying came to speak to us.That rarely happens in first world countries these days thanks to breakthrough scientific... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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The stakes at COP29, and the rogue Skynet satellite
15/11/2024 Duration: 31minThis episode of The Naked Scientists: what's at stake at this year's UN climate summit in Azerbaijan? Also, the 80 million-year-old fossil revealing how birds came by their big brains; and why the UK's oldest satellite has wandered off over the Americas... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Can weight loss jabs tackle the obesity pandemic?
12/11/2024 Duration: 31minIn this edition of The Naked Scientists, could weight loss jabs help shrink the size of the global obesity crisis... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Pompeii DNA, and a black hole feeding faster than it should
08/11/2024 Duration: 31minNew NICE guidance urges HRT as a first-line treatment for menopause symptoms, the enormous black hole that doesn't obey our existing laws of physics, and what DNA analysis is revealing about the people who inhabited Pompeii... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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How do we reduce harms to children from smartphones?
05/11/2024 Duration: 31minInitially, the upside to children having access to a supercomputer in their pockets seemed obvious: immediate access to the reams of educational information on the internet, seamless communications with their friends, a source of constant entertainment. But as mental ill health amongst our youngsters continues to rise, many are pointing to smartphones, and particularly the social media platforms on them, as mainly to blame.Today, we'll hear what the screen age is doing to our stone age brains, how adolescents and adults differ in their social media activity, and discuss what the evidence says... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Monkeypox in the UK, and the lost Mayan city
01/11/2024 Duration: 36minIn this edition of The Naked Scientists: The UK detects its first case of the new Mpox variant, but some are saying what took us so long; also the discovery of a lost city beneath the jungle canopy in Mexico; and the robots helping Cambridge scientists understand the evolution of fish... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Could technology swing the race for the White House?
29/10/2024 Duration: 31minThe US election between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump is going down to the wire. Indeed, this has been described by many as the closest presidential election ever seen. Inevitably, with tensions so high on either side, the cry of electoral interference is a common one. But just how is today's technology being used to sway voter opinion, and by how much? That's what we seek to uncover on this week's programme... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists