Archive

Previous episodes can be accessed here. To download a show to your computer, right click the Download mp3 link and select 'Save target as/Save link as' and save the file to your computer or a CD.

• January 2009 to current broadcast

  • • 05 November 2009:

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      Scientists take a closer look at a star first spotted in 1680, how unrelated animals lend a helping hand, a 'Pleistocene Park' in the Netherlands, and a round-up of what's hot elsewhere in Nature.

    • 29 October 2009:

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      A new type of communication between brain cells is confirmed, a theory about how the Earth became watery, questioning whether the speed of light is constant, and a round-up of what's hot elsewhere in Nature.

    • 22 October 2009:

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      The effects of sleep deprivation on memory, 250 years of London's Kew Gardens, watching evolution in the lab, and climate change in the Himalayas.

    • 15 October 2009:

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      Video game-playing mice, illiterate Colombian guerrillas, a magnet with only one pole, Nobel Prize-winner Elizabeth Blackburn, and in the news - a CERN scientist is charged with being a terrorist.

    • 08 October 2009:

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      Saturn's enormous ring, the looming phosphate crisis, rapidly rising magma, a whole heap of human genetics, and this year's Nobel Prizes.

    • 01 October 2009:

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      Sex chromosome evolution in stickleback and humans, cheat-resisting amoebae, and how powerful earthquakes may influence the strength of far-away faults.

    • 24 September 2009:

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      Planetary boundaries that are not to be crossed, early humans and carbon dioxide levels, India's genetic diversity, the genomes behind an epidemic.

    • 17 September 2009:

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      Gene therapy to correct colour blindness, droplets behaving weirdly, how warm temperatures in the past affected Greenland, and the evolution of sex chromosomes and live birth.

    • 10 September 2009:

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      The genome behind the Irish potato famine, a new take on the Great Oxidation Event, how dying cells signal 'come-kill-me', and the week's news highlights.

    • 03 September 2009:

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      The galaxy that eats others for breakfast, the oldest hand-axes in Europe, engineering our climate, and predicting 'tipping points'.

    • 27 August 2009:

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      Gene therapy for mitochondrial mutations, a 'hot jupiter' spinning perilously close to its sun, science-themed songs for kids, toxicity testing, and a chance to win tickets to a private screening of the film Creation.

    • 20 August 2009:

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      The search for gravity waves, rice 'snorkel' genes, the world's most famous fossil site, and the dark side of antioxidants.

    • 13 August 2009:

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      Glaciers, tectonic plates and mountain height, a mathematical packing problem solved, a history of hurricanes and the news round-up.

    • Insight - Metalloproteins:

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      Proteins that use metals to help them function are called metalloproteins. Join us as we learn how they choose their metal partners, what they use these metals for, and how studying them can help us explain everything from human diseases to the origin of life.

    • 6 August 2009:

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      Burgeoning birth rates, the origin of cosmic rays, better models of pandemics and the economy, and jumping genes in the brain.

    • 30 July 2009:

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      Mice made from induced stem cells, the early Earth's disordered insides, jellyfish stirring up the oceans, and Saturn's spinning speed.

    • 23 July 2009:

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      Wild chimps show signs of AIDS-like disease, super-tiny lenses go beyond the limits of light, and we take another look at the light patterns in the Northern and Southern lights.

    • 16 July 2009:

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      The Apollo moon landing, a new branch of archaeology for primates, where the contents of our asteroid belt came from, and two genomes of the parasite that causes schistosomiasis.

    • 09 July 2009:

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      An anti-ageing drug for mammals, when and how our planet turned green, 20 years since the discovery of the cystic fibrosis gene, and scientists spot the most distant supernovae yet.

    • 02 July 2009:

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      Stem cells and how to make them, how salamanders regrow their limbs, genetic variation and schizophrenia, and how plants keep carbon dioxide above a certain level.

    • 25 June 2009:

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      Science journalism special: how technology is changing scientific meetings, how science gets turned into front page news, and are science journalist cheerleaders or watchdogs?

    • Podcast Extra - Simon Singh:

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      Science writer Simon Singh is deep in a legal battle with the British Chiropractic Association after writing an article criticising chiropractic for the Guardian newspaper. In this exclusive interview, Nature's Mark Peplow talks to Simon about how the case affects science journalism and what libel laws mean for freedom of speech.

    • 18 June 2009:

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      Sperm DNA packaging, how the Colorado Plateau got so high, a fake paper accepted by an open access journal, and our weekly round-up of science news.

    • 11 June 2009:

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      Typhoons that trigger earthquakes, the search for extra terrestrial life starts on Earth, worms that refuse to die, and possible planetary collisions.

    • 04 June 2009:

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      Entangling ions, reprogramming diseased cells, imaging and reality, and what Antarctica looks like beneath all that ice.

    • 28 May 2009:

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      Transgenic monkeys that glow green, quantum states that change as soon as you look at them, and a new approach to the war on cancer.

    • 21 May 2009:

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      The link between cancer and Down's syndrome, how life survived multiple meteorite impacts 3.9 billion years ago, and why obesity is more about genes than lifestyle.

    • 14 May 2009:

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      A 35,000 year-old figurine with exaggerated breasts, the origins of RNA, a new light source that could replace ugly fluorescent strip lights, and is free will an illusion?

    • 07 May 2009:

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      Mini-hippos and mini-men, the 'Two Cultures' 50 years on, DNA origami, birds with culture in their genes, and the results of our science haiku competition.

    • Podcast Extra - Ian McEwan:

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      Booker Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan often takes inspiration from science for his emotion-laden novels. He spoke at an event at University College London last week and Charlotte Stoddart chatted to him afterwards about emotion, literature and the brain.

    • 30 April 2009:

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      The worst-case scenario for climate change, economist Nicholas Stern on how the recession could help curb global warming, autism genes, and how to fix a broken heart.

    • Podcast Extra - Nicholas Stern:

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      Nicholas Stern, author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change, explains how the recession could help curb global warming and calls for 'the greatest collaboration the world has ever seen' to reduce global CO2 emissions.

    • 23 April 2009:

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      An ancestor of flippered mammals, the glue that holds species together, and mobile phone tracking: is it science or stalking?

    • 16 April 2009:

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      Unzipping nanotubes to make graphene nanoribbons, the world's largest network of cosmic ray detectors, and do closely related species have similar minds?

    • Podcast Extra - John Maddox:

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      Senior editor Henry Gee remembers John Maddox, famed former Nature editor who died on April 12th 2009.

    • 09 April 2009:

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      The cancer genome, a new twist in our understanding of the Great Oxidation Event, and why some people are better than others at repairing radiation damage in their cells.

    • 02 April 2009:

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      How autistic toddlers see the world, a history lesson for Obama and his science advisers, storing CO2 underground, and another signature of dark matter – or is it?

    • 26 March 2009:

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      Volcanos that think they're tornados, a curious chemical imbalance in our oceans, a supernova whodunit solved and our weekly round-up of science news.

    • 19 March 2009:

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      Molecular machines, heat flow in the Earth's crust, a model of Antarctic meltdown and the current state of science communication.

    • 12 March 2009:

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      Super-chargeable batteries, the Peking man fossil site is older than we thought, how your expectations influence what you see, and a different approach to world hunger.

    • 5 March 2009:

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      A microbicide gel that protects monkeys against SIV, two-for-one black holes, proteins imaged 'at work' inside cells and a sociologist of science calls a truce.

    • 26 February 2009:

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      The ethics of brain-machine interfaces, climate see-saw seen, migrating planets in our early solar system, the origins of sex, and our weekly science news round-up.

    • 19 February 2009:

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      More space for MRI scanners, the search for other Earths, carbon storage in African forests and Nature's top tips for surviving the recession.

    • 12 February 2009:

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      Darwin special: pigeons, poetry from a Darwin descendant, and how Darwin dabbled in psychology. Plus, actor Paul Bettany talks about playing Darwin in the new movie 'Creation'.

    • Podcast Extra - Paul Bettany:

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      Actor Paul Bettany talks to Nature about playing Darwin in 'Creation', a new movie about Darwin's struggle to write the Origin and his heartbreak over the death of his daughter Annie.

    • 5 February 2009:

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      A record-breaking long snake, evidence for the earliest animal life, the oldest quasar ever seen, and a plague of caterpillars invade our regular news round-up.

    • 29 January 2009:

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      Carbon sequestration in the oceans, the sorghum genome, the chemistry of seafood poisoning and our regular round-up of the week's science news.

    • 22 January 2009:

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      Bendy electronics, shifting seasons, fMRI called into question, and how Facebook is being used for crisis communication.

    • 15 January 2009:

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      A fishy fossil head, killer cells with a memory, a man-made cellular clock, and how science has fared under the Bush administration.

    • 08 January 2009:

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      A pair of unusual meteorites, gravity's role in star formation, what happens when you 'over-squeeze' photons, and our predictions for science in 2009.

• 2008

  • • 18 December 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Sleepy songbirds, sun damage, mega-masers, Nature's Newsmaker of the Year, and our seasonal gift suggestions: what to get the scientist who has everything.
    • 11 December 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Cognitive enhancing drugs, stormy weather on an extrasolar planet, ocean cleaning bacteria, science and the food crisis, and our weekly news round-up.
    • 4 December 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Cancer stem cells and tumour development, predicting the size of tsunamis, spotting a supernova from 1572, the future of farming, and our weekly news chat.
    • 27 November 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Turtles in a half shell, water on Saturn's sixth moon, a new book about photosynthesis and news from this year's biggest neuro jamboree.
    • 20 November 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The woolly mammoth genome decoded, a 'proto-eye' of the kind predicted by Darwin, the controversial theory of group selection, and a tantalizing trace of dark matter.
    • 13 November 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Learning who to trust, how cooling bird brains slows down song, controlling quantum dots for computing, how entrepreneurs think, and a round-up of science news.
    • 6 November 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Individual genomes and personal genomics, lemmings threatened by climate change, how to find dark matter, and a news round-up with news editor Mark Peplow.
    • 30 October 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Ancient tsunamis, infected frogs, what economics can learn from physics, and a new book about the enigmatic Antikythera mechanism.
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      We talk to the author of a new book that traces the 2000 year history of the world's first computer, from ancient Greece, via the bottom of the sea, to 3D X-ray analysis in the pages of Nature.
    • 23 October 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Feathered dinosaurs, X-ray producing sticky tape, the many faces of autism and oxygen-producing bacteria that aren't quite as ancient as we thought.
    • 16 October 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      A self-assembling computer, restoring movement to paralysed arms, science meetings that changed the world and inside the head of a not-so-fishy fossil.
    • 9 October 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      A spot of 'star archaeology', two new malaria parasite genomes, the latest round of Nobel Prizes and back to school — we find out how physics lessons have changed.
    • 2 October 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Fishy evolution in Lake Victoria, a tiny device for sensing magnetic fields, how some old wax-encased tissue samples hint at the life-story of HIV and the microscopic world of RNA.
    • 25 September 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The evolutionary move from fins to fingers, a rare and rather flashy dead star and how gut bacteria help stop the development of type 1 diabetes.
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      In this final US Election show, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama speak for themselves on the big science issues including space, stem cells and green energy.
    • 18 September 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The role of mini-ecosystems in climate research, current questions evolutionary biologists strive to answer, the evolution of teeth, and the origins of the mouth and anus.
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      Our third roundtable debate on the big science issues in the US election tackles technology and innovation.
    • 11 September 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Vesuvius' inner rumblings, a mystery of mathematical skill, biomedicine and the US elections, fake plastic trees and the switching on of the Large Hadron Collider.
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      The Large Hadron Collider is finally ready to go. Geoff Brumfiel talks to CERN theorist John Ellis about his hopes for the project - and what happens if there are no Higgs bosons.
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      The second of our special podcasts on science in the US election looks at what the candidates are saying about biomedicine and health.
    • 4 September 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Moth warning signals, how our genes reveal where we live, crunching massive datasets and Europe's first science blogging conference.
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      As Google celebrates its 10th anniversary, we find out how science is coping with massive datasets generated by unprecedented computing power. BoingBoing blogger Cory Doctorow tells us about his visits to the LHC data storage facility and the genome sequencing Sanger Centre.
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      The race for the White House is well and truly underway. But where do the candidates stand on science? The first of our special US election podcasts asks the experts what energy and climate policy might look like under a new administration.
    • 28 August 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Why antibiotics may be bad for innate immunity, extending human lifespan, when kids learn to share, and the trains, cars and ships of the future.
    • 21 August 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Self-sacrificing salmonella, 'magic' gold clusters, how brown fat cells could be a cure for obesity and the 'Woodstock' of science conferences.
    • 14 August 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Electricity without carbon, 'hidden' cholera infections, how scientists measure the most remote part of our planet and the spooky world of quantum entanglement.
    • 7 August 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The Earth's lopsided inner core, viruses inside viruses, an electronic camera that's built like a human eye, and science on the X Files.
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      With a new movie version of the X Files now in cinemas, we chat to creator and director Chris Carter about science, conspiracy theories and FBI agents Mulder and Scully.
    • 31 July 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The origins of snake fangs, an ethane lake on Saturn's largest moon, the genetics of schizophrenia and an ancient Greek computer.
    • 24 July 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The rapid rise of China's energy needs and scientific ambitions, how light receptors in fly eyes give them a magnetic sense, dangerously high levels of arsenic in the Mekong delta and the major role of snail-castrating parasites in ecosystems in Baja California.
    • 17 July 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      NASA's hot air balloon team, life aboard an icebreaker, how scientists have glimpsed the lightest atoms in action, and 30 years on from the first test-tube baby, what's next for IVF?
    • 10 July 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The brain's fear switch, how flatfish evolved to be lopsided, aftershock predictions in the Chinese region hit by May's massive earthquake, and how the sly Ebola virus hides under a carbohydrate 'cloak'.
    • 3 July 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      A journey to the edge of the solar system with Voyager 2, a simpler recipe for stem cells, musical minds, an increase in extinction risk predicted by a new model, and the reincarnation of Schrödinger's cat.
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      What can science tell us about the hows and whys of our musical minds? Find out in this extended interview with music psychologist John Sloboda and Nature's Phil Ball.
    • 26 June 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Explosive underwater volcanoes, the largest impact structure in the Solar System and why Darwin, not Wallace, became biology's biggest celebrity.
    • 19 June 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      A pair of not-so-identical twin stars, how McDonald's golden arches drive business and the genome club's newest member.
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      Experimental psychologist and author Steven Pinker talks to Kerri Smith about courtesy, concepts, cursing — and why we never say what we mean.
    • 5 June 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Thoughts about language with Steven Pinker, the effects of an acidifying sea, what fMRI scans actually show us, risky decision-making in humans and honeybees, and getting medicine from bench to bedside.
    • 5 June 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Saturn's lumpy ring, the latest on superconductivity, an algorithm for movie scripts, and how mobile phones helped researchers learn about human movements.
    • 29 May 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The solution to a fishy reproductive riddle, a mysterious mid-century blip in sea surface temperatures, old-aged scientists, and a prosthetic arm that can be moved by the power of thought alone.
    • 22 May 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      A rare sighting of a supernova at birth, a new model of Huntington's disease and bogus science degrees.
    • 15 May 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Squid eyes, anti-flu drugs, ice core bubbles that reveal ancient climate cycles and economist Jeffrey Sachs on the 'crowded planet challenge'.
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      In this extended interview with economist Jeffrey Sachs, find out why he remains optimistic in the face of our ailing planet.
    • 8 May 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      The wonderfully weird platypus genome, fat cells and why it's hard to stay slim, and the gene that makes men male.
    • 1 May 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      How eye components regulate our internal clock and act as a chemical compass, the missing 'memristor' and a worrying 'flight of talent' from academic science.
    • 24 April 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Beetles that contribute to global warming, the solution to a cosmic mystery, conjurer and sceptic James Randi, and why space exploration deserves government funding.
    • 17 April 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      James Watson's genome, an 'elixir' for blood cells, the latest step in quantum computing and 'Science 2.0' - scientists get involved with new technologies on the web.
    • 10 April 2008: Listen now Download mp3 | Text (html)
      Blood cell lines redrawn, light that squeezes through holes smaller than its own wavelength and how Amazon air mops up pollutants.
    • 03 April 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Genes and the risk of lung cancer, seeing in 3D, combing the skies for 'other Earths', Antarctic dust, and the IPCC's climate policy is 'too optimistic'.
    • 27 March 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The oldest European, a puzzle over how RNA interference works, the evolution of complexity and a call for temperance in debates of evolution vs creationism.
    • 20 March 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Punish and be damned; an organic compound on an exoplanet; a scientific study of incompetence; and water, water everywhere.
    • 13 March 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Cows, sheep and their parasitic worms, animals in the lab, and combating deforestation in the Amazon.
    • 6 March 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A 'doomsday' seed bank in Svalbard, the last pieces of the CERN jigsaw puzzle, a new method for brain-reading and Creationism in Texas.
    • 28 February 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Malaria prevention in Zambia, marine predator food-finding behaviour, rare massive stars and doomed climate change policies.
    • 21 February 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Self-healing rubber, a Martian delta recreated on Earth, highlights from the AAAS meeting in Boston and Darwin's American pen pal.
    • 14 February 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The evolution of echolocation in bats, the researchers who turned speed dating into science, why some breast cancers develop resistance to therapy, and power dressing; how your clothes could soon be powering your mobile phone.
    • 07 February 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Star Wars style 3D holograms, watching Alzheimer's disease developing in the brain, Darwin's enduring legacy and our PODium speaker wonders what's on the horizon of scientific research?
    • 31 January 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A pair of giant earthquakes, more hurricanes in the Atlantic, two pieces of flu research that don't quite match up and cognitive enhancing drugs for scientists.
    • 24 January 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      There's more carbon in Ol' Man River, we're getting older, faster, the inside story on the US military's research arm and scientists are publishing more papers, but how many are duplicates?
    • 17 January 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Brain cells that help songbirds to sing along, a new target for anti-HIV drugs, a clever chemical trick for manipulating uranium and scientific protagonists in novels — our PODium speaker asks why there aren't more of them.
    • 10 January 2008: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A baby planet, magnetic monopoles, how Down's syndrome protects against cancer and a potential drug target for parasitic diseases such as toxoplasmosis and malaria.

• 2007

  • • 20 December 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The missing link between land mammals and whales, performance enhancing drugs, the climate change convention in Bali and Arthur C Clarke, author of 2001: a Space Odyssey, is 90 years old.
    • 13 December 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The importance of storytelling in science, the latest trends in children's science publishing, why mothers-to-be don't topple over and detailed images of three protein pumps.
    • 6 December 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Volcanic activity on the moon, earth-gazing, pheromones that promote aggression in male mice and was our planet once a 'snowball' or a 'slushball'?
    • 29 November 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Venus Express mission overview, an exciting development in computational biology that reveals the architecture of cell structures and a powerful new class of molecule that could help to tackle type 2 diabetes.
    • 22 November 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The first monkey with his own cloned stem cells, how babies tell good people from bad and the key to a long and happy life... if you're a worm.
    • 15 November 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Methane-munching microbes, a supernova mystery explained by a stellar smash and what US Presidential candidates say about climate change.
    • 8 November 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Ten new fruit fly genomes, how solar wind affects Saturn's radio clock and mice learn to avoid bad smells, even when their innate fear response is turned off.
    • 1 November 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The brain in glorious Technicolor, preparing the ear to hear, forest fire frequency and climate change, and Susan Greenfield steps up to the Podium.
    • 25 October 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Moonlets in Saturn's outermost ring, how our brains make us optimistic, digging into the role of auxin in plant roots, and our Podium speaker argues for a rethink of climate change legislation.
    • 18 October 2007: Audio (mp3 file)| Text (html)
      Life's a beach for Stone Age humans, hail the return of the human HapMap, the demise of Gondwanaland, genetics gets personal, conservationist and author Henry Nicholls steps up to the podium.
    • 11 October 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Jets from Saturn's moon, nifty gene evolution in yeast, being a nuclear weapons inspector, how words mutate over time, the Nobel Prizes and IgNobel Awards, and geological metaphors take a bashing on the Podium.
    • 4 October 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Sputnik's 50^th birthday, Marco Polo Neanderthals, anaesthetics without paralysis, and Bjorn Lomborg speaks from the Podium.
    • 27 September 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Silencing genes without side effects, quantum computing comes a step closer, dinosaurs on stage, early rice paddies, and tunes from the Genomic Dub Collective (with thanks)
    • 20 September 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Sweaty or sweet - it depends on your genes, stem cells from sperm, ancient climate change, the earliest humans outside Africa, and science museums pick up the pace.
    • 13 September 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Getting to the heart of antimatter with a new anti-molecule, revealing the complex networks of what lies beneath the forest floor, finding out the challenges of science in the developing world and discovering how the Earth's crust burst forth.
    • 6 September 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Tsunami risk in the Bay of Bengal, biometric recognition, crater-forming planetary collisions, HIV-neutralising antibodies, Jaws II — with moray eels.
    • 30 August 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      CO₂ levels and thirsty plants, the grapevine genome and 'designer wines', countdown to space tourism, an ancient amber find, the beginnings of planets.
    • 23 August 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Diamonds are forever, obsessive compulsive mice, overabundant elephants, a new (very old) species of ape.
    • 16 August 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Talc in the San Andreas fault, making glass out of germanium, the possibility of life on Mars, ageing and cancer, a conference with a difference, a tomato's defense against bacteria.
    • 9 August 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Gender-bending mice, early Homo evolution, ultrafast x-rays, recycling in the Earth's crust.
    • 2 August 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Electrical stimulation for damaged brains, experimental ethics, a HapMap for mice, brown clouds spell bad news.
    • 26 July 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Rain changes of our own making, science in the Simpsons, Californian-style plate rifts, investigating inflammatory bowel disease, pygmies with palm pilots.
    • 19 July 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A super-sticky polymer, proteins that fight cancer and aging, how the English Channel was formed, a new diabetes gene, the 'dark side' of the universe.
    • 12 July 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Nitrogen flux in estuaries, fly knock-outs with no knock-on effects, water on hot jupiters, biodiversity - the big picture, how to survive a mass extinction.
    • 05 July 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Saturn's sponge-like moon, the genes behind asthma, a Parkinson's-protective protein, copycat species, parallel universes in science fiction.
    • 28 June 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Gender-specific genes in deer, new stem cells derived, cancer and DNA supercoils, heavy silicon on Earth and in the moon, welcome to the Wellcome Collection.
    • 21 June 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Fuel for cars from carbs, fossils shed light on mammalian evolution, a lunar telescope, breaching the blood-brain barrier.
    • 14 June 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A giant bird-like dinosaur, Mars' own Mediterranean, exploding stars, Nature's guide for science mentors, the ENCODE project, why cold is painful.
    • 07 June 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Tackling diabetes and heart disease with a single drug, reprogramming skin to become embryonic stem cells, screening genetic hotspots for common diseases, and the difficulties of studying bonobos in war zones.
    • 31 May 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A chilly receptor, wildlife trading bans, maths is child's play, water vapour in planetary birthplaces, netting new breast cancer genes.
    • 24 May 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Mingling with the stars, historical hurricanes, how cancers are kindled, how the brain copes with disappointment.
    • 17 May 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Hotspots on Saturn's moon, help from herpes, the ravages of the West Nile virus, new species under Antarctic ice, a 'hair-raising' tale.
    • 10 May 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Weather forecasting on extra-solar planets, gender and species diversity, superconducting successes and the possum genome.
    • 03 May 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Time out for the brain, ice under Mars, earthquakes' lazier cousins, enriching the memory, thirsty plants, heavy elements, dieting worms.
    • 26 April 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Lowering inhibitions in addiction, a new study of old brains, a swift study of wing shape, iron and carbon sequestration, the perfect pint, how invasive species gain ground.
    • 19 April 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Creating crust with melting mantle, rethinking realism, the origin of meteorites, the Earth's earliest forests, how the visual system distinguishes glossy from dull.
    • 12 April 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Cell-specific cancer drugs, stopping cancer spread, spying distant planets, a photosynthetic puzzle solved, first aid for DNA, shaking up seismology.
    • 05 April 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      An illuminating discovery about brain control, climate change on Mars, plant hormones, seafloor carbon control, the origin of Earth's magnetic field, unravelling the remains of Joan of Arc.
    • 29 March 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Sex discrimination in fruit flies, a mammalian family tree, how harmful drugs really are, epidemic timing, and how diversity takes a knock from fertilizers.
    • 22 March 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Chemistry without protection, a tectonic teaser, brute force makes new molecules, and homeopathy: science fact or fiction?
    • 15 March 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Kuiper belt collisions, the roots of flowering plants, Linnaeus' legacy, the birth and death of photons, swarms of mini-quakes.
    • 08 March 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Miniature dino genomes, silica alchemy, rescuing dwarf plants, the cancer genome, modelling Martian meteorology.
    • 01 March 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Watching the nervous system at work, protein crystal envelopes, immobilising light, malarial mitochondria, identifying individual atoms.
    • 22 February 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      New lakes under Antarctica, 'Feathered Einsteins', fake science on TV, extrasolar planets.
    • 15 February 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      HIV's Achilles heel, probing protein regulation, avoiding incest, the soppy side of science, new diabetes genes, and the darkest galaxies in the universe.
    • 8 February 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Choosy seals, transporting light pulses, cannabinoids for Parkinson's, climate change both ancient and modern, and what gut bugs tell us about human evolution.
    • 1 February 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Conserving the Amazon with a scientific SWAT team, redrawing the hydrological cycle from space, micro-organism forming new relationships, and virtual quantum computing on chips.
    • 25 January 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      How fish know who's boss, summer comes early, sniffing out smells, and an Australian fossil treasure trove.
    • 18 January 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Coral clocks, making magnets, keeping gas in cages, a vicious flu virus, the low-down on science policy and the 'dark side' of science.
    • 11 January 2007: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Early decision-making in embryo cells, how to store nuclear waste, glucose sensors and furring arteries, ecology-friendly crops and energy-efficient bungee backpacks.

• 2006

  • • 21 December 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Gut microbes and obesity, insect chemoreception, Komodo virgin births, bye-bye Brief Comms, a novel gamma-ray burst, starving tumours, the evolution of flight, and the social lives of meerkats.
    • 14 December 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Pain perception, fossil diets, gliding mammals, Martian horizons, vivisection views, and botox secrets.
    • 7 December 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The bat tongue, brain tumour switch, AIDS and Nigerian oil workers, the Reliable Replacement Warhead, desktop particle accelerators, and an influenza insight.
    • 30 November 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Vintage oenology, Stradivari and the sound of music, the mysterious Antikythera mechanism, metamaterials and terahertz, and the economics of energy.
    • 23 November 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A taste of synaesthesia, colon cancer stem cells, human genome variation, mountaineering genes, tsunamis and coral reefs, and real-time molecular movies.
    • 16 November 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Treating muscular dystrophy, healing a broken heart, H5N1 mutations, secrets of synaesthesia, Palaeolithic infant burials, and the quest for Neanderthal DNA.
    • 09 November 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Retinal repair, a matter of perception, The Sun and the history science, spicy spider bites, Himalayan earthquakes, and sleep and memory.
    • 02 November 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Rejuvenating resveratrol, retinoblastoma mutations, enforcing insect altruism, conservation strategies, E. coli's coat, cool quantum states, loose marsupials, and an Islamic science special.
    • 26 October 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Giant terror birds, the honeybee genome, Neuroscience 2006 conference, monitoring North Korea, connecting brains, and how biodiversity affects ecosystems.
    • 19 October 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Galactic rings of fire, methane worms and mud volcanoes, Darwin online, US mid-term elections, Iraq war death toll calculations, and the origin of the ground beneath our feet.
    • 12 October 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Extended interview (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The 'Great Oxidation', mammalian extinction patterns, Nobel and Ig Nobel Prize roundup, 'Tripoli Six' update, and vaccination strategies and the Ethiopian wolf.
    • 05 October 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Insect eyes, jupiter-sized exoplanets, a pub guide to zoology, string theory nonsense, eco-activists, climate change regulation, the sinking sea floor, and a quantum leap for teleportation.
    • 28 September 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Bacterial resurrection, tarantulas' silky feet, making stem cells, statistical shenanigans, climate change storm, solid Bose-Einstein condensation, evolutionary pathways, and science in Iran.
    • 21 September 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Hominid special: Lucy's baby, the roots of obesity, Libyan HIV case, the first 'PASER', Greenland's GRACE, fair skin signals, and sensing shadows.
    • 14 September 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      European Neanderthals, evidence against solar warming, vegetative consciousness, quantum cooling, early galactic development.
    • 7 September 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Cancer and unintelligent design, methane emissions, self-heating volcanoes, chiral-selective catalysts, fluid dynamics, and the story of Atlantis.
    • 31 August 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Male infertility, categorising visual information, SMART-1's last hurrah, size and the death of a star, gamma-ray bursts, and RNAi and indefinite inheritance.
    • 24 August 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html) | Clarification
      Ethically-acceptable stem cells, targeted bacterial secretion, radio magnetars, Science Foo and citizen science, superheavy elements, Earth's archaic oxygen, and Dictyostelium keeps it in the family.
    • 17 August 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Bird flu's structural secrets and silent spread, plants and methane, Florida seeks Californian brains, cryptic Martian spots explained, galactic evolution, rewriting the nitrogen cycle, and fast-evolving brain genes.
    • 10 August 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Aqua-rice, plants inherit parents' stress, AIDS drugs for Africa, the ethics of egg donation, cosmological conundrums of lithium, and objects at the edge of the Solar System.
    • 03 August 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Warmth-seeking bees, smart microlenses, atomic ecology, the age of whales, Poincaré unpickled, human pheromone receptors, leaf litter secrets, bird beak development, and when stars collide.
    • 27 July 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Hepatitis C targets, acid-loving bacteria, personal carbon credits, Nigeria's good fortune, stem cell votes, electric healing, facing a face, the weather on Titan, and median fins and limbs.
    • 20 July 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Untangling foodwebs, our Neanderthal heritage, lungfish dammed, military secrets, graphene hits the scene, the origin of the ocean floor, and paramutational phenomena.
    • 13 July 2006:Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Brain-computer interfaces, science and the battle of the sexes, human transmission of H5N1, science and religion, deep sea secrets, the unshelled mollusc, tropospheric radicals, and atomic tweasers.
    • 06 July 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Face recognition, koala retroviruses, a sneaky sociologist, top science blogs, big cat business, new nukes, the search for Earth-like planets, and silent earthquakes.
    • 28 June 2006 Stem cell special: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A one-off hour long edition of the Nature Podcast featuring debate, insight and interviews on the latest stem cell research.
    • 29 June 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Self-repairing brains, black holes, science on the summer solstice, ecosystem stability, choosing the right cleaner fish, the new germanium, and the problem with prions. diseases.
    • 22 June 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The origins of the thymus, genetic causes of deafness, the piezo electric effect, and the precarious San Andreas fault.
    • 15 June 2006:Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Climate and contrails, repulsive atoms, trials of Nature, science and soccer, making species, gamblers' choices, and a new kind of glass.
    • 08 June 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Earthquake aftershocks, planetary origins, controversy at CSIRO, Steller seal lions, signs of ancient life, and dwarf dinosaurs.
    • 01 June 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      The balmy Arctic, levee lessons, Hobbit origins, dangerous chemistry, Saturn's hot moon, secrets of REM sleep, and lab animal endings.
    • 25 May 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Undersea volcanoes, the outer structure of HIV, scientific misconduct in China, fusion reactor redesign, fossil recongnition, non-mendelian inheritance, and lobsters with the lurgy.
    • 18 May 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      A new antibiotic, human chromosomes completed, cheating bacteria, Neanderthal DNA, cash and climate change models, top-ranking physics, humans and chimps get close, cytoskeleton's role in repair, and a trio of exoplanets.
    • 11 May 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Eusocial slackers, seawater's secret, meteoric survival, Arctic data loss, US prepares for bird flu, Qatari science, the RNA pseudoknot, and the spin about Saturn.
    • 04 May 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      RNAi and cancer, migratory birds lost, debates over hurricanes and lethal injections, the state of UK chemistry, Pacific winds of change, and the molecular microchip sandwich.
    • 27 April 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Reacting to heart disease, Uranus on a tilt, making bird flu vaccines, constant constants, starlings on song, treerings in Pakistan, and the origins of gills and jaws.
    • 20 April 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Personalised medicine, snake evolution, the legacy of Chernobyl 20 years on, Antarctic lakes connected.
    • 13 April 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Yeast make antimalarials, bright future for new bulbs, bird flu in the UK, 'superagonist', spinal chord treatment controversy, a new optical microscope, and the origin of australopithecus.
    • 06 April 2006: Audio (mp3 file) | Text (html)
      Tiktaalik - the missing link, moondust and the solarwind, the island of Tuvalu, lost artifacts found, naked molerats, annamox bacteria, and parasites and their hosts' predators.
    • 30 March 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      The moonlets of Saturn's ring system, the Sim Universe, stem cells from sperm, Italian scientists' angst, who made Dolly and other issues of authorship, grey matter and IQ, and fighting cholesterol with RNAi.
    • 23 March 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      Adventures on half the Amazon, ancient bacteria, Africa's hydrodams, medical trial bioethics, the Big Bang, pin-pointing protective proteins, ion channels, and 2020 vision: the future of computing.
    • 16 March 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      The firefly light, the ultrasonic frog chorus, super-solid helium at the American Physics Society meeting, colour-coded bacteria, and the art and architecture of DNA.
    • 09 March 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      Poisonous frogs, Trypanosome tails, 'stepping' cells, the oldest star in the universe, Snuppy is a real clone, fusion controversy bubbles over, and US evangelists take on global warming politics.
    • 02 March 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      Asian earthquake and tsunami, early maize and agriculture, foot and mouth vaccination strategies, and animal rights versus scientific freedom.
      
    • 23 February 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      Malaria's cloaking device, Japan's lost eels and Royal genes, new moons for Pluto, deep sea wonders and womens' place in science.
    • 16 February 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      Cane toads in Australia, 3D mapping and Google earth, New species found, avian flu in Africa, CO2 and water levels, ionic liquids, brain responses to positive and negative stimuli.
    • 09 February 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      T-Rex's relatives, the rise of Tibet, Krakatoa's sea legacy, Jack the Dripper, planetary conundrums, mouldy metals and a tale of two fish.
    • 02 February 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      'Flyght' simulators, modelling malaria, catching cancer, Alma in the Andes, the Digital Universe, and Pluto's big brother.
    • 26 January 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      The primate police, bird flu mutates, flying snails, barcoding the island of Moorea, and money and human movements.
    • 19 January 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      Sea floors and asteroids, the nature of revenge, whiskey in the jar, let's ear it for evolution, Stardust, cosmic clouds, and no hope for 'scopes.
    • 12 January 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      Cosmic collisions, frogs feel the heat, why plants aren't so green, and ant school: the first example of animal teaching.
    • 05 January 2006: Audio (mp3 file)
      Internet mashups, Nature's Avian flu mashup, the size of the moon, the drive of the bee hive, and the origins of breasts.

• 2005

  • • 22 December 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      Christmas special: Why dancing and sex go hand-in-hand, how reindeer beat winter blues, pursuing the star of Bethlehem, wines that rock, and saving the spirit of tequila.
    • 15 December 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      Britannica vs. Wikipedia, origin of feathers, the earliest Europeans, life in the Louisiana wetlands, a resurgent Russian space programme and problems with Pokemon.
    • 08 December 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      Going to the dogs, single photons, quantum entanglements and nonsense mutations.
    • 01 December 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      Touch down on Titan, the giant water scorpion, Ebola virus hunters, stem-cell controversies, and chilling news on the Gulf Stream.
    • 24 November 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      Pharaoh ant highway codes, high temperature super conductors, body-snatching tunicates, the E. coli camera, mosquito bites, and touching base with the latest product from Google.
    • 17 November 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      fresh water and climate change, komodo dragons, typhoid Mary disease carriers, chaos and cryptography, and the latest from the intelligent design trials in the USA.
    • 10 November 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      a new biodiesel fuel, avoiding cosmic collisions, how insects measure day length, and the latest news from Nature
    • 02 November 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      malaria, photonics, volcanoes, algal nutrition, and flying through the eye of Hurricane Rita
    • 26 October 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      HapMap and human genetics, Saturn's rings, sharks, and the missives of Darwin and Einstein
    • 19 October 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      stem cells, semiconductors, the chimp genome and swimming rats
    • 12 October 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      satellites, comets, Hobbits and ancient noodles
    • 5 October 2005: Audio (mp3 file)
      Spanish and avian flu pandemics, earthquakes, gamma ray bursts and bees behaving badly