Science Weekly
Alok Jha and the Guardian's science team bring you the best analysis and interviews from the worlds of science and technology.
Covid-19: how do you lift a lockdown?
Following the decision to end Wuhan’s lockdown this week, Hannah Devlin speaks to Dr Adam Kurcharski about the various aspects of lifting restrictive measures, including the importance of the timing and the role that testing could play. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
Covid-19: how are African countries coping?
Sarah Boseley speaks to Prof Trudie Lang about the outbreak on the continent and explores how a history of responding to Ebola and other public health emergencies could help. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
Covid-19: what if I'm immunocompromised?
Hannah Devlin speaks to Dr Jenna Macciochi about how our immune systems fight off infections such as coronavirus, and – as per lots of your questions – what happens if we’re immunocompromised. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
Covid-19: how does it affect pregnancy?
Sarah Boseley speaks to Prof Sonja Rasmussen about how the virus might affect mothers who are expecting and their unborn child. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
Covid-19: soap or hand sanitiser?
With scientists still racing to find treatments for Covid-19, Nicola Davis speaks with Prof Pall Thordarson about why soap is so effective at deactivating Sars-CoV-2 and how this differs from hand sanitiser. Importantly though, we hear why it’s not what you use but the way that you use it.. Help…
Covid-19: how do we test for it?
Hannah Devlin speaks with Prof David Smith about the various ways in which clinicians can test whether or not someone is infected with Sars-CoV-2. And, following the recent announcement that the UK government has bought millions of antibody tests, explores what these might be able to tell us. Help support…
Covid-19: can ibuprofen make an infection worse?
Nicola Davis speaks to Dr Ian Bailey about the current guidance on taking ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs during a Sars-CoV-2 infection. And, why there was concern about whether these medications could make symptoms of the disease worse. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
Covid-19: how long can it survive outside the body?
Sarah Boseley speaks to Prof Deenan Pillay about how the virus contaminates surfaces and why headlines about how long it can survive may be misleading. And, following a number of listener questions, we find out whether or not Sars-CoV-2 can survive in a swimming pool. Help support our independent journalism…
Covid-19: how effective is social distancing?
Ian Sample speaks to Prof Deirdre Hollingsworth about social distancing. What is it? How might it help to flatten the curve? And what are some of the big unknowns when it comes to predicting how effective it might be?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
Covid-19: why are there different fatality rates?
Hannah Devlin speaks to Prof Paul Hunter about fatality rates; why different figures are being quoted across the media; how the rates are calculated; and is the fatality rate the only useful number to look at?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod
A quest for meaning: Brian Greene on time and the cosmos - Science Weekly podcast
Investigating mind-bending concepts from string theory to quantum gravity has taken physicist Brian Greene on a journey through the universe and towards its ultimate demise. In his new book, Until the End of Time, Greene explores this cosmic impermanence and how we can still find meaning and purpose in human…
Covid-19: what happens once someone is infected? Science Weekly Extra
Following our first Covid-19 episode last week, we received an incredible response, with so many interesting new areas to explore. One of those was what exactly happens once someone is infected with this new virus. As Nicola Davis find outs, whilst scientists are still racing to figure the exact details…
The Gene Gap: can we trust science to police itself? – Science Weekly podcast
This week on the podcast, we’re bringing you the third and final episode from our Common Threads series, this time about trust in science. In particular, we ask how past controversies have led many to question gene editing, science and medicine, and if by focusing on the past, we can…
Covid-19: where in the body does it infect us? – Science Weekly Extra
As the coronavirus, or Covid-19, outbreak continues to unfold, many of us have been left with questions about exactly what we do and don’t know. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing extra episodes of Science Weekly exploring some of those questions with experts on the frontline. In today’s…
The Gene Gap: who decides what happens next? – Science Weekly podcast
Gene-editing technologies have the power to change life as we know it. This week on the podcast, we’re bringing you another episode from our Common Threads series, this time about power. Who has the authority to speak for our species and to make decisions? Are we well informed, and who…
The Gene Gap: what makes us human? - Science Weekly podcast
Gene-editing technologies have the power to change life as we know it. This week on the podcast, we’re bringing you the first episode from our Common Threads series, part of an innovative new Guardian project called The Gene Gap. We’ll be talking about science but without the scientists – instead…
Exploring the start of the universe - Science Weekly podcast
What happened at the dawn of the universe, just trillionths of a second after the start of the big bang, remains a mystery. Revisiting these moments in his new book, At the Edge of Time, Dan Hooper explores many of the unknowns in cosmology. Hooper guides Ian Sample through the…
Ancient archaea: how life on Earth began - Science Weekly podcast
Around 3.5bn years ago the first forms of life emerged: bacteria and archaea. These so-called prokaryotes had the Earth to themselves for a very, very long time. Then, for some mysterious reason, another new microbial kingdom formed. Eukaryotic cells came into being and complex life began. But how and why…
The Wuhan outbreak: Science Weekly podcast
A new virus, never before seen in humans, has emerged from the city of Wuhan in China. Since the start of the outbreak, the virus has spread to more than seven countries and more than 500 people have been infected. Hannah Devlin speaks to Ian Jones, professor of virology at…
Psychology in an emergency: Science Weekly podcast
As the bushfires continue to rage across Australia, thousands of people have ended up face to face with the emergency. It’s hard to imagine how you would behave in a disaster like this. Would you panic? Or act quickly and be organised? More than 50 years of psychological and sociological…