Special Editions
Probing the weird, wacky and spectacular, the Naked Scientists Special Editions are special one-off scientific reports, investigations and interviews on cutting-edge topics by the Naked Scientists team.
12.11.15
Fiction and Science collide this month as we discover the stories lurking beneath the surface of the synchrotron. We open up the books to investigate a disease outbreak on the grounds of Diamond and experience the onset of dementia first hand through some of the winning entries from Diamond's Light…
12.10.30
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how conservationists are using science to help protect rare plants found only in Bristol's Avon Gorge, and are feminised fish changing wild fish populations?
12.10.19
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: why salt marshes are so important, but are difficult to recreate; how storms are made; and why the ground beneath our feet could provide decades of natural heating.
12.10.13
Sir John Gurdon, from Cambridge University, talks to Chris Smith about the set of experiments that resulted in the award on the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.
12.10.03
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: the steps scientists are taking to make sure the trees we plant today can cope with tomorrow's warmer climate; tracking gannets to find out how environmental change might affect them; and a tropical Antarctica.
12.09.18
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: why accurately forecasting solar storms is becoming increasingly important; and how understanding how fish shoal could interest economists.
12.09.10
This month, discover how seeing red can help restore works of art and probe the origins of cancer. We delve into the world of Infra-red spectroscopy to reveal the creation and preservation of ancient pieces of art and the building techniques of ancient civilizations. We also search for cellular fingerprints…
12.09.07
In the final of our special series of programmes from the British Science Festival, we find out how researchers will be drilling through over 3 kilometres of ice to find out what's hiding in subglacial Lake Ellsworth. Plus, how a high fat diet may alter the brain…
12.09.06
In this special edition of the Naked Scientists from the British Science Festival, we get the latest news from the Large Hadron Collider, including their scientific shopping list, and find out how heat pumps could extract household heating from abandoned mines…
12.09.05
In the second special programme from the British Science Festival in Aberdeen, we discover the technology for seeing through your clothes and find out why "Lonely heart" teenage water voles can save whole populations. Plus, we discover why NASA is returning to the Van Allen Belt, and explore the diet…
12.09.04
With 40% of adults in the UK now using smartphones, and similar figures worldwide, we discover how easy it is to track and profile peoples' movements using information given away in public by their mobile phones. We learn how hackers can use your phone's wifi connections to track where you…
12.09.04
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: what the first creatures to walk on land looked like; the connection between the biodiversity of upland rivers and the ecosystem services they provide; and in an audio diary from Turkey, a University of Leeds researcher on the North Anatolian Fault.
12.09.04
In this, the first of a series of special podcasts from the British Science Festival, we discover the Wang Particle, find out how technology can help people stay more able until later in life, and how fossils are revealing their true colours…
12.09.01
Satellites are essential, and not just for the latest television. Nation states rely on satellites for reconnaissance, navigation and secure communications. But satellites are under threat, from natural phenomenon like Space Weather events through to nefarious attacks from cyber criminals. We visit the UK's Defence Science Technology Laboratory to find…
12.08.16
Hydrogen could be a key clean fuel of the future, powering cars, planes and technology. The challenge facing us before we can switch to this energy-dense fuel has been to produce it cleanly and efficiently. Now a team at the University of Birmingham have developed a way of harnessing the…
12.08.14
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: sex and the survival of honey bee colonies; why rivers are still recovering from the legacy of acid rain; and collecting coral from the Atlantic seabed.
12.08.06
NASA's David Blake from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover team and the Open University's Cassini-Huygens space probe pioneer John Zarnecki answer your questions about planetary exploration. This special podcast is an addendum to the August 5th 2012 episode of the Naked Scientists Podcast and contains extra material not…
12.07.31
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how dairy farming in Africa 7000 years ago led to the speedy evolution of the gene that lets us digest milk; and how climate change could be having a detrimental effect on seabirds and fish in the Southern Ocean.
12.07.30
Whether you're watching a YouTube video, downloading an email, buying a birthday present or linking up with friends online, you're sending data across the Internet. But how does "the web" actually work, and what lies behind it? Here, in this Naked Science Scrapbook episode supported by 4D Data Centres, all…
12.07.18
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how browner drinking water presents problems for the water companies; the effect of street lighting on bats and their commuter routes; and how ultraviolet light makes plants emit methane.