Special Editions

This month, we get materialistic to discover how X-rays are being used to improve light emitting diodes , how probing piezoelectric materials could provide a less toxic future and how solar cells are being made more efficient, using DNA! We also celebrate the launch of Diamond's annual report and bring…

5 Jul 2012 38 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: a look at how urban heat islands will alter under climate change, and how these changes might affect your health, as well as our railways, roads and energy supplies. Also: why Europe's oldest cave art might not have been painted by humans at…

4 Jul 2012 21 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how knowing exactly which bees pollinate which crops may help us grow food more sustainably; and a look at the effects of tiny particles called nanomaterials on the environment and our health.

19 Jun 2012 20 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: a look at how technology designed to measure air pollution may soon be used to smell disease on a patient's breath; and the steps British researchers are taking to put a value on all the benefits of nature that we often take for…

5 Jun 2012 19 min

This month, Professor John Duncan explores human intelligence and the neurons and circuits in the brain that enable us to have the thoughts, cognition and problem-solving abilities that set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom…

24 May 2012 19 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - scientists describe why the planet's least understood but most diverse species of coral is under threat. Also, what the meteorite strike that wiped the dinosaurs out would've been like; and why co2 isn't the only greenhouse gas we should be worried about.

23 May 2012 20 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: researchers explain why, despite record rainfall, England is in drought. Later, how scientists are using indoor avalanches to figure out where to put buildings and roads. Finally, news of ice loss in Antarctic, and the benefits of bat dung.

9 May 2012 20 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - we take a closer look at tiny marine plants, which underpin the entire marine food chain and play a vital role in the Earth's climate. Also, how scientists are using volcanic ash called tefra to tell how people may have responded to…

25 Apr 2012 18 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, how fungal infections could threaten our food security as well as the planet's amphibians; work under way to understand the ecosystems around the hydrothermal vents in the Southern Ocean; and how it's people, not buildings, that use energy.

15 Apr 2012 19 min

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.

11 Apr 2012 20 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, Richard Hollingham hears about new air-quality monitoring that could help mitigate the effects of bad-air days; the effect of climate change on Mediterranean dwarf elephants; and exactly how many litres of water it took to make his morning coffee.

27 Mar 2012 20 min

This month, we celebrate ten years of Diamond and discover what it takes to get from green field site to functioning synchrotron. We take a look at the wide range of science that's taken place from the probing of viruses to develop vaccines and the exploring of meteorites to understand…

24 Mar 2012 32 min

Cambridge Neuroscientists Dr Michael Hastings and Dr Akhilesh Reddy spoke at the annual Cambridge Neuroscience Seminar about their work on sleep.They discuss the importance of sleep for learning and memory, preventing cancer, the health of your heart, mopping up toxic waste in your body, winning that Olympic Gold medal and…

22 Mar 2012 12 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: Richard Hollingham finds out why the American signal crayfish is driving out one of the UK's native species; in our latest audio diary, Hannah Grist from the University of Aberdeen talks us through her research on European shags; and what noctilucent clouds tell…

14 Mar 2012 20 min

Marine biologist Dr Joshua Drew from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is using cutting edge communication technologies to bring the oceans alive in two very different parts of the planet. By connecting teenagers in Fiji and inner city Chicago, he's inspiring the next generation of marine scientists…

6 Mar 2012 15 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, Sue Nelson goes to the River Thames in central London to find out why nitrate pollution has trebled since the 1930s. Later on, she talks to a researcher about an unusual freshwater bulge in the Arctic, and asks if we should be concerned…

4 Mar 2012 20 min

What's your sense of direction like? And how good are you at reading a map? It turns out, these skills are down to two particular regions of the brain that keep track of where you are in relation to a destination and how longs it's going to take you get…

27 Feb 2012 10 min

Opening up Your Mind

This Month, Dr Hannah Critchlow opens up the mind to reveal the neurons controlling the inner workings of our brain and how we perceive the world around us…

20 Feb 2012 17 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: Sue Nelson visits RAL Space at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire to find out how scientists check if the scientific equipment they put on satellites will work properly once in space. Later she goes to Buckinghamshire to hear how simple changes to…

16 Feb 2012 21 min

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - Richard Hollingham goes to the River Wandle in south-west London to find out how scientific research is helping to revitalise this heavily-used river; later he goes to Cambridge to hear about some of the hottest conservation topics for 2012.

6 Feb 2012 20 min