Detection Dogs

Loading player...

Whilst Magic - a young golden retriever - may love chasing a stick, curling up on a rug and enjoying a biscuit as much as the next dog, he is certainly no ordinary dog. Trained by Milton Keynes based organisation Medical Detection Dogs, he can sniff out when his owner Claire Pesterfield, a sufferer of Type 1 diabetes, is about to suffer an attack that could lead to her losing consciousness. By alerting and getting assistance, this extraordinary dog helps Claire lead a more ordinary life.Amelia Perry spoke to Claire, at Addenbrooks Hosptial, where she is the Lead Children's Diabetes Nurse...

14 Oct 2014 English United Kingdom Science

Other recent episodes

Synthetic sustainable spuds

As the global population heads toward 10 billion, the pressure on agriculture is mounting. With that in mind, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has announced millions of pounds worth of funding for crops enhanced through synthetic biology by designing entirely new chromosomes and chloroplasts, starting with the…

9 Jul 5 min

Scientists say they've bent spacetime

"Warp speed, Mr Sulu." It's the kind of command we've only heard in science fiction - until now. Did a team of scientists just bend spacetime using nothing but sparks in a lab? That's right - not black holes, not neutron stars - electrical sparks. A new experiment claims to…

23 Jun 5 min

Finland's giant virus, and monkeys take care of their teeth

In the eLife podcast, a university compost heap has turned up Finland's first documented "giant virus". Also, why monkeys de-sand their supper, and how learning more languages actually makes brain tissue thinner. Then, the link between sugar and neonatal sepsis, and how a cancer controls its hydra host by bestowing…

19 Jun 38 min

Naked Scientists SOS

Cambridge University have informed us that, for cost cutting reasons, they intend to make Dr Chris Smith redundant. Naturally, this jeopardises the Naked Scientists programme, which is produced under his role. He will also lose his medical job. We regard this as a terrible decision and we intend to protest…

16 Jun 3 min

Insect extinctions, and AI shot in the arm for drug design

In episode 10 of the Cambridge Prisms Podcast, the shocking finding that as many as 2 invertebrate species are going extinct each week in Australia: what can be done? Also, the shot in the arm that AI is administering to the drug discovery industry, how do you measure the microplastic…

5 Jun 37 min

All episodes