The Naked Scientists Podcast

It's that time of the year where we traditionally make - and usually break - resolutions to eat less, drink less, lose weight, give up meat and take up exercise during the year ahead. And in the decade since 2013, thousands of people have also been signing up for "Dry January". Last year 130,000 people in the UK elected to stop drinking alcohol for a month. So we thought this week we'd look at our long term love affair with the bottle, from how the practice of brewing began back in history, to the health harms and benefits of drinking today, and how scientists are now working on synthetic... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The artificial pancreas to turnaround diabetes control, what went wrong with the UK's first space launch, and the Cambridge-born process that can turn CO2 and waste plastic into fuels and valuable chemical raw materials... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How stars burn for billions of years. Can Rishi Sunak turn us into a nation of mathematicians? And how misinformation changes the shape of our brains. Plus, there'll be our customary quiz at half time... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

We're looking back at 2022, a remarkable year for many reasons. Whilst it is easy to be consumed by stories of conflict, climate catastrophe, and disease outbreaks, it is still important to remember that this year has been another in stellar scientific breakthroughs, a fair few of which may well help us combat the aforementioned challenges. We hope to bring you some of the weird and wonderful discoveries that were made throughout the scientific community over the past 12 months. Everything from the James Webb telescope, to James Tytko falling into a river. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

We're taking a look at our planet's oceans, and seeing how and where the important work into studying our seas takes place, as well as finding out how the data collected by marine expeditions translates to research that informs our climate and conservation efforts. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A landmark achievement: nuclear fusion experiments produce a net energy output - so what does this mean in practical terms. Also, glasses that soak up infrared to auto-demist. And how magnets are helping to solve a pollution problem on the London Underground... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week we've found ourselves attracted by the topic of magnetism; it's what makes it possible to generate and distribute electricity to our homes, or send messages and radio broadcasts over the airwaves; it underpins our ability to see inside the body with technologies like MRI scanners, and thanks to the fact that there's a massive magnetic field surrounding our planet, much of the radiation onslaught from space that would otherwise hit us is fended off, keeping the Earth habitable. That planetary magnetic field also provides us and animals with a way to navigate, and there are even... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In the news, the old liver drug that turns out to be able to prevent Covid-19 infection, the artificial intelligence systems that pass the Turing test and can write their own computer programmes, and what bats and heavy metal singers have in common. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Last month, we were told, the 8 billionth person was added to Earth's human population. But despite many acknowledging that some of the biggest threats facing us and the planet, like climate change - stem from our impact on world, and the more of us there are, the worse those threats will be, the topic of population is mysteriously absent from the dialogue at major international fora, like the recent COP27 meeting in Egypt. Surely "living sustainably" must include, as David Attenborough puts it, not over-running the planet and destroying it in the process?So how many people can, or should the... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A new Alzheimer's drug shows some promise in trials, but are the risks from side effects worth it? A new contraceptive inspired by Roman history and shellfish... And the surprising discovery about ants that scientists missed for over a century... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists