BBC Inside Science

Researchers from London’s Francis Crick Institute have found a type of artificial sweetener is able to dampen down immune system responses - at least in mice. Karen Vousden and Fabio Zani tell us about the implications. And Ronan McCarthy from Brunel University has found a range of different artificial sweeteners have antibacterial properties. We discuss the connections between these two areas of research and the prospect of developing drug treatments from artificial sweeteners. Penny Johnes from Bristol University discusses the use of phosphorus in agriculture, it’s a key component of fertilisers, but global supplies may run out in a few years, despite this overuse of phosphorus in agriculture is also creating problems. And Chat GPT has had a makeover, a new version of the chatbot was rolled out this week. Chatbots seem to be getting a lot of press at the moment, but are they really something we will all be using in the future? Technologist and composer LJ Rich who works with the UN on artificial intelligence gives us her analysis.BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University.

The government has launched a new 10-point plan designed, it said to “cement the UK’s place as a global science and technology superpower”. We speak with Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, for his take on the government's plan and the findings of his own review of the UK’s research landscape. In 1963, in a now famous speech at the Labour Party conference in Scarborough, Labour leader and soon to be Prime Minister Harold Wilson promised a new Britain would be forged in the “white heat" of a "scientific revolution". Nick Thomas Symonds, Labour MP and political biographer, discusses how that idea was put into action. Scientists in Bristol have published a detailed "future flood map" of Britain - simulating the impacts of flooding as climate change takes its toll. Paul Bates from Bristol University explains how the new flood risk maps give a level of detail that could help people to plan and adapt. Vic Gill visits the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, a place that’s suffered repeated flooding in recent years, where the community is taking matters into its own hands. New fossil findings from China have led scientists to re-evaluate their classification of tiny tentacled sea creatures from half a billion years ago and declare that they are in fact seaweeds says Martin Smith, a paleobiologist from The University of Durham. And this re-classification isn't unusual, fossils are constantly re-examined in light of new evidence and insights. Susie Maidment a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum takes us through some of her favourite contentious fossils. Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Julian Siddle and Emily Bird BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with the Open University

Science writer Philip Ball has followed the relationship between government and its scientific advisors throughout the pandemic. He discusses the role of scientific advisors in the light of conflicting information following the leak of a number of former Health Minister Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages. Phil tells us why he believes greater transpearency is needed around the advice offered to government. The head of the US FBI has suggested the Covid 19 pandemic may have been started through a leak from a laboratory. No evidence has been offered. The ‘lab leak ‘ theory is the counter idea to Covid having a natural origin. We hear from three scientists who have been to China to investigate different aspects of the virus origins story.Journalist and microbiologist Jane Qui visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology – the lab at the centre of the lab leak theory.Marion Koopmans from Erasmus University in Rotterdam was a member of the WHO mission to China to investigate the origins of Covid 19.And Eddie Holmes from the University of Sydney visited the market in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.Besides inflating party balloons helium gas has a vast range of industrial uses, particularly as a coolant. There’s a world shortage, and helium is only extracted with fossil fuels such as coal and methane gas. Earth scientist Anran Cheng at the University of Oxford has developed a method to look for helium deposits without the fossil fuel connection.And ever wondered how heavy all the animals in the world might be ? We have the answer thanks to Ron Milo and Lior Greenspoon from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.BBC Inside Science is produced in partnership with the Open University. Presenter: Victoria Gill Producer: Julian Siddle

Sea ice coverage hit a recording-breaking low in the Antarctic this week, but what does this mean for the rest of the world? Why is the region so difficult to predict? And what could further changes in climate mean for the South Pole? Often the Arctic dominates conversations around polar warming but this week, with the help of climate modelling expert Tamsin Edwards, Kings College London, we’ll be tackling these questions and more. We’ll hear from British Antarctic Survey researcher Nadia Frontier, a marine biologist spending the summer at Rothera research base in the Antarctic. We join her as she traverses snow and ice to study the inhabitants of Adelaide island and the surrounding waters. Rachel Tilling from the Cryospheric Sciences Lab at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center helps us explore the continent from a different vantage point, explaining her work using satellite data to understand sea ice thickness. And climate reporter Georgina Rannard takes us through an artistic interpretation of polar sounds, Dr Geraint Rhys Whittaker uses underwater microphones to capture the impact of human activity on polar wildlife. Presenter: Victoria Gill Producers: Julian Siddle and Emily Bird BBC Inside Science is produced in collaboration with The Open University.

Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui caused international outrage when in 2018 when he used the gene-editing tool known as CRISPR Cas-9 to edit the genomes of two human embryos. That experiment, described by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology described as ‘abominable’, resulted in the birth of twin girls. The experiment also landed Dr He in prison for three years. Now, out of prison and working for a company in Beijing that proclaims to offer “affordable gene therapy” – He Jiankui has been speaking in public. At an open bioethics event at the University of Kent last weekend, organisers invited the scientist to present his research and to face questions about his past experiments and his future plans. We spoke to event organiser Dr Joy Zhang about the reaction to event and to Professor Robin Lovell-Badge at the Crick Institute about the implications of CRISPR-CAS9 technology. A Hippo butchery site reveals that distant human ancestors have been using stone tools far longer than researchers previously thought. This archaeological site in Kenya revealed that ancient hominins Paranthropus have probably been using stone tools to prepare food and weapons since 2.9 million years ago. Professor Tom Plummer at Queens College, City University of New York take us through the discovery and what it reveals about hominin evolution. A study released this week reveals just how much of a burden sons are on killer whale mothers. Michael Wiess, research director at the centre for whale research, fills us in on their findings which are a product of nearly 40 years studying the southern resident Orca population. This long-term Whale census project began in the 70s, championed by researcher Ken Balcomb, who was passionate about understanding and protecting killer whales and who sadly passed away late last year. We hear from Ken and his team out on the water studying the southern residents, more of which can be found in BBC Radio 4 documentary The Whale Menopause. Presenter: Victoria Gill Producer: Emily Bird BBC Inside Science is made in collaboration with the Open University

This week’s programme is a thought experiment: What would the world be like if energy became superabundant and very cheap?Energy is vital for every aspect of our society, and the energy cost of extraction, processing, manufacture and transport is priced into every product we buy. Today’s energy crisis is having a huge impact, from affecting diplomatic relations between nations to the availability of food. How can our energy systems evolve and what could cheap abundant energy mean for us, our relationship to the natural world, and each other?We discuss these issues and more with;Rachel Kyte CMG, Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, who has previously worked for the UN on sustainability issues.Jim Watson, Professor of Energy Policy at UCL. He’s advised government on the low carbon energy transition.And Dr Hannah Richie, Head of Research at Our World in Data, based at Oxford University, who looks at food, agriculture and energy in relation to global development trends. BBC Inside Science is produced in partnership with the Open University.

Defra, the department for Environment, food and Rural affairs, released its latest Environmental Improvement plan this week. Many environmental groups have criticised the plan for having vague commitments, and landowners are asking where the money is going to come from if say farmers are going to move land out of production and into conservation. For a view away from these vested interests we’ve turned to the Office of Environmental protection – the body set up after Britain left the EU to scrutinise government environmental policy. Chief Executive Dame Glenys Stacey, and Chief Insights Officer, Professor Robbie McDonald. Last week the UK passed an emergency exemption allowing sugar beet farmers to use a controversial neonicotinoid pesticide called Thiamethoxam. This is the third year in a row that the exemption has been in place and the decision came just days after the EU banned such exemptions across Europe. A discussion in parliament yesterday saw MPs criticise the move due to the impacts of neonicotinoids on already crashing Bees populations. We spoke to Dr Richard Gill at Imperial College London about exactly how these insecticides impact bees. There are volcanic islands dotted across the globe but exactly what caused their formation and how might they change in the future? Professor Ana Ferreira at University College London is a seismologist leading an ambitious study to measure deep vibrations and disturbances around volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean. She told us about the challenges of recording from the ocean floor and the other unexpected disturbances they detected. As humans our eyes are one of our most valuable and expressive social tools. The whites of our eyes or sclera enable us to follow each others gaze and look our for minute changes in mood, a feature that until recently was thought to be unique to humans setting us apart from animals in our ability to communicate. But Anthropologist Aaron Sandel at The University of Texas in Austin has noticed that white sclera is in fact present in one of our closest relatives; the chimpanzee.Presenter: Gaia Vince Producers: Julian Siddle and Emily Bird Inside Science is produced in Collaboration with the Open University

What if all schools offered only plant-based options for 3 out of 5 lunches a week? Would that be enough to trigger a broader societal shift to eating less meat, and allow us to meet our sustainability commitments?We’re not talking about making school dinners entirely vegetarian — just 3 lunches a week.We discuss the benefits and practicalities of such a shift with :Tim Lenton, Professor of Climate change at the University of Exeter.Economist Marco Springmann Senior Researcher, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, University of Oxford.Nutritionist Collete Fox from Proveg international an organisation working directly with schools in the UK to encourage the provision of healthier school meals. And Henry Dimbleby founder of the Leon fast food chain is now an advisor to government, responsible for drawing up national rules on school dinners.We also visit Barrowford primary in Lancashire, which has successfully rolled out more vegetarian school dinners.BBC Inside Science is produced is partnership with the Open University.

Former Energy Minister Chris Skidmore’s report into Net Zero calls for ambitious policies to drive energy transition, framing it as a huge economic opportunity to drive national growth.Using and conserving energy in the home is one theme the report tackles. We discuss home insulation with Colm Britchfield , policy advisor at E3G. His recent report found those in some of the worst housing , in the private rented sector could save hundreds of pounds a year if their homes were properly insulated. But what is the incentive for landlords to pay for insulation?Electric heat pumps have been heralded as an alternative to gas boilers, but they are currently more expensive and finding an installer is not easy. Rebecca Dibb-Simkin from Octopus Energy tells us how they are working to make the technology more available.And what is the role of local authorities in the strive for net zero? We hear from Polly Billington, chief executive of UK 100 – a network of local government leaders committed to sustainability policies.How do you catch a poacher? One way might be through their own mobile phone. Another is using a camera trap which sends a signal to game wardens. These are technologies developed by Tim Van Deursen and Thijs Suijten from Hack the Poacher.And we look at new findings on one of Australia’s Iconic species – Echidnas. Dr Christine Cooper at Cutin University in Western Australia, found this marsupial is actually remarkably heat tolerant, and capable of handling temperatures which were previously thought to be lethal.BBC Inside Science is produced in partnership with the Open University.

ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an online conversational chatbot, launched by OpenAI in November 2022. To date it remains an online sensation, allowing users to generate poems, essays, code and images in seconds. But fear bubbles in academic circles that artificial intelligence could promote plagiarism in secondary and tertiary education. Technology writer and broadcaster Bill Thompson, and teacher of 20 years digital philosopher Rebecca Mace from University of West London suggest the news headlines may be sensationalising the impact this chatbot will have on student learning. The 1922 backbench committee on business, energy and industrial strategy is recommending free electricity for locals residing within 1 mile of onshore wind farms. Richard Black, senior associate at Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, joins Marnie to discuss whether or not there is evidence of residents requiring incentives to accept renewable developments whilst governments strive to increase the implementation of green technologies.Do you tap your toes to Paul Simon or rock out to Led Zeppelin? Even if you have two left feet, your ability to recognise rhythm is unique in the animal kingdom. To help determine the human origins of musical appreciation, Teresa Raimondi and her team at Turin University, have been researching primates. Their singing lar gibbon, appears to share similar traits to us that might shed light on where our ability to keep the beat evolved from. And finally, figures from the water regulator suggest that in England and Wales 1 trillion litres of water was lost last year to leaks. BBC Inside Science presenter, Vic Gill, goes in search of what might be a robotic solution. This programme was made in partnership with the Open University.