Futureproof with Jonathan McCrea

You might think becoming eternally young isn’t possible but scientists from Cornell University, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, and Cancer Research UK, are actively exploring how to reverse the ageing process. Dr. Meng Wang, Clinician Scientist in Haematology at Cornell University joins Jonathan to discuss.

In the depths of the ground in Finland, high-level radioactive nuclear waste will be buried in the world’s first such permanent storage facility of this kind. So, what does this process look like and will other countries in Europe soon be following suit? Joining Jonathan is journalist Erika Benke who has been writing about this for the BBC.

Have you ever wondered about what goes into making a spacesuit? Amy Ross has been with NASA for 30 years, and is a spacesuit engineer specialising in pressure garments. She joins Jonathan to discuss her work. This week’s Newsround with Dr Lara Dungan and Dr Ruth Freeman features a vaccine showing promise against the virus linked to multiple sclerosis; a massive sun 'umbrella' could be tethered to an asteroid to shield Earth from the sun and fight global warming; walking fewer than 10,000 daily steps still reduces the risk of death; and babies' and adults' love for Van Gogh shows a connection between early sensory preferences and later aesthetic judgments.

The science behind suncream is really surprising, as explored by writer Grace Browne in her recent piece in Wired. She joins Jonathan to shed light on something most people haven't thought of.

Black holes - cosmic enigmas with immense gravitational forces - have long perplexed scientists. At Nottingham University's Black Hole Laboratory, Prof. Silke Weinfurtner pioneers an unconventional method using a hi-tech bathtub and superfluid helium as analogues to explore black hole behaviours. How might these analogues provide us with new insights into the mysteries of black holes and the fundamental laws of physics? Prof. Weinfurtner joins Jonathan to discuss her innovative research.

The way we sleep has dramatically changed in recent years. Our alarm clock used to be the only piece of tech we associated with sleep, but we now have apps that track our sleep, evaluate its quality, and how much more or less we may need on a day-to-day basis. But how do all of these advances in sleep-orientated actually technology affect us? Katie Coveney is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Loughborough University in the UK & a medical sociologist with expertise in social and ethical aspects of medicine and health care. Catherine has just co-authored 'Technosleep: Frontiers, Fictions, Futures', a book that examines the relationship between sleep and technology. She joins Jonathan to discuss.

Did you know your gut might be able to tell you about the strength of your relationships? A recent study from Arizona State University shows that the strength of a couple’s emotional connection is correlated with the diversity of their individual microbiome. Joining Jonathan to discuss their findings is Rosy Krajmalnik-Brown, Director of the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes and a Professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering and The Built Environment at Arizona State University & Shelby Langer, Associate Professor at the ASU’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation and a member of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Also joining Jonathan for this week's Newsround is Dr. Shane Bergin, Assistant Professor in Science Education at University College & Dr. Ruth Freeman from Science Foundation Ireland.

Dr. Kit Yates, senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and co-director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology at the University of Bath, joins Jonathan to teach him ‘How To Expect The Unexpected: The Science of Making Predictions and the Art of Knowing When Not To’.

With the advancement of artificial intelligence, deepfakes are becoming easier and cheaper to produce and as a result, scientists are testing the potential benefits and risks of incorporating them into your movie-going experience. Joining Jonathan to discuss is Dr Gillian Murphy, a lecturer in Cognitive Psychology at the School of Applied Psychology in University College Cork, who supervises projects on memory distortion, fake news, deepfake technology, critical thinking, conspiracy theories, and the ethics of deception in research.

Weapons of the Future We can see it in our newsfeeds every single day, as war rages on the eastern frontiers of Europe - so too are the changing dynamics evident in the way war is conducted in the 21st century. But as tactics and strategies continue to evolve, so too do the technologies that underpin the armed forces of nations the world over. So, when it comes to the weapons of the future, what can we expect exactly? Jonathan is joined by military technology journalist, Kelsey D. Atherton. The Fibonacci Sequence They’re found so commonly in the natural world, such a precise mathematical pattern. From pine cones to ferns unfolding, hurricanes, many other natural phenomenon. Essentially it’s still an ongoing question about why they are so common. Jonathan talks to someone who is trying to get to the bottom of this natural phenomenon, Dr Sandy Hetherington, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, University of Edinburgh. Cryo Conservation It’s a sad truth that the number of species on this planet is diminishing every day, mostly due to human activity. In order to save what we have and even one day restore species back from the edge of extinction, we need to save as many samples of living animals as we can. Joining Jonathan to talk about cryo conservation and its importance in science is Dr Andrew Mooney who is with Dublin Zoo and the Department of Zoology at Trinity College Dublin.