
5 Live Science Podcast
5 Live's science podcast, featuring Dr Chris and Naked Scientists with the hottest science news stories and analysis.
Latest episodes

Feb 5, 2023 • 53min
Transplanted brains, sugar taxes and satellites
Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientist team present the latest science news, analysis and breakthroughs.This week: Human brain tissue transplants wire themselves into rat brains, signs sugar taxes cut obesity, and the science of satellites, including the company planning to forge new metals in orbit.

Jan 29, 2023 • 53min
Can a chatbot be a good broadcaster?
Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientist team present the latest science news, analysis and breakthroughs.In today’s programme: is paying people to switch off their electricity the right strategy? We hear about bacteria that can eat ocean plastic. And find out more about the spiders that can grow back their limbs!Plus we find out if an AI chatbot is any good as a broadcaster.

Jan 22, 2023 • 51min
History of Booze
Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientist team present the latest science news, analysis and breakthroughs.In this week's programme: How hair follicles might hold the key to reversing scars, but not just in skin: in hearts and other organs too; scientists crack how to grow new brain cells in the laboratory dish; and what a mutant from millions of years ago is revealing about how ancient animals mated.As many of us are taking part in Dry January, we look at the history of booze.

Jan 15, 2023 • 51min
All aboard 'Boaty McBoatface'
Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientist team present the latest science news, analysis and breakthroughs. This week we discover a breakthrough in treating type 2 diabetes, and find out why the Virgin Orbital launch failed earlier this weekPlus, we look at microplastics and the oceans at large as we go aboard the ocean research vessel the RRS Sir David Attenborough, which could have originally been named 'Boaty McBoatface', as they prepare to set sail for the Antarctic. And we discover how the Boaty McBoatface name lives on through one of the research submarines that is deployed on board the ship.

Jan 8, 2023 • 51min
New Year's Q&A
Dr Chris Smith and a panel of experts answer your science questions for the New Year, including: how starts burn for millions of years? How do you create a nation of mathematicians? And how can misinformation change the shapes of our brains?

Jan 1, 2023 • 52min
The Best Of 5 Live Science 2022
This week, we bring you the best of 5 Live Science from the year just gone, including the James Webb Space Telescope, clocks so accurate they can tell the time difference between your head and your feet, and science proves that teenagers tune out to their parents' voices!

Dec 18, 2022 • 51min
The Science of Magnetism
Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientist team present the latest science news, analysis and breakthroughs.In today’s programme: A breakthrough in nuclear fusion: what’s happened and what does this mean in practical terms? A new way to stop your glasses fogging up during this cold snap. Plus why are scientists so attracted to the topic of magnetism?

Dec 11, 2022 • 51min
8 billion people and counting
Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientist team present the latest science news, analysis and breakthroughs.In today’s programme: The old liver drug that turns out also to be able to prevent Covid-19 infection and the Artificial Intelligence systems that pass the Turing Test and can write their own computer programs. Plus, the 8 billionth person was born last month, so we ask - how many people can the planet really support?

Dec 4, 2022 • 52min
5 live Science
Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientists with the latest science news and analysis.

Nov 27, 2022 • 51min
Putting tuberculosis under the microscope
James Tytko, Dr Chris Smith and the Naked Scientist team present the latest science news, analysis and breakthroughs.This week: A new rapid way to tell heart failure from a chest infection - just with a sample of breath. How the perseverance rover is getting on looking for life on Mars. And the imperceptible sounds in music that make people want to dance.Plus... we’re putting TB - tuberculosis - under the microscope to hear why as many as one person in 3 are still being infected by a disease that’s been with us for thousands of years.
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