The Naked Scientists Podcast

This week, the latest from the UK's National Astronomy Meeting in St Andrews Scotland including what will be the last organism living on Earth when the end-of-life Sun swells, why space science projects are getting larger, and the amateur astronomer who uncovers supernovae. In the news, a replacement liver grown from stem cells, the bacterial fingerprint in your intestines, nuclear bombs help with forensics and the threat posed by H7N9. Plus, would you explode in space? We do the experiment to find out... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Miniature lungs, breasts and other organs are being grown in dishes so scientists can study how they form, why they succumb to disease and how toxins, drugs and poisons affect them. Organ models like these are rapidly replacing animals for many lab experiments. But are the days of the petri dish also numbered, as computer models, like the virtual physiological human, become more powerful. We talk to scientists using and developing all three. Plus, a new coating stops joint replacements loosening, magnetic therapy for strokes, and plants do long division... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Fungi go under the microscope this week as we explore how they barter minerals and carry chemical messages in return for sugars from plants; we also hear from someone who nearly died after consuming a deadly fungus, find out why fungi make the toxins they do, and hear how these organisms might hold the key to the next generation of packaging and building materials - and even surfboards! Plus, news of a light-powered retinal implant to restore sight, whether alcohol is dangerous in pregnancy, and why aspirin prevents cancers... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How can an ascent to the top of Everest help to save lives in intensive care? This week we're exploring physiology at the extremes: altitude, depth and cold. How does the human body adapt and cope under these conditions? Also, news of improved gene therapy techniques for sight-loss disorders, when do babies become sympathetic, how to cloak your cat (or goldfish), and have scientists discovered the remains of the Tunguska meteorite that smashed into Siberia in 1908? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The science of satellite navigation and how it can be fooled or "spoofed", a new system to pinpoint a person within a building to within a metre, and how GPS signals can probe and track volcanic dust clouds. Plus, news of what nuclear bomb tests have revealed about the brain, why volcanoes might cause Parkinsonism, HPV and oral cancer and why we comfort-eat high fat foods when we get depressed... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The next generation of LEDs, how LED lighting affects health, a new way to fight flu, treating schizophrenia with avatars and bringing 400-year-old frozen plants back to life. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, how plants keep track of time, how scientists are breeding cereal crops with ancient varieties to boost diversity and yields, how insects carry viruses between plants, and the chemical in smoke that triggers fire-dependent plants to germinate. Plus, printing new body parts, the workings of tornadoes and the bug behind potato blight... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How are weather forecasts made? Are they accurate, and if not why not? And how do we know when extreme weather is on the way? Also, what about on other planets and moons? To find out, we talk to the teams who study weather and climate patterns, both on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system. Plus, scientists discover the world's oldest water, signs that selfishness kickstarted agriculture, and why butterflies with more melanin fly further... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Under the microscope this week, where new flu viruses including influenza H7N9 come from, the threat from extensively resistant tuberculosis and how doctors keep tabs on how bugs are spreading and who they are infecting... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The conservation and restoration of great art once relied on only a good eye and talent with a paintbrush. Now though, scientists and art conservationists are working together to develop new techniques to preserve our cultural heritage. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists