The Naked Scientists Podcast

Would you set sail with a robotic skipper? This week, the World Robotic Sailing Championships grace the waters of Cardiff Bay, and we meet the teams to find out how this could lead to a sea change in robot science. Plus, we find out how robots are coming out of the factory and into the home, to care for the elderly and help children learn. In the news, stem cells restore hearing to deaf gerbils, facebook alters voting behaviour, and why a blue berry is the brightest thing in nature... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Will we find life in a lake trapped under 3 kilometres of ice? How can living above an abandoned mine cut your heating bills? What is the future for diet foods? This week, we bring you the best from the British Science Festival in Aberdeen. We also discuss the Higgs and antimatter, how plastics are affecting our health and how to recreate the colours of fossilised insects... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How is data sent safely online, and how can we keep prying eyes away? This week we investigate the basis of cybersecurity, ask if chip and pin is safe and talk to a team of hackers who attempt to penetrate websites legitimately. We also reveal the dangers of wifi as we find out what your mobile phone is revealing about you. Plus the genetic basis of movement, a new form of flexible battery and, in our Question of the Week, how one telephone line can have multiple uses! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How nerve cells make decisions, how genes control behaviour, using light to interrogate neuronal circuits, anxiety attacks, deep brain stimulation to bust addiction, how the immune system can cause psychosis, the genetics of behavioural problems and hallucinogenic flashbacks: fact, or a mind playing tricks on you? This week we launch Naked Neuroscience, a new monthly podcast to open your mind... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Is hydrogen the fuel of our future? As fossil fuel reserves run out, this week we ask whether hydrogen can fill the energy void? We look at work to harness bacteria to transform everyday waste into biohydrogen, hear how scientists are planning to store this gas safely, take to the road in a hydrogen-powered car and investigate the workings of the fuel cells that run them... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

What happens if you're exposed to the vacuum of space? Is using a mobile phone on a flight safe? Which is more contagious - a cough or a sneeze? This week we answer your sticky science questions, such as what makes Jam set? And how does ironing work? Plus, we meet the very first lumberjacks, locate the dark matter in our locality and find out how a small electric pulse can stop a seizure in its tracks... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Publishing early in recognition of the arrival on the red planet of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover, this week we talk to members of the mission team, revisit some previous successful planetary explorations and hear how UK engineers have made it possible for Rovers to think for themselves. Plus, news of why planets orbit in a plane and whether elephants purr, or just hum... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How can science, technology and engineering aid the world's elite athletes? In this special edition of the Naked Scientists, we discover how physiology, psychology and technology help get us across the finish line. We'll be exploring the biochemical tests that can improve training, and Meera gets put through her paces on a treadmill! We also hear from Gold Medal winner Steve Redgrave and current Team GB competitors about the impact of science on their performance. Plus, how Formula One technology can make better bicycles, and why can technology can get so good, it has to be banned from... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

From the first flight to supersonic air-travel was achieved in under 50 years. To discover what made it all possible we look at the advances in technology, engineering and materials that were needed, and the social and political pressures that drove the field forward since the first tentative steps toward take-off in the 1870s... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Should we blow up objects on a collision course with Earth? Or will they do less damage left intact? More importantly, is there a gene for hating marmite? And what makes copper such a good conductor? How would a caveman cope in modern society? What's the secret to how balls spin in sport, and why does wrapping vaccines and antibiotics in silk make them last longer. Plus, why physics says Batman's cape won't work... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists