The looming danger of antibiotic resistance may have fallen out of the public consciousness but is still very much in the mind of those in public healthcare and research. As promising new research is published, the University of Birmingham’s La

Why do we sleep?

9 days ago 31m 55s

Guest presented by Liz Bonnin.We all instinctively know that sleep is incredibly important but science doesn’t actually have a satisfying answer for why we need to sleep. There are multiple theories, but now, new research from Imperial College

Micro Nuclear Reactors

1 16 days ago 31m 23s

Guest presented by Liz Bonnin. As the UK strives to achieve net zero by 2050, nuclear energy is looking more and more likely as a key player in reaching this goal. But it’s not just massive power plants like Hinkley point C - there’s are newer

Is gene therapy the future?

23 days ago 29m 26s

Last week, a girl who was born deaf had her hearing restored following gene therapy. In the US, the first commercial gene therapy for sickle cell disease has just begun. And Great Ormond Street Hospital has found great success in their trials a

Is treated sewage worse for the environment than raw?

Jun 6th, 2024 29m 18s

There has been increasing public outrage at raw sewage discharges into our rivers and seas, but new research at Lake Windermere suggests that treated sewage is as much to blame. Wastewater experts Simon Evans and Ali Morse get into the nitty gr

Ugly animals and asteroid Apophis

May 30th, 2024 30m 20s

One year ago, the World Health Organisation declared that COVID-19 would no longer be categorised as a global health emergency. But the pandemic has left us with a new normal in all areas of our lives. From vaccine rollout to wastewater monitor

Can we get plastic waste under control?

May 23rd, 2024 30m 2s

As the UN tries to get a global agreement on plastic waste we hear from two delegates at the conference in Ottawa; John Chweya, a Kenyan waste picker, and plastics scientist, Steve Fletcher, discuss the impacts of plastic pollution and the poss

Do we need a new model of cosmology?

May 16th, 2024 31m 39s

Earlier this week, some of the world's leading astrophysicists came together at The Royal Society to question the very nature of our Universe. Does the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model, which explains the evolution of the cosmos and the Big Bang,

Bird flu outbreak in cows

May 9th, 2024 33m 59s

A strain of highly pathogenic bird flu, H5N1, has been spreading unchecked through wild bird, and some mammal, populations for the past few years. Last week, news of a large number of dairy cows in the USA being infected with bird flu has alarm

200 years of dinosaur science

May 2nd, 2024 27m 52s

In 1824, 200 years ago, Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to ever be described in a scientific paper. William Buckland studied fossils from Stonesfield in Oxfordshire in order to describe the animal. In this episode, Victoria Gill visits pala

Inside Your Microbiome

Apr 25th, 2024 29m 24s

Microbiomes are a multi-million-pound industry. Every week, many people send off poop samples to be examined so we can learn about our own ecosystems of bacteria, virus and fungi that live in our guts, with a view to improving health. But how a

Our Accidental Universe

Apr 18th, 2024 36m 58s

Professor and presenter, Chris Lintott, talks about his new book Our Accidental Universe; a tour of chance encounters and human error in pursuit of asteroids, pulsars, radio waves, new stars and alien life. Even with incredible technological de

World’s oldest forest fossils

Apr 11th, 2024 30m 31s

The world’s oldest fossilised forest was uncovered in Somerset last week. We head to palaeobotanist, Dr Christopher Berry’s, lab at Cardiff University to learn about these cladoxylopsids. They lived 390 million years ago and although they are n

How pure is the water from your tap?

Apr 4th, 2024 28m 12s

A recent study on how to get rid of microplastics in water sparked presenter Marnie Chesterton’s curiosity. When she turns on the tap in her kitchen each day, what comes out is drinkable, clean water. But where did it come from, and what’s in i

Dimming the Sun

Mar 28th, 2024 33m 22s

Switzerland has submitted a proposal to create a United Nations expert group on solar geoengineering to inform governments and stakeholders. The idea was discussed at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, this week. Professor Aarti Gup

Laboratory-Grown Meat

Mar 21st, 2024 28m 53s

Professor Ben Garrod guest presents. As a new 'meaty rice' is created and Fortnum & Mason launch a scotch egg made with cultivated meat that they hope to have on sale as early as next year, we investigate the world of laboratory-grown meat. Ma

The Gulf Stream’s tipping point

Mar 14th, 2024 28m 8s

The Gulf Stream, also known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is essential to stable global climate, and the reason we have moderate temperatures in Northern Europe. Now, a new modelling study suggests that this circula

Ancient Roman writings revealed

Mar 7th, 2024 29m 28s

As part of the Vesuvius Challenge, computer scientists have used machine learning to successfully reveal 2,000 characters from the Herculaneum scrolls. These artefacts were charred to a crisp following the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Papyrol

When brains and computers meet

Feb 29th, 2024 27m 20s

Are cyborgs now reality? Elon Musk certainly thinks so. His company, Neuralink, has successfully implanted one of its wireless brain chips in a human. Although billed as a breakthrough, they’re not the first to do it. In fact, similar devices h

Hydrogen and the race to net zero

Feb 22nd, 2024 28m 20s

Hydrogen has long been touted as a potential wonder gas that could play a significant role in our race to net zero. Now, planning permission has been granted for the UK’s largest production hub of its kind, and one of the most advanced in the w

A New Volcanic Era?

Feb 15th, 2024 29m 40s

As lava consumes homes on the Reykjavik Peninsula in Iceland, evacuated communities have been witnessing eruptions shifting and intensifying. We take a look at the latest science that’s helping teams on the ground accurately predict where the d

Understanding Flood Forecasting

Feb 8th, 2024 30m 7s

When Lois Pryce arrived at her boat in Berkshire, the area was already completely flooded. The only way to get to it was via a small pontoon. She is one of many across the UK that have been affected by the current floods, and is very familiar w

Space Exploration

Feb 1st, 2024 28m 45s

2024 is an exciting year for lunar exploration. For Inside Science this week Marnie Chesterton investigates the planned missions to the Moon over the next twelve months. It’s been more than fifty years since the last manned mission to the Moon

12 days of Christmas - science version

Jan 25th, 2024 30m 13s

Marnie Chesterton & Victoria Gill embark on a science-themed version of the classic Christmas song ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ in this festive edition of BBC Inside Science. Twelve of the biggest moments of the year in science include discussio

The Science of the South Pole

Jan 18th, 2024 29m 38s

We’re on board the RSS Sir David Attenborough for the vessel’s first big science season in the Antarctic, since it launched in 2020. It’s crewed by scientists involved in Project Biopole, a 5-year mission attempting to better understand carbon