Bbc Inside Science

Dr Adam Rutherford and guests explore the scientific mysteries of the menopause after scientists in the US and Japan successfully induced pregnancy in post-menopausal women.Also in the programme, we hear from decision scientist Baruch Fischhoff on the difficulties of trying to communicate uncertainty in science in the wake of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Following on from last week's Fracking report, one listener, Professor Kevin Anderson of the University of Manchester, raises his concerns about the consequences of exploiting shale gas for UK carbon emissions.This week's show us your instrument comes from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, where Dan Faircloth tends to the ISIS particle accelerator.

Fracking is touted as a technology that will lower UK energy bills. It's a controversial technique which unlocks natural gas from shale rock. But it raises many environmental concerns. So what does the science say? Adam Rutherford sorts science fact from science fiction, putting your frack FAQs to four experts. Reporter Gaia Vince travels to a gas well site in Warrington to discover the various techniques used to extract gas onshore in the UK.Also on the programme, your feedback to last week's story on new fingerprint technology.Lipstick forensics: Professor Michael Went at the University of Kent has developed a new method for unpicking the make-up of make up left at crime scenes.And this week's Show Us Your Instrument comes from Cardiff University, as we showcase herpetologist Dr Rhys Jones's snake hook. It's a low-tech but vital piece of kit for handling snakes. It's also useful for scrumping.

As Syria agrees to destroying its chemical weapon stocks, Adam Rutherford looks at how you solve a problem like Sarin. Dr Joanna Kidd from King's College London gives us a potted history of chemical weaponry. Environmental toxicologist, Prof Alastair Hay, from Leeds University has worked on chemical warfare issues for four decades. In the 1990s, he identified mustard gas and sarin residues from soil samples in Iraq, confirming their use by Saddam Hussein. He talks to Adam about the challenges of destroying chemical weapons in Syria. Reporter Roland Pease looks at a new phone app, OpenSignal, which uses your smartphone's sensors to help improve weather models. Today, London Underground workers are starting to boycott a new clock-in system, which uses their fingerprint for identification. Meanwhile, Apple fans are camping outside stores waiting to buy the new iPhone, which features a fingerprint scanner. Adam talks to Dr Farzin Deravi from the University of Kent about how fingerprint identification works and wh

As Spanish researchers unveil new stem cell research, Dr Adam Rutherford talks to Professor of Regenerative Medicine Fiona Watt. They look back at the history of stem cell research and what the future holds for regenerative medicine. Last week's discussion on science practicals generated huge amounts of feedback. Some listeners consider school practicals the secret to their success, others remember nothing more than breaking test tubes and blowing things up. Professor Robin Millar researches the best ways to teach science practicals; we ask him to respond to some of the points you raised. We unveil the mystery of the phantom head. Not an 18-rated horror film, but a dentists' training tool. This week's Show Us Your Instrument comes from Newcastle University's School of Dental Sciences. And, where there's muck, there's brass. In Newcastle, they're looking to sewage as a renewable alternative energy supply. It's flushed down the drains, but Northumbrian Water have taken a 'waste not want not' approach to our bio

Dr Adam Rutherford asks whether the proposed ice wall around the Fukushima nuclear plant will finally halt the radioactive leaks they've suffered since the tsunami in 2011.BBC Tokyo correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes gives an insider's view on the current crisis and public reaction to the £300m rescue plan announced this week. Plus, Prof Neil Hyatt from Sheffield University describes the challenges ahead in building the ice wall, and decontaminating the water used to cool the crippled nuclear reactors.Amongst the many challenges of sending a manned mission to Mars is the problem of 'menu fatigue'. Eating the same ready meals for several years could send anyone over the edge. NASA recently completed a four month Mars simulation on a barren volcano in Hawaii, their mission was to invent dishes to recreate on the Red Planet. Cooking doesn't get tougher than this.School practicals may be popular with students and teachers but recent research suggests that they might not be a useful way to teach science. Is the

Science is supposed to be objective. Research by Professor John Ioannidis suggests the reality is falling short of the ideal. He talks to Alice Roberts about bias in softer science disciplines, and how having an American on the team leads to more exaggerated claims for the results. Is this due to the extra pressures they face to come up with new and exciting findings? Bomb-detection dogs are currently taught each new explosive, one at a time. It's time consuming, A team at Lincoln University are investigating a new approach, categorisation. It's known that dogs can visually recognise groups of items, but can they do this with a different sense, smell? Reporter Marnie Chesterton went to Lincoln to see the team at work. This week's Show Us Your Instrument comes from The Rutherford Appleton Lab. Dr Ceri Brenner shows us the high energy Gemini laser. It can be used to research the conditions inside stars. A team at Cardiff University are harnessing the power of social media to measure, for the first time, the kin

Prof Alice Roberts goes Inside Science this week to discuss the science behind artificial reefs. The 70 concrete blocks around Gibraltar are currently causing a diplomatic controversy as the Spanish government claim they restrict commercial fishing. We look at how artificial reefs are made and what effect they have on the marine environment.Bees have faced multiple dangers in recent years, from pesticides to parasites. Reporter Roland Pease visits a team at the University of Bath who are putting beehives into a CAT scanner to discover whether they can help breed bees that are more resistant to disease.Humans are special; our uniquely evolved feet testify to that, allowing us to walk upright. At least, that's what anatomy students have been taught for the past 70 years. Research published his week by a team at the University of Liverpool shows that our feet are much more ape-like than we thought. And some of us may have more 'apey' feet than others.Finally, this week Prof Andrea Sella from University College L

Influenza causes up to five million cases of severe illness and half a million deaths globally every year. Yet, as Adam Rutherford finds out, our current vaccination strategy is a seasonal game of chance, based on guessing the strain that will appear next. Research published this week in Science Translational Medicine, by a team from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, offers hope for a universal flu vaccine, based on newly discovered antibodies.Earlier this week, a game to help combat ash dieback was launched on Facebook, called Fraxinus. Reporter Gaia Vince looks at the growing trend for using games to solve scientific problems. Is this new way of gathering and analysing data changing the way science is done?Currently half of all clinical trials are not published worldwide. Adam talks to Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Pharma, about his new campaign 'AllTrials', which aims to change that.Finally this week, physicist Peter Barham shows us his instrument - a spy camera system that he's designed to recognise penguin

Cultured meat was on the menu earlier this week, but Mark Post's public tasting of his lab-grown burger marks the culmination of decades of research on producing artificial meat. Adam Rutherford talks to one of the other major players in the world of manmade animal products, Gabor Forgacs. However, his company, Modern Meadow, is concentrating on launching a different product first - cultured leather.The football season is about to start, and for the first time electronic Goal Line Technology will be introduced. This year will see the Hawk-Eye system deployed at all Premier League grounds in an attempt to help referees make more informed decisions. But how will it work, and how accurate can it be? Inside Science speaks with the inventor, Paul Hawkins, and the engineers who are testing it to international standards.A bacteria or a bacterium? We sparked a controversy on last week's programme by using bacteria to describe a singular microbe. Adam talks to evolutionary biologist Mark Pagel about how words evolve a

July has seen train crashes in Canada, Pakistan, France, Spain and Switzerland. Inside Science asks if this is a trend or just a coincidence. Professor David Spiegelhalter, an expert in the public perception of risk, explains whether there is such a thing as a 'crash season'. Microbiologists working on the Mary Rose in Portsmouth have discovered a new type of metal-eating bacteria which is damaging the ship's wooden timbers. Reporter Gaia Vince goes behind the scenes at Portsmouth's Historic Dockyards to find out how conservation scientists have saved the ship. Last week Manchester hosted the 2013 International Congress of History of Science Technology and Medicine, the biggest ever meeting of historians of science from around the world. The keynote speech was given by Prof Hasok Chang of the University of Cambridge, urging his colleagues to put "Science back in History of Science". Inside Science asked him if there should also be more history in the practice of science... Finally, Dr Marek Kukula Public Astr

Nobel Prize and - as of this week, Copley Medal - winner Andre Geim outlined in Nature today his vision for the next generation of super-materials. Chemist Prof Andrea Sella joins Adam to explain how the discovery of graphene may have been the start of a remarkable new class of tailor made materials technically known as 'Van der Waals heterostructures'.This week on Show Us Your Instrument, Prof Sophie Scott introduces the MRI machine and explains why you never press the 'quench' button, unless you want to blow the roof off.Finally, an exhibition on Antarctic architecture opens on Friday 26th July in Glasgow, commissioned by the British Council and curated by The Arts Catalyst. We talk to Hugh Broughton who designed the new Halley VI base, a Thunderbirds inspired building, perched on top of stilts, on top of skis.Plus, Adam calls the current Halley Base Commander, Agnieszka Fryckowska, to find out what it's like to live and work during three months of darkness.Producer: Michelle Martin.

This week saw the publication of the annual government statistics on scientific research on animals. Overall, it again shows an increase, but does that tell the whole story? Wendy Jarrett of the organisation Understanding Animal Research shares her thoughts.We hear from amateur and professional would-be astronauts about their training regime and selection process from Major Tim Peake, the UK’s next astronaut, to science broadcaster, Sue Nelson.Plus, the first in our new series ‘Show Us Your Instrument’. Material scientist Mark Miodownik introduces the wonders of the Transmission Electron Microscope, with music composed by the New Radiophonic Workshop.

Scientists investigate viruses in order to save lives. But could that same knowledge also help other people create dangerous viruses to use as weapons of terror?This Thursday evening, a public debate is being held by the Society of Biology around these issues of "Dual Use" research. In an age of synthetic biology, mail order genes, and open access publication, what are the pros and cons of sharing virology research?Also this week, a new centre for research into synthetic diamonds was opened by UK Science Minister David Willetts. Inside Science reporter Marnie Chesterton took a tour of the new facility to find out how diamonds might be a quantum computer's best friend.Plus, the first formal trial of a stem cell based organ transplant is happening in the UK. Martin Birchall from University College London is working on replacing the larynx. But if a patient receives a new voicebox from a donor, whose voice will they have?

Today the government announced a plan to rid England of bovine TB within 25 years. Adam Rutherford looks back at how this issue has evolved and the extent to which scientific evidence has informed the eradication strategies, from culling badgers to vaccination programs.Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines found in nature. Reporter Gaia Vince travels to the seaside to find out how corals could save us from sunburn in summers to come.There are an estimated 23,000 pieces of space junk around the size of a tennis ball floating above us. But there are millions of smaller bits of flotsam and jetsam, from the exploded rocket debris to fleck of paints. Even a 1cm bit of space debris could deliver the same energy as a car impacting on a concrete wall at 30 miles per hour.