Synopsis
Probing the weird, wacky and spectacular, the Naked Scientists Special Editions are special one-off scientific reports, investigations and interviews on cutting-edge topics by the Naked Scientists team.
Episodes
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Unique plants in Bristol, contraceptives and fish
30/10/2012 Duration: 20minThis week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how conservationists are using science to help protect rare plants found only in Bristol's Avon Gorge, and are feminised fish changing wild fish populations? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Man-made salt marshes, ground heat, storms
19/10/2012 Duration: 21minThis week in the Planet Earth Podcast: why salt marshes are so important, but are difficult to recreate; how storms are made; and why the ground beneath our feet could provide decades of natural heating. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Sir John Gurdon, Nobel Laureate
12/10/2012 Duration: 22minSir John Gurdon, from Cambridge University, talks to Chris Smith about the set of experiments that resulted in the award on the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Future-proofing forests, noisy gannets, Antarctica
03/10/2012 Duration: 20minThis week in the Planet Earth Podcast: the steps scientists are taking to make sure the trees we plant today can cope with tomorrow's warmer climate; tracking gannets to find out how environmental change might affect them; and a tropical Antarctica. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Forecasting solar storms, fish personalities
18/09/2012 Duration: 21minThis week in the Planet Earth Podcast: why accurately forecasting solar storms is becoming increasingly important; and how understanding how fish shoal could interest economists. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Entering the Infra-Red Zone
09/09/2012 Duration: 33minThis month, discover how seeing red can help restore works of art and probe the origins of cancer. We delve into the world of Infra-red spectroscopy to reveal the creation and preservation of ancient pieces of art and the building techniques of ancient civilizations. We also search for cellular fingerprints to enable the identification of stem cells and earlier diagnosis of cancer in the future! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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BSF 2012 - Subglacial Lakes & Food on the Brain
06/09/2012 Duration: 27minIn the final of our special series of programmes from the British Science Festival, we find out how researchers will be drilling through over 3 kilometres of ice to find out what's hiding in subglacial Lake Ellsworth. Plus, how a high fat diet may alter the brain... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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BSF 2012 - Finding Higgs and Mining Heat
05/09/2012 Duration: 33minIn this special edition of the Naked Scientists from the British Science Festival, we get the latest news from the Large Hadron Collider, including their scientific shopping list, and find out how heat pumps could extract household heating from abandoned mines... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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BSF 2012 - Seeing through Clothes and Water Voles
04/09/2012 Duration: 33minIn the second special programme from the British Science Festival in Aberdeen, we discover the technology for seeing through your clothes and find out why "Lonely heart" teenage water voles can save whole populations. Plus, we discover why NASA is returning to the Van Allen Belt, and explore the diet foods of the future, which will make you feel fuller for longer. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Early tetrapods, upland rivers, North Anatolian Fault
03/09/2012 Duration: 19minThis week in the Planet Earth Podcast: what the first creatures to walk on land looked like; the connection between the biodiversity of upland rivers and the ecosystem services they provide; and in an audio diary from Turkey, a University of Leeds researcher on the North Anatolian Fault. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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BSF 2012 - Caring Technology and Colourful Fossils
03/09/2012 Duration: 30minIn this, the first of a series of special podcasts from the British Science Festival, we discover the Wang Particle, find out how technology can help people stay more able until later in life, and how fossils are revealing their true colours... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Monitoring your Mobile Phone
03/09/2012 Duration: 13minWith 40% of adults in the UK now using smartphones, and similar figures worldwide, we discover how easy it is to track and profile peoples' movements using information given away in public by their mobile phones. We learn how hackers can use your phone's wifi connections to track where you go, who you contact and even get images of where you live! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Saving Satellites
31/08/2012 Duration: 11minSatellites are essential, and not just for the latest television. Nation states rely on satellites for reconnaissance, navigation and secure communications. But satellites are under threat, from natural phenomenon like Space Weather events through to nefarious attacks from cyber criminals. We visit the UK's Defence Science Technology Laboratory to find out how we keep our satellites safe... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Bees and sex, acid rain's legacy, cold water corals
14/08/2012 Duration: 21minThis week in the Planet Earth Podcast: sex and the survival of honey bee colonies; why rivers are still recovering from the legacy of acid rain; and collecting coral from the Atlantic seabed. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Mars Curiosity Extra
05/08/2012 Duration: 09minNASA's David Blake from the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover team and the Open University's Cassini-Huygens space probe pioneer John Zarnecki answer your questions about planetary exploration. This special podcast is an addendum to the August 5th 2012 episode of the Naked Scientists Podcast and contains extra material not included in the published programme. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Early African dairy farming, seabird migrations
31/07/2012 Duration: 18minThis week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how dairy farming in Africa 7000 years ago led to the speedy evolution of the gene that lets us digest milk; and how climate change could be having a detrimental effect on seabirds and fish in the Southern Ocean. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Brown water, bats and streetlights, plant methane
18/07/2012 Duration: 20minThis week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how browner drinking water presents problems for the water companies; the effect of street lighting on bats and their commuter routes; and how ultraviolet light makes plants emit methane. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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Exciting new technologies that are revolutionising neuroscience
16/07/2012 Duration: 11minFind out about the exciting new technologies that are revolutionising neuroscience, providing scientists with the tools to unlock the mysteries of the mind and nervous system and paving the way for better treatments for patients. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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The Naked Scientists unravel the connections in your brain
15/07/2012 Duration: 10minWe find out what happens when your immune system attacks the brain, how a protein providing the architecture of brain connectivity may help to treat people with autism, explore how scientists are using the power of light to cause, and then treat, addiction in mice and get to grips with the potential of neural stem cells in Alzheimer's disease treatment. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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The Naked Scientists strip down the brain in Spain
14/07/2012 Duration: 10minThe Naked Scientists strip down the brain in Spain - attending the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies conference in Barcelona. We find out how your brain computes information, ask if watching worms can tell us about human social interaction, and we explore how we make up our minds when faced with life's choices. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists