Naked Scientists Special Editions Podcast

One of the biggest problems when it comes to caring for the ocean realm is that it is out of sight and out of mind. It's hard to care about something you don't know about, and most people, most of the time, don't have a chance to see ocean life for themselves. Underwater photography is helping to bridge that gap between people and the oceans. In this special podcast, Helen Scales chats to National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry to find out about the challenges of taking pictures underwater, from the technical constraints of taking electrical equipment into salty water to finding ways of... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do marine animals hear, see, touch, and smell the world around them? Life underwater is obviously very different to life on land and it can be difficult for us air-breathing humans to imagine what goes on down there beneath the waves. But understanding how animals find their way around the ocean plays a vital role in our efforts to conserve marine life. In this special edition of the Naked scientists, Helen Scales meets sensory biologist Jelle Atema from Boston University to find out what we know about the ways marine animals build a picture of the world around them. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The saying goes that we known more about the surface of the moon than we do about the deep sea - and that's probably true. But modern technologies are opening up the mysterious depths allowing scientists to venture further than ever before into this alien realm. In this special podcast, Helen Scales explores the wonders of the deep with biologist Tim Shank from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US. He recently led a pioneering expedition into the deep sea around Indonesia where his team discovered dozens of new species and shed light on extraordinary ecosystems in the dark depths... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, why removing some man-made coastal flood defences might not be such a harebrained idea, what it's like studying gas exchange in the wilds of the Southern Ocean, and, in what could be the first case of 'natural' geoengineering, how forests could be whitening the clouds right above them. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how a specially-designed twin turboprop research plane is helping scientists in a huge range of subjects from archaeology to ecology, and why a violent space storm could spell trouble for communications systems across the world. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, how last year's eruption of the Eyjafjallajkull volcano in Iceland gave scientists an unparalleled opportunity for research, and why sediment from rivers like the Thames can act like time machines to bygone eras. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month we attract your attention to the power of magnetism as we explore just what magnetism is and how it can be induced. We also explore the role of magnetism in superconductors, as well as a class of materials known as multiferroics! Plus, we bring you the latest news and events from the light source. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Traditionally viewed as a poor verbal practise, the ums and ers uttered by parents may in fact play a critical role in helping toddlers to learn new words, as Rochester University researcher Richard Aslin, publishing in the journal Developmental Science, discovered recently... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how scientists plan to measure the Earth's magnetic field from space, why one researcher is in the frozen town of Churchill in northern Canada, and how the Chernobyl disaster still affects Northern Ireland 25 years on. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how the famous White Cliffs of Dover could be made of fish poo (at least partially), why one researcher is so interested in dead whales, and why the Japan earthquake was so powerful and devastating. Join Richard Hollingham and Sue Nelson to find out more... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Coral reefs are vibrant ecosystems packed with spectacular underwater life that protect coastlines and provide food and income for millions of people. But coral reefs are at risk. How threatened are reefs today? Why are they in trouble? And what hope is there for the future of reefs? In this special podcast, Helen Scales meets the people behind Reefs at Risk Revisited, a groundbreaking new study that draws a global map of reefs and the problems they face today. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how carbon capture and storage works and why it's here to stay, the effect of floodplains on water pollution, and how exactly do you measure the thickness of polar ice from space? A pub isn't an obvious place for a discussion about taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it in rocks deep underground, but the venue for this week's Planet Earth Podcast isn't any old pub. This pub is set into the sandstone rock in the centre of Nottingham and is the perfect place to demonstrate exactly how the technology works. Richard Hollingham visits Ye... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how tracking insects can help scientists forecast summer storms and floods, and the role one of Europe's key satellite missions played in the recent floods in Queensland, Australia. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

For this month's Cafe, Graham Fraser, from the Medical Research Council, discusses the prevalence and causes of Alzheimers disease as well is his research on the disease and the possible methods of treatment or prevention in the future. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Fewer than one third of patients who suffer a heart attack attend rehabilitation sessions, despite evidence that this follow-up support can be vital in reducing the risk of further heart attacks and improving a patient's quality of life. Now Brisbane-based researcher Dr Charles Worringham has pioneered a way to solve the problem, with a preprogrammed smart phone... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - how the Romans recycled glass, dinosaur colour, and what Europe's gravity mission tells us about ocean currents. Did you know that the height of the world's oceans can vary by as much as 200 metres? These huge differences depend almost entirely on very slight changes in gravity across the world. Sue Nelson goes to the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton to find out more. We also hear that even the Romans recycled glass. But were they being green, or did they have other reasons? Richard Hollingham goes to Norwich to meet the archaeologists... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do you go about finding a mate if you can't go and look for one? This is the problem corals, which are rooted to the seabed, have found a spectacular way to solve - mass spawning. But how do they make sure they all do it at the same time? And what happens after all the eggs and sperm are released into the water? In this Special podcast, Sarah Castor-Perry finds the answers to these questions and more from James Guest of the National University of Singapore. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

What does the future hold for us? Is the future bright, shining and brimming with opportunity, or a dark, dystopian drudgery? Recent scientific advances suggest there may be much to look forward to. In this special postcast, Kat Arney speaks to Mark Stevenson, author of An Optimist's Tour of the Future. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month we look back at Diamond's scientific highlights of 2010 to reveal how microbes are eroding away our coastline and how metal organic frameworks could help find the holy grail of chemistry! We also hear how the synchrotron was improved to provide more beamlines as well as bring you the latest research from these beamlines including stresses on jet engines and the never-ending fight against antibiotic resistance. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In this latest watery-themed Planet Earth Podcast, Richard Hollingham hears how the underwater world isn't the soundless place you might imagine. From chirping, gurgling and snapping sounds from busy coral reefs to clicking sperm whales, scientists are finding that all sorts of marine life use sounds to find a suitable home, to find a mate, to avoid being eaten or to communicate. First up, we hear from a marine biologist from the University of Bristol who explains how manmade noise might not affect just whales and dolphins, but also much smaller creatures that live in and around coral reefs.... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists