Episodes

  • Titans of Science: Sara Wickstrom

    Titans of Science: Sara Wickstrom
    Jul 28 2026
    This week, our Titan of Science is cell biologist Sara Wickstrom. Her work focuses on how cells communicate with one another to coordinate growth, development, and movement. These insights have just won Sara the Koerber European Science Prize, and, in this episode, she tells us how she will spend her million Euro winnings, and how her discoveries will inform future treatments for diseases like cancer. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    30 mins
  • Wildfires worldwide, and algae microbots for drug delivery

    Wildfires worldwide, and algae microbots for drug delivery
    Jul 24 2026
    In this week's show, wildfires continue to race across the world in Canada, Ireland, Scotland and Italy. Why are they happening, and what can we do to prevent them? Plus, scientists track neighbourhood food consumption from DNA in sewage, the first evidence of an "exomoon" orbiting a planet outside our solar system, and how tiny "algebots" can deliver cancer chemotherapy in the bladder. What makes these critters remote-controlled? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    31 mins
  • Titans of Science: Adrian Owen

    Titans of Science: Adrian Owen
    Jul 21 2026
    This week, our Titans of Science series continues with neuropsychologist and author Adrian Owen. Adrian's work has focused on determining how different parts of the brain contribute to functions such as cognition and memory, and famously led to him being being able to communicate with a patient in a long-term vegetative state using a brain scanner. Here he retells the story, and explains the basis of what we call consciousness... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    31 mins
  • Alzheimer's drug breakthrough, and sugar in space

    Alzheimer's drug breakthrough, and sugar in space
    Jul 17 2026
    A new drug called Trontinemab, which could stop Alzheimer's disease, is about to start clinical trials. How does it work? Also, scientists at the University of Oxford have created a vaccine to fight Ebola; researchers have documented three different types of severe pneumonia; and why the discovery of sugars in space matters. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    33 mins
  • Titans of Science: Enrico Coen

    Titans of Science: Enrico Coen
    Jul 14 2026
    Titans of Science continues with plant biologist Enrico Coen, a professor at the John Innes Centre in Norfolk. His work investigates how genes move and interact to create tissue shapes during plant development, and how this process varies to produce such a wide range of plant forms. In this episode, we find out how Enrico's early work on fruit flies paved his path to plants, and his work on 'jumping' genes and their effect on plant variation. He's been speaking with Chris Smith. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    32 mins
  • Weight loss pills on sale, and Dolly the sheep's legacy

    Weight loss pills on sale, and Dolly the sheep's legacy
    Jul 10 2026
    Coming up, Wegovy weight loss pills are now available in pharmacies and online in the UK. Will they help tackle obesity? Plus, how scientists are trying to restore sensation in the feet; the legacy of Dolly the sheep 30 years on; and space rovers and the solar eclipse with the astronomer Megan Argo. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    31 mins
  • Titans of Science: Tara Spires-Jones

    Titans of Science: Tara Spires-Jones
    Jul 7 2026
    Titans of Science returns with Tara Spires-Jones, a world-leading neurobiology researcher and Director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She studies the mechanisms and reversibility of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative brain diseases. We explore Tara's path to neuroscience, the history and biology of Alzheimer's, and treatments developed to overcome it. Tara has been speaking with Chris Smith. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    34 mins
  • Children's mental health, and mapping bilingual brains

    Children's mental health, and mapping bilingual brains
    Jul 3 2026
    Coming up: England's mental health services are reportedly in "crisis", with over 1 million children referred. What is driving the uptick? Plus, new research suggests that antibodies protect against norovirus, strategies to improve plastic recycling rates, and insights into the bilingual brain. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    34 mins