Enhanced Naked Neuroscience: Recent Episodes
The Naked Scientists
Open your mind with Naked Neuroscience, the spine-tingling, interactive monthly exploration of the workings of the nervous system from the Naked Scientists. This enhanced version is chapterised to make it easier to find what you are looking for.
What power does science have? We explore the influence of neuroscience in the courtrooms. Could brain scans shape prison sentences? Can it predict who will re-offend? We put the brain on trial with Cambridge University's Neuroscience and Public Policy Research Initiatives.
Botox injections in the nervous system, keeping brain tissue alive, and the shifting axis of scientific influence...
From rags to riches: how a fruit stall selling boy became a brain surgeon and, inspired by the NHS, built a community hospital and neuroscience institute back in his homeland of Kolkata. We meet the President of India who opened the institute, and speak with the patients being treated there...
This month we'll be trotting the globe to open our minds! We soak up some naked brain wanderings, including visiting the banja, a Russian sauna, to be whipped by birch leaves. Plus, from the States, we'll meet the caring Robot trio, designed to help look after our increasingly elderly population, we'll visit a Brain Bank in New Zealand, keep fruit flies awake in Milan AND back in the UK meet a rocking professor who's addressing scientific gender inequality with music.
Putting the brain on trial: did your brain make you do it? Neuroscience in the courtroom exposed. Plus the dark side of new neurotechnologies and do we have free will or are our actions pre-determined?
Meet Brian, the robot programmed to help look after the elderly. Plus we explore the role of robots in combat and in the classroom and we explore the ethics of how science shapes society. This special Naked Neuroscience podcast series, supported by the Wellcome Trust, reports from the International Neuroethics Society annual meeting at the AAAS headquarters in Washington DC and features guest robots Brian, Casper and Tangy, as well as human contributors Goldie Nejat, Barbara Sahakian, Paul Root Wolpe and James Giordano.
Millions invested in brain research across the globe. It's the decade of the brain. But how will the results shape our future societies?
We examine the child brain: looking how the Victorians viewed babies, ask could early childhood stress, like changing schools, parents divorcing or having an anxious, overbearing mother, EVER be a good thing? Plus we examine the brains of young criminals and ask could brain anatomy and activity findings better inform youth rehabilitation services.....
Does smoking dope decrease your potential for pleasure? How the simple act of dieting can rewire brain and a blood test for depression. Reporting from the British Association for Psychopharmacology 2014 Forum.
Memory boosting drugs, the military, the legal system and enhancing athletes mental focus and muscle tone. Where should neuroscience stop? How a revolution in technology is bringing an unprecedented flood of information about the brain and with this, concerns over use.
Hello I'm Naked Scientist Hannah Critchlow and I'm concerned about aging. Alzheimer's disease affects around half a million of us in the UK alone, and this number is predicted to increase as the population gets older. However, this week a study suggested that up to a third of cases could be preventable just by changing the way that we live.
I spoke to Carol Brayne, Professor of Public Health at Cambridge University. In a collaboration spanning countries, researchers analysed data published from decades of research on 10000s of people across the world and identified several risk factors that could increase the likelihood of developing the disease, some of which simply came down to lifestyle choices. I went to find out what those risky behaviours might be
Fruit flies to understand getting our sleep bank account in credit, how we perceive passing of time to help make up our minds in tricky situations. Plus in the news, people prefer shocks to thought. How long could you be left alone with your thoughts? 10 seconds? A minute? Reporting from the Federation of Neurosciences Society Forum in Milan on the hot breaking neuroscience research.
Would you kill a person to save five others? Does religion evade morality by omission? And can you tweak people's motivations? Reporting on Morality and Motivation in Milan, with breaking hot neuroscience research presented at the FENS 2014 conference.
Beat anxiety, form healthy habits and induce a happy state of mind. We open our minds by tackling your questions about the brain.
Could environmental pollutants play a role? Why is autism sometimes thought of as simply extreme male behaviours? And since genetics are involved, could you diagnose newly born babies and start treating? We get to grips with this often misunderstood condition.
How are memories formed and lost? Is Alzheimer's just an extreme version of normal ageing? And to what extent does genetics play a role? Can we protect ourselves from developing the disease? We get our head around the disease with Alzheimer's Research UK.
Why are some psychiatric illnesses, like anxiety and depression, on the increase? Could conditions, like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, confer an evolutionary advantage? And is it ethical to screen babies for future brain disorders?
Should you raise your baby to be bilingual? Are video games rotting or rejuvenating children's brains? We find out! Plus in the news, personalised breast milk, modelling the brain with computers, how crude oil spills affect tuna and the next step towards nuclear fusion.
Reporting from New Zealand on how a bank of frozen human brains is acting as a reference library, how a Hindu resolves religious and scientific beliefs and scientists creating human brain circuits in a dish in order to piece together the jigsaw of Huntington's Disease.
New Zealand adventures with sheep, finding the Huntington's gene, developing new therapies for the brain and unravelling its complexities.
Touring the brain by visiting a laughter clinic, the sauna and psychadelic goats, plus neuroscience nuggets from Prof Nutt!
Chemical warfare, how serving in Afghanistan left it's mental scars plus brainwashing to tweak belief systems.
A special edition Question and Answer show: how do prosthetic limbs work? Can you train your brain? And is a brain transplant possible?
Toddlers addicted to smart phones, speaking to a cyborg, computers that predict emotion, electrically inducing human creativity and is technology widening the inequality gap?
Rats being tickled, a visit to the laughter clinic, and a toddler's favourite joke. We uncover the brain basis of funny!
Recovering from alcoholism via community creativity, goats high on psychedelics, cheeky monkeys on mojitos and can expectant mothers drink?
From Russia with Love! Reporting from Lake Baikal in Siberia. In this special episode, I visit Russia for a conference and from there, we'll be finding out how Russian neuroscience is getting a collosal injection of cash from the government, how nicotene switches off attention in the teenage brain, plus, I visited the Banya, a Russian sauna, to be whipped with birch leaves.....
Infected by earworms, what Mozart does for the mind, plus are creativity and delusions linked?
Is ADHD overdiagnosed? How can parents and teachers help those affected? What happens when ADHD children enter adulthood? And do diet and genes pave the way to developing the disorder? Plus in the news, we turn on pleasure pathways through music and find out what gets a Prof up with the larks...
Combining virtual reality and treadmills to map navigation in the brain. We ask how starlings flock in such a synchronised murmuration. And in the news, inducing creativity by electrically tweaking human brains, how video games could help national security, plus we find out what's been keeping Professor Gage up all night!
What happens when you fall into, and out of, love? We get to the bottom of the cuddle hormone oxytocin and find out if the contraceptive pill is good for relationships. And we navigate our way around a fruit flies brain to find out how pheromones make them in the mating mood. Plus, we'll explore if it's scientifically possible, and even ethical, to bring on love in humans.
Why are researchers punching into people's skin if they are on a quest for knowledge about the brain? What does the birth of new brain cells do for memory? Plus can a 'tumour paint' be developed to help beat brain cancer? And can we shed those post Christmas extra inches by doing difficult maths problems, instead of hitting the treadmill?
Could genetics pave the way for developing schizophrenia or Alzheimer 's disease? Is there a genetic link between optimism and obesity? Is it ethical to screen people's DNA? Plus we find out what a nap might do for your memory, how a new study is turning addiction treatment on its head and we unravel what it means to be human. Plus we unzip whether DNA might make for an extremely high IQ!
We find out exactly what is going on in the brain during the teenage years. Plus we ask should we all be taking drugs to make us 'smarter'? And we find out about wiring up bats for neuroscience research and beating addiction with positive messages.
What does exercise and experience do for the brain? Improving maternal care, the brain networks of impulsive behaviour and the rewards of sharing experiences with friends! Plus turning hair into nerve cells to help beat Alzheimer's and we find out what keeps a Nobel Laureate up all night.
How nerve cells make decisions, how genes control behaviour, using light to interrogate neuronal circuits, anxiety attacks, deep brain stimulation to bust addiction, how the immune system can cause psychosis, the genetics of behavioural problems and hallucinogenic flashbacks: fact, or a mind playing tricks on you? This week we launch Naked Neuroscience, a new monthly podcast to open your mind...
Find 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.
We 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.
The 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.