Science and Environment – Pod Academy: Recent Episodes
Science and Environment – Pod Academy
It’s not about individual countries. It’s not about individual regions. It’s not even about blocks. This doesn’t work unless we vaccinate everybody. But is geopolitics getting in the way of good public health policy as we strive to overcome COVID-19?
The post COVID-19 and the geopolitics of health appeared first on Pod Academy.
In July 1994, astronomers around the world saw fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slam into the planet Jupiter. It was incredible to watch and has led to important discoveries about the planet.
The post The lasting impacts of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 appeared first on Pod Academy.
What is the real cost of IVF – not just the economic cost, but also the emotional and psychological costs. Is unsuccessful fertility treatment more devastating than no treatment at all, or is it better to at least have had the chance to try?
The post The Real Cost of IVF appeared first on Pod Academy.
We are at the beginning of a bio-medical revolution, a revolution the British government hopes will be one of the drivers of our post-Brexit economy. But what are the promises and pitfalls of putting our genome to work.
The post Putting our genome to work appeared first on Pod Academy.
Emerging space industries include tourism, satellite navigation and tentative plans to mine the Moon for rare materials. Space now has its lawyers, its policymakers, and even its ethicists.
The post The ethics of space exploration appeared first on Pod Academy.
Fish swim in schools, birds fly in flocks – can the physics of fluid dynamics tell us how and why?
The post Schooling and flocking appeared first on Pod Academy.
How did we transition from candles to kerosene? or kerosene to electricity? and what are the lessons for the 21st century as we make a transition from high carbon intensity fossil fuels to renewable energy?
Photo: Wind power plant by Rocco Lucia
The post Moving from old to new appeared first on Pod Academy.
Translational medicine – ‘bench to bedside medicine’ – usually involves experiments on animals. What is the justification?
The post Translational medicine bringing a new cure for arthritis appeared first on Pod Academy.
For the UK, climate change will mean more rain and more flooding. We must think long term and invest now if we are to avert problems later. But are politicians listening?
The post The next big flood – Britain underwater appeared first on Pod Academy.
Clinics decide to provide treatment using donors; patients make a decision to receive treatment using donors; donors decide to donate. But donor-conceived children do not decide to be born. The implications.
The post Debating donor conception 10 years after the removal of anonymity appeared first on Pod Academy.
The whip is widely used in horse racing, but can the Stewards police its use adequately?
The post The use of the whip in horse racing appeared first on Pod Academy.
Horse racing over jumps is dangerous and sometimes horses have to be killed after suffering devastating injuries. Does the reporting of those deaths perpetuate the activities?
The post Horse Racing and Animal Welfare: Horse deaths over jumps appeared first on Pod Academy.
In the ‘old game’, the analogue world of centralised knowledge institutions, knowledge was power. But now that knowledge is everywhere, the rules of the game have changed.
The post Digital tailspin: rules for the internet after Snowden appeared first on Pod Academy.
New research suggests that vibrations on the skin can help reduce stammering – but it is no miracle cure.
The post Stammering: latest research findings appeared first on Pod Academy.
We eat about 3 times more sugar than is healthy. Sugar is killing us. But still the food industry stuffs cheap food with more and more sugar, salt and palm oil, and markets it to some of the most vulnerable people in society.
The post Sugar, sugar everywhere appeared first on Pod Academy.
Sound is in the air. There is an explosion in the number of artists and architects experimenting with sound and objects at the Royal College of Art Sound Lab, exploring how we will hear and listen in the future.
The post Making waves with sound….. appeared first on Pod Academy.
This podcast is a fascinating exploration of our urban smellscapes. It is part of our Feast for the Senses series.
The post Urban Smellscapes appeared first on Pod Academy.
Growth is a fundamental tenet of capitalism, and growth is driving climate change and environmental degradation. So can capitalism provide a sustainable future for our planet? We explore the views of Marx and Engels, and current Marxist thinkers.
The post Marxism and the environment appeared first on Pod Academy.
“Nature has been defined as a woman, and both nature and women were then defined into objectification and therefore into objects of violence. Ecofeminism is a celebration of the creativity of nature and the creativity of women,” says Dr Vandana Shiva, world…
The post Ecofeminism appeared first on Pod Academy.
An estimated 1% of children worldwide are described as autistic. But what is autism? The EU AIMS project is searching for causes and treatments – what do autistic people and their families think?
The post Treating autism: the promises, perils and politics of pharmaceutical intervention appeared first on Pod Academy.
Universities are helping their researchers take products to market. We hear about swimming pool covers which heat the water and inhibit algae, apps for use in art galleries and space machines.
The post Commercial exploitation of research appeared first on Pod Academy.
We’ve got to beat global warming within 50 years, and we can do it with renewable energy, says Prof Barnham. But despite important advances, governments and the scientific establishment need to invest more to make it happen.
The post Solar power: The burning answer? appeared first on Pod Academy.
What makes us human? When, why and how did the human brain evolve? Prof Gamble explains his ‘social brain’ hypothesis.
The post Thinking Big: Evolution and the Human Mind appeared first on Pod Academy.
What are the relations between the social sciences and the neurosciences, and what might it mean to do interdisciplinary work between these areas?
The post Neuroscience and Social Science: Experimental Imaginations appeared first on Pod Academy.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is one of the most common mental health problems, and one of the most debilitating. Now neuroscience research from Goldsmiths suggests that part of the brain called the precuneus may be responsible, bringing effective treatment closer.
The post Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): new research, new hope? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Have you ever stepped off a plane and been aware of a different smell in the air – the smell of a country, a city, a terrain? This podcast explores our urban smellscapes – how we live and navigate using our noses.
The post Urban smellscapes appeared first on Pod Academy.
Richard Branson, Tom Cruise, Darcy Bussell and Noel Gallagher are all dyslexic. Is it a useful diagnosis that can lead to extra help? or a meaningless label that attracts quack remedies?
The post What does it mean to be dyslexic? appeared first on Pod Academy.
In the late 19th century, a Liverpudlian went to Japan and was instrumental in creating the modern science of seismology.
The post Terra Firma? John Milne and early seismology in Japan appeared first on Pod Academy.
Mathematicians around the world have been making exciting breakthroughs recently in a huge and open collaboration on an ancient mathematical problem.
The post Maths isn’t standing still appeared first on Pod Academy.
There have been huge strides in energy efficient lighting, but the price is often prohibitive. Researchers are turning their attention to organic LEDs which promise a far cheaper alternative,
The post Let there be energy efficient light! appeared first on Pod Academy.
We are wealthier, seem healthier and we are certainly living longer. But around the world, depression, stress and anxiety are increasingly common. Neuroscience and ancient wisdom appear to agree that ‘mindfulness’ may hold the key to a happier life.
The post Mindfulness: a new/old treatment for depression appeared first on Pod Academy.
An evidence-led debate on on the emotive subject of hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) for shale gas . This is the second sitting of the Rational Parliament.
The post The Fracking Debate appeared first on Pod Academy.
Neuroscience is offering interesting new approaches to help drug addicts come off, and stay off, drugs. But is it all too much like Clockwork Orange?
The post Rewriting Addiction appeared first on Pod Academy.
Every day the sun throws 165,000 terra watts of energy at the earth. But the energy required by the world's 7bn people is just 10-15 terra watts per day. A new generation of solar power promises a sustainable future.
The post Solar technology: harnessing the power of the sun appeared first on Pod Academy.
Volcanoes - Andy Warhol painted them, scientists study them, tourists gawp at them and legendary vulcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson has spent 50 years taking the temperatures of these exploding mountains.
The post Volcanoes, artists and scientists: why exploding mountains fascinate us all appeared first on Pod Academy.
The Rio Earth Summit was held exactly a year ago. This interview, made at the time by the Public Library of Science, explores how important, and how contested, are the issues of climate change and biodiversity.
The post The struggle to achieve sustainability appeared first on Pod Academy.
We are all familiar with the idea of the tortured genius. Recent research appears to bear this out, finding a strong link between high intelligence and bi-polar disorder.
The post No great mind ever existed without a touch of madness appeared first on Pod Academy.
Michael Douglas has revealed his throat cancer was caused by HPV.
The post Michael Douglas, HPV and social justice appeared first on Pod Academy.
Anosmia is to smelling what blindness is to sight, or deafness is to hearing. It is living with no sense of smell. This podcast is based on a lecture at Birkbeck by photojournalist, Eléonore de Bonneval, who has been documenting the lives of people with anosmia.
The post Anosmia: lives without sense of smell appeared first on Pod Academy.
The rigid electronics of today will one day seem as clumsy as the telegraph machines of the nineteenth century appear to us. Researchers believe glass computer screens will be replaced by flexible carbon screens that will roll up to look like a pen.
The post The future of electronics is flexible…. appeared first on Pod Academy.
We report from the AMS Spring Meeting which brings together young doctors, who, inspired by their hands on experience with patients, also undertake clinical research into the causes and cures of a wide range of illnesses. …
The post Academy of Medical Sciences – Spring Meeting 2013 appeared first on Pod Academy.
This podcast is the first in a new series about the latest developments in electronics research - looking at new technologies that will change our lives over the next few years.
The post Potential difference: new frontiers in electronic engineering appeared first on Pod Academy.
Dyspraxia can lead to social isolation, anxiety and depression. Now researchers at Goldsmiths think playing with Wii Fit may help improve coordination.
The post Can Nintendo Wii help children with coordination difficulties? appeared first on Pod Academy.
Can yoga help people with mental health problems?
The post Yoga and mental health appeared first on Pod Academy.
Join us for a night of speed dating, where body language is under scrutiny.
The post Body language and speed dating appeared first on Pod Academy.
The Mars rover Curiosity found evidence that water once flowed on Mars. Now there is also evidence of organic compounds on the Martian surface. Astrobiologists are getting excited....
The post The Mars rover Curiosity and life elsewhere in the universe appeared first on Pod Academy.
In the nineteenth century, dramatic discoveries and new theories were turning the world upside-down. And much of this groundbreaking scientific research was conducted, at home, by scientific families like the Herschels.
The post Scientific families appeared first on Pod Academy.
Groundbreaking new genetic research holds out the promise that no more babies will be born with mitochondria disease. But it raises big ethical questions. Adam Smith investigates.
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The post How many people does it take to make a baby? appeared first on Pod Academy.
The vOICe technology is a computer programme that helps blind people see with sound. The software scans and converts visual information from a camera into a coded soundscape, which can be interpreted as a sort of ‘synthetic vision’ – effectively allowing the user to see with their ears!
The post Oh, I see! appeared first on Pod Academy.
Dr. Hilary Rose considers the promise of interdisciplinarity, and explains her concerns about what she thinks might be the dulling of criticality through such endeavours.
The post It’s hard to be critical these days…. appeared first on Pod Academy.
We don't have earlids, like we have eyelids - so we have to hear sounds whether we like it or not. World famous sound recordist, Chris Watson, seen in the picture recording ants, talks to Ed Prosser about the noise pollution that bombards us day and night.
The post Noises off….. appeared first on Pod Academy.
"A human body is no different from the chicken that you buy. It needs refrigerating. You keep it cold, it doesn't go off." Forensic pathologist Dr Stuart Hamilton takes us for a tour of the morgue.
The post In the morgue appeared first on Pod Academy.
We love those stunning images of the dark side of the Moon or colourful nebulae or rotating galaxies. But more and more astronomers are turning off their telescopes and opening their ears to the sounds of space.
The post The sounds of space appeared first on Pod Academy.
Adam Smith takes a tour of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Europe's leading genetics institute, home to the team that made the largest single contribution to the sequencing of the human genome.
The post Doing DNA: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute appeared first on Pod Academy.
If all the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth’s land surface it would form a layer more than 166 metres thick - about the height of a 40-storey building. Adam Smith discovers why the salt of the Earth is so important.
The post Oceans and climate change appeared first on Pod Academy.
NASA’s Kepler mission made some remarkable discoveries - Kepler-16b, 200 light years away and Kepler 22-b, a planet that may have the perfect conditions for life.
The post Searching for new planets appeared first on Pod Academy.
Earthquakes and volcanoes capture our imaginations for the power they wield. But most of us are unaware that they are also connected to climate change…
The post The Earth is not so solid – earthquakes, volcanoes and climate change appeared first on Pod Academy.
Left-handedness is certainly an everyday phenomenon. We all probably know somebody who writes with their left hand or possibly do so ourselves. But how often do we pause to think about what might be the cause of such a preference…
The post Left-handedness appeared first on Pod Academy.
Stephan Wolf and Dino McMahon use radar to track bee behaviour. By doing so, they hope to find out why bee populations have, in some parts of the world, gone into such rapid decline.
The post In search of lost bees appeared first on Pod Academy.
The challenges of identifying disease genes using exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing.
The post Genome Biology appeared first on Pod Academy.