Discovery

The Life Scientific - Darren Croft

<p>Darren Croft studies one of the ocean’s most charismatic and spectacular animals – the killer whale. Orca are probably best known for their predatory behaviour: ganging up to catch hapless seals or attack other whales. But for the last fifteen years, Darren Croft’s focus has been on a gentler aspect of killer whale existence: their family and reproductive lives . Killer whales live in multi-generational family groups. Each family is led by an old matriarch, often well into her 80s. The rest of the group are her daughters and sons, and grand-children. Especially intriguing to Darren is that female orca go through something like the menopause - an extremely rare phenomenon in the animal kingdom, only documented in just five species of toothed whales and of course in humans. Halting female reproduction in midlife is an evolutionary mystery, but it is one which Darren Croft argues can be explained by studying killer whales. Darren is Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter. He talks to Jim Al-Kalili about his research on killer whales, his previous work revealing sophisticated social behaviour in fish, his life on the farm, and the downsides and upsides of being dyslexic.</p>

The Life Scientific: Bill Gates

<p>Bill Gates is one of the world's best-known billionaires - but after years at the corporate coalface building a software empire and a vast fortune, his priority now is giving that wealth away. And his ethos for doing it has been shaped by science.</p><p>Famed for co-founding Microsoft, in recent decades Bill’s attention has turned to philanthropy via The Gates Foundation: one of the largest charities in the world. Since its inception in 2000, the organisation has helped tackle issues around health, education, inequality and climate change in some of the world’s poorest countries, with an undeniable impact, from contributing to the eradication of wild poliovirus in Africa, to helping halve global child mortality rates within 25 years.</p><p>But, as Jim al-Khalili discovers, for a man with lofty ambitions and an even loftier bank balance Bill has surprisingly humble tastes.</p>

Uncharted: A different kind of justice

<p>A small, informal survey leads to shocking revelations about the US justice system, with its truths only uncovered decades later. Meanwhile, an ambitious portfolio manager discovers a perfect graph outlining eye-watering profits. But something does not seem right. Could the graph be accurate, or is it hiding a far more sinister truth? This story delves into the power of data, the hidden forces behind it, and the unexpected revelations that can change everything</p>

Uncharted: The golden spike

<p>At a conference in Mexico, one scientist’s outburst sparks a global quest to find a ‘golden spike’ - the boundary marking the shift into a new geological period dominated by humans, not volcanoes or asteroids. From plastics and concrete to nuclear fallout, the data they uncover reveals a planet profoundly altered. But can they convince their colleagues and the world of the extent of this transformation? Meanwhile, in a small Italian city nestled in the Apennine mountains, a series of low-level tremors raise the question: Is this just a passing phase, or a warning of something much more devastating?</p>

Uncharted: Songs of the sea

<p>A PhD student with a passion for whales stumbles upon a strange, eerie sound deep beneath the ocean waves, something that will soon rock her world. Meanwhile, a fisherman is stranded in the ocean late at night, completely alone. With time running out, can he be rescued before it is too late? From mysterious discoveries to life-or-death struggles, this story delves into the power of the ocean and the determination to survive.</p>

Uncharted: The grain of truth

<p>Amid the desperation of war-starved Netherlands, a doctor defies conventional wisdom to save gravely ill children, uncovering a treatment that sparks both hope and controversy. Years later, in 1967, a young female researcher detects a strange, pulsing signal. Could it be mundane interference or evidence of alien life? From lifesaving breakthroughs to cosmic discoveries, this story celebrates the determination of pioneers who challenge convention and pursue truth against the odds.</p>

Uncharted: Love Bytes

<p>A mathematician searching for love discovers that relationships aren’t always as simple as equations—are his calculations the issue, or is there something deeper at play? Meanwhile, at an engineering conference, a young researcher’s seemingly minor mistake uncovers a scandal of epic proportions. Can numbers find love or unveil problems? From personal dilemmas to professional revelations, this episode dives into the unexpected ways numbers can change lives.</p>

Inside Health: Life after my mountain accident

<p>In 2016, Niall McCann was left with a bruised spinal cord when he crashed his speed glider into the side of a mountain at 50mph.</p><p>He shares his journey to recovery and some unexpected life lessons he has had to navigate, from soiling himself in inconvenient places and not being able to control his flatulence, to having to re-learn how to have sex again.</p><p>We also hear from a Mountain Rescue medic on what looked like an “unsurvivable” situation and Niall’s surgeon on fixing his “exploded” spine.</p>

Inside Health: Can Insomnia be fixed?

<p>Perhaps you couldn't drift off, or maybe you woke in the middle of the night and then couldn't nod off again. In this edition of Inside Health we're talking all about insomnia. It’s an issue that may affect many of us at some point in our lives – but for some it goes beyond a short period of not being able to sleep and becomes something more serious. James is joined by a trio of experts ready to answer to them: Dr Allie Hare, president of the British Sleep Society and consultant physician in sleep medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, Colin Espie, a professor of sleep medicine at Oxford University and Dr Faith Orchard, a lecturer in psychology at Sussex University. We’re going to find out why we get insomnia, when to seek help and how much factors like ageing, menopause, needing the loo or shift work matter. And we'll look at the latest advice and treatments. Can insomnia be fixed?</p>

Hay Festival Special

<p>Dr Chris van Tulleken shares stories from the making of his chart-topping podcast, Fed. In conversation with Leyla Kazim, at Hay Festival 2024.</p><p>In Fed, Dr Chris van Tulleken, investigated the entangled web of forces that shape what ends up on our plates. And he focused his investigation around one foodstuff in particular. The most widely eaten meat on our planet, a staple of nearly every diet and a global food production phenomenon: the humble chicken, Chris dug into the history of our relationship with this extraordinary animal, to try to get to the truth of why we eat so much of it, and what that means for the birds, for us, and for the planet.</p><p>In this lively conversation, recorded live at Hay festival 2024, Chris talks to Leyla Kazim about the hidden stories behind the globalised food networks of today. From industrial-scale farming, to food labelling, to ethical dilemmas, environmental quandaries, and the complexities of the world of fast food. Plus tales from the adventure that ran through the whole series: raising his own tiny flock of broiler chickens, in his back garden.</p>

Inside Health: How can we age well?

<p>From the Hay Festival, James and a panel of experts explain what we can all do to help ourselves age well.</p><p>We discover what’s going on in our bodies when we age, the difference between biological and chronological age, as well as getting the audience moving for a physical test.</p><p>James is joined by gerontologist Sarah Harper from the University of Oxford, biomedical scientist Georgina Ellison-Hughes from King’s College London, and doctor Norman Lazarus to understand how exercise, diet, and mental health all have a part to play in how we age.</p>

The Life Scientific - Peter Goadsby

<p>Throbbing head, nausea, dizziness, disturbed vision – just some of the disabling symptoms that can strike during a migraine attack. This neurological condition is far more common than you might think, affecting more people than diabetes, epilepsy and asthma combined.</p><p>While medications, to help relieve the symptoms of migraine, have been around for some time, they haven’t worked for everyone. And what happens in the brain during a migraine attack was, until recently, poorly understood.</p><p>Peter Goadsby is Professor of Neurology at King's College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology &amp; Neuroscience and is a true pioneer in the field of migraine.</p><p>Over the course of his career, he has unravelled what happens in the brain during a migraine attack and his insights are already benefiting patients - in the form of new medications that can not only treat a migraine, but also prevent it from occurring.</p><p>Peter shares this year’s Brain Prize, the world's largest prize for brain research, with three other internationally renowned scientists in the field.</p>

The Life Scientific: Kip Thorne

<p>Kip Thorne is an emeritus professor of theoretical physics at Caltech, the California Institute of Technology, and someone who has had a huge impact on our understanding of Einsteinian gravity. Over the course of his career Kip has broken new ground in the study of black holes, and been an integral parts of the team that recorded gravitational waves for the very first time – earning him a share in the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics.</p><p>He went on to promote physics in films: developing the original idea behind Christopher Nolan’s time-travel epic Interstellar and, since then, advising on scientific elements of various big-screen projects; including, most recently, the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer.</p><p>In a special edition of The Life Scientific recorded in front of an audience of London’s Royal Institution, Prof Jim Al-Khalili talks to Kip about his life and career, from his Mormon upbringing in Utah to Hollywood collaborations – all through the lens of his unwavering passion for science.</p>

The Life Scientific - Vicky Tolfrey

<p>It's summer - no really - and although the weather might have been mixed, the sporting line-up has been undeniably scorching - from the back-and-forth of Wimbledon, to the nail-biting Euros, to the current pageantry of the Summer Olympics.</p><p>Next month the 2024 Paralympic Games get underway in Paris, involving the world’s very best para athletes; and Professor Vicky Tolfrey is at the forefront of the science that makes their sporting dreams a reality.</p><p>Vicky is the Director of the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport at Loughborough University, a hub for elite para-sport research. She’s worked with stars from the worlds of wheelchair athletics, basketball, rugby and tennis, amongst others – and in 2017, became the first European recipient of the International Paralympic Committee’s prestigious Scientific Award.</p><p>She tells Professor Jim Al-Khalili about her work with elite para athletes, her experiences at major international sporting events, and her childhood dreams of becoming an Olympian herself.</p>

The Life Scientific - Dawn Bonfield

<p>The engineering industry, like many other STEM sectors, has a problem with diversity: one that Dawn Bonfield believes we can and must fix, if we're to get a handle on much more pressing planetary problems...</p><p>Dawn is a materials engineer by background, who held roles at Citroën in France and British Aerospace in the UK. But, after having her third child, she made the difficult decision to leave the industry - as she thought at the time, for good. However a short spell working in post-natal services and childcare gave her new skills and a fresh perspective. This led to Dawn rehabilitating the struggling Women in Engineering Society and creating ‘International Women In Engineering Day’, which has just celebrated its 10th anniversary.</p><p>Today, she’s Professor of Practice in Engineering for Sustainable Development at King’s College London, and the founder of Magnificent Women: a social enterprise celebrating the story of female engineers over the past century. She’s also President of the Commonwealth Engineers’ Council and has had her work supporting diversity and inclusion recognised with an MBE.</p><p>Dawn talks to Professor Jim Al-Khalili about why 'inclusive engineering' should not be dismissed as tokenism, and why she's optimistic about the engineering sector's power to change the world.</p>

The Life Scientific: Raymond Schinazi

<p>In recent decades, we have taken huge steps forward in treating formerly fatal viruses - with pharmacological breakthroughs revolutionising treatment for conditions such as HIV, hepatitis and herpes. Raymond Schinazi has played a big role in that revolution.</p><p>Ray was born in Egypt, where his mother’s brush with a potentially deadly illness during his childhood inspired a fascination with medicine. His childhood was scattered; after his family were forced to leave their homeland and travelled to Italy as refugees, Ray ended up on a scholarship to a British boarding school - and subsequently went on to study and flourish in the world of chemistry and biology.</p><p>Today, Ray is the director of the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology at Emory University in Atlanta, where he also set up the renowned Center for AIDS Research. His work in the early days of HIV studies led to drugs that many with the virus still take today; while his contribution to developing a cure for Hepatitis C has saved millions of lives around the world.</p><p>Speaking to Jim al-Khalili, Ray reflects on his route to success and explains why he is confident that more big breakthroughs are on the horizon.</p>

The Life Scientific - Janet Treasure

<p>From anorexia nervosa to binge-eating, eating disorders are potentially fatal conditions that are traditionally very difficult to diagnose and treat - not least because those affected often don’t recognise that there’s anything wrong. But also because of the diverse factors that can influence and encourage them.</p><p>Janet Treasure is a Professor of Psychiatry at King’s College, London - where she's focused on understanding the drivers behind these disorders, to help develop more effective treatments. Her study of twins in the 1980s offered one of the earliest arguments of a genetic link to anorexia, rather than the purely psychological motivations accepted at the time; while her most recent work explores holistic ways to better treat these conditions.</p><p>Speaking to Jim Al-Khalili, Janet explains the work that's revealed anorexia's roots in both body and mind - as well as how attitudes towards eating disorders are slowly changing.</p>

The Life Scientific: Anne Child

<p>Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder that makes renders the body’s connective tissues incredibly fragile; this can weaken the heart, leading to potentially fatal aneurysms. What’s more, anyone with the condition has a 50/50 chance of passing it on to their children.</p><p>Dr Anne Child is a clinical geneticist who’s dedicated her professional life to finding answers and solutions for people affected by Marfan’s.</p><p>Born in Canada, she met her British future-husband while working in Montreal in a case she describes as "love at first sight" - and in the 1970s she relocated her life to the UK.</p><p>There, an encounter with a Marfan patient she was unable to help set Anne on a career path for life. She subsequently established the team that discovered the gene responsible for Marfan's, and founded the Marfan Trust to drive further research. Since then, life expectancy for those with the condition has jumped from 32 years old, to over 70.</p><p>Speaking to Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Anne shares how she and her team achieved this remarkable turnaround.</p>

The Life Scientific: Conny Aerts

<p>Many of us have heard of seismology, the study of earthquakes; but what about asteroseismology, focusing on vibrations in stars?</p><p>Conny Aerts is a professor of Astrophysics at the University of Leuven in Belgium - and a champion of this information-rich field of celestial research. Her work has broken new ground in helping to improve our understanding of stars and their structures.</p><p>Conny describes herself as always being “something of an outlier” and she had to fight to follow her dream of working in astronomy. But that determination has paid off - today, Conny is involved in numerous interstellar studies collecting data from thousands of stars, and taking asteroseismology to a whole new level.</p><p>Recorded at the 2024 Cheltenham Science Festival, Prof Jim Al-Khalili talks to the pioneering Belgian astrophysicist about her lifelong passion for stars, supporting the next generation of scientists, and her determination to tread her own path.</p>

The Life Scientific: Dr Nira Chamberlain

<p>When does a crowd of people become unsafe? How well will the football team Aston Villa do next season? When is it cost-effective to replace a kitchen? The answers may seem arbitrary but, to Nira Chamberlain, they lie in mathematics. You can use maths to model virtually anything.</p>

The Beaches

<p>A top secret little-known mission that changed the outcome of World War II. Not Alan Turing's Enigma code-breaking mission but a daring foray, conducted behind enemy lines on the shores of Normandy. Harrison Lewis and wetland scientist Christian Dunn re-enact one of the most remarkable feats of the Second World War and discover the intricate details of the daring but forgotten science that underpinned D-Day.</p>

Protein: Powerhouse or piffle?

<p>Take a trip around the supermarket and you'll see shelves of products claiming to be 'high in protein'. Scroll through your social media and you'll find beautiful, sculpted people offering recipes and ideas for packing more protein into your diet.</p><p>Science presenters Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber have noticed this too. They wanted to unpick the protein puzzle to find out what it does in our bodies and how much we really need. Can this macronutrient really help us lose weight, get fit and be healthier?</p><p>Along the way, they speak to Professor Giles Yeo from the University of Cambridge, Bridget Benelam from the British Nutrition Foundation, Paralympian hopeful Harrison Walsh, and food historian Pen Vogler.</p><p>Presenters: Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell Editor: Martin Smith</p>

The Life Scientific: Mike Edmunds

<p>What is the universe made of? Where does space dust come from? And how exactly might one go about putting on a one-man-show about Sir Isaac Newton?</p><p>These are all questions that Mike Edmunds, emeritus professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University and president of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), has tackled during his distinguished career. And although physics is his first love, Mike is fascinated by an array of scientific disciplines - with achievements ranging from interpreting the spread of chemical elements in the Universe, to decoding the world’s oldest-known astronomical artefact.</p><p>Recording in front of an audience at the RAS in London, professor Jim al-Khalili talks to Mike about his life, work and inspirations. And who knows, Sir Isaac might even make an appearance.</p>

Hannah Critchlow

<p>With 86 billion nerve cells joined together in a network of 100 trillion connections, the human brain is the most complex system in the known universe.</p><p>Dr Hannah Critchlow is an internationally acclaimed neuroscientist who has spent her career demystifying and explaining the brain to audiences around the world. Through her writing, broadcasting and lectures to audiences – whether in schools, festivals or online – she has become one of the public faces of neuroscience.</p><p>She tells Prof Jim Al-Khalili that her desire to understand the brain began when she spent a year after school as a nursing assistant in a psychiatric hospital. The experience of working with young patients - many the same age as her - made her ask what it is within each individual brain which determines people’s very different life trajectories.</p><p>In her books she explores the idea that much of our character and behaviour is hard-wired into us before we are even born. And most recently she has considered collective intelligence, asking how we can bring all our individual brains together and harness their power in one ‘super brain’.</p><p>And we get to hear Jim’s own mind at work as Hannah attaches electrodes to his head and turns his brain waves into sound.</p>

The Life Scientific: Fiona Rayment

<p>The reputation of the nuclear industry has had highs and lows during the career of Dr Fiona Rayment, the President of the Nuclear Institute. But nowadays the role of nuclear science and engineering has become more widely accepted in the quest for carbon net zero.</p><p>Growing up in Hamilton, Scotland during a time of energy insecurity, Fiona was determined to understand more about why her school lacked the energy to heat up all of the classrooms or why there were power cuts causing her to have to do her homework by candlelight - and in nuclear she knew there was a possible solution.</p><p>But it’s not just in clean energy that Fiona has spent her career, she’s also been involved in investigating how nuclear science can be used in treating cancer and space travel, as well as promoting gender diversity in the nuclear industry.</p><p>Speaking to Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Fiona discusses how she’s always tried to keep close to the science during her career in order to keep her ‘spark’!</p>

Sheila Willis

<p>Dr Sheila Willis is a forensic scientist who was Director General of Forensic Science Ireland for many years.</p><p>She has spent her life using science to help solve cases, working on crime scenes and then analysing material in the lab, and presenting scientific evidence in court.</p><p>It’s a complicated business. Forensic science relies on powerful technology, such as DNA analysis, but it cannot be that alone - it’s also about human judgement, logical reasoning and asking the right questions.</p><p>It is these fundamentals of forensic science that Sheila has fought for through her long career and what she fears may be becoming lost from the field now.</p><p>We find out what happens when the two very different worlds of science and the law clash in the courtroom. How to walk the line of presenting scientific evidence where there is pressure to be definitive where often science cannot be - and what this part of the job has in common with food packaging.</p><p>And what makes a good forensic scientist?</p><p>We’ll turn the studio at London’s Broadcasting House into a live crime scene to see if host Professor Jim Al-Khalili would be any good as a forensic investigator…</p>

The Life Scientific: Charles Godfray

<p>Professor Charles Godfray, Director of the the Oxford Martin School tells Jim Al-Kahlili about the intricate world of population dynamics, and how a healthy obsession with parasitic wasps might help us solve some of humanity's biggest problems, from the fight against Malaria to sustainably feeding a global community of 9 billion people.</p>

The Life Scientific

<p>Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, or ‘JVT’ as he's arguably better known, first came to widespread public attention in his role as Deputy Chief Medical Officer during the Covid-19 pandemic.</p><p>But even before that, Jonathan had built an impressive career based on a long-held fascination with respiratory illness and infectious diseases. He’s worked across the public and private sectors, contributing significantly to improving our understanding of influenza and treatments to address such viruses.</p><p>It’s hard to believe that back in his teens, JVT – the man who advised the nation on pandemic precautions and helped make the UK’s vaccine roll-out possible – nearly didn’t get the grades he needed to go to medical school. But early challenges aside, Jonathan went on to discover a love for both medical research and public speaking: making complex public health messages easier to digest – not least by using analogies relating to his beloved football.</p><p>Speaking to Professor Jim Al-Khalili in the first episode of a new series of The Life Scientific, Jonathan discusses his life and career: from academic emphasis in childhood and imposter syndrome at medical school, to pandemic pressures around Covid-19 and big birthday celebrations.</p>

Fed: Beyond the bird

<p>Dr Chris van Tulleken wrestles with the dilemma of slaughter. Could he bring himself to dispatch an animal himself? Is he happy supporting an industry which kills animals in his name? And if not, what could he eat instead?</p><p>Chris explores the rise of the alternative protein industry – plant-based meat alternatives, lab-grown meat, or most shocking of all for some, actual meat abstinence, Veganism.</p><p>And it is time to revisit that initial question: what’s influencing our choices when it comes to eating chicken, what impact is that having – and are we bothered?</p>

Fed: Big chicken

<p>We're a planet addicted to chicken and our appetites fuel a massive global industry, but is it one we should support?</p><p>While some cite it as a shining example of a super-efficient food production system, one that could help drive food security around the world, others say it is a cruel, destructive and outdated structure that makes a few people richer while exploiting others – along with animals and the environment.</p><p>In Brazil, one of the world’s biggest chicken and soya producers, our reporter Leonardo Milano hears accusations of threats and pollution relating to the feed sector; while in Africa, Dr Chris van Tulleken learns about poultry-farming initiatives helping to make struggling nations more food-secure.</p><p>There are also other challenges that the industry is wrestling with: from antimicrobial resistance to the threat of another major global pandemic - bird flu. So is there a ‘big business bad guy’ to blame – or does responsibility lie closer to home, with unquestioning consumers like Chris?</p>