The Material World

EU science funding;Pear-shaped nuclei;Hyades

With scientific research in the UK receiving an estimated 4.9 billion euro from the European Research Councilâs FP7 program, what would happen to this funding if the UK were to leave the EU altogether? The discovery of pear-shaped nuclei in radium isotopes hold huge promise in furthering our understanding of nuclear structure and also, testing the standard model of particle physics. By examining White Dwarfs stars in the nearby Hyades Cluster, we can gain invaluable insights into the fate of...

Bovine TB; Big Cat; Shark teeth

Scientists at the Royal Society discuss future strategies in controlling bovine TB. Proof that a non-native Big Cat prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century.Researchers think that clues to marine biological diversity over millions of years may be locked up in sharksâ teeth.

Science publishing, Transatlantic turbulence, Rapid...

Victor Henning is joined by Jason Priem of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author of a recent horizon scanning feature in Nature, to discuss the future of science publication and how this wealth of research will be managed in the future.New research, published in Nature Climate Change, suggests that turbulence could double by 2050. And changes to our environment are effecting evolution much quicker than we thought.

Edinburgh's International Science Festival

Quentin Cooper talks about ideas which are "dangerous" to Professor Colin Blakemore and Professor Chris Rapley. Plus, what is the lasting value of science festivals?

Clay on Mars, Neanderthals, Cholera,Tapeworms

Researchers have mapped the genomes of tapeworms to reveal potential drug targets on which existing drugs could act. Tom Koch-discusses John Snow who famously identified a pump as being the source of a cholera outbreak in 1854. NASA has reported that its Curiosity rover has made another significant discovery on Mars and a study of Neanderthal skulls suggests that they became extinct because they had larger eyes than our species.

Material: Coronavirus, Horsemeat, Blackbirds, DNA

The new coronavirus; can it be transmitted between humans? How to trace the source of processed horsemeat. Using DNA to store data. And city blackbirds mating early.

Material: Rail, Radioactive, Universe, Quantum Biology.

This week we discuss the engineering of high speed rail, the storage of radioactive nuclear waste, how our evolution is linked to that of the universe and quantum biology.

Material: Smog,Exploding Stars,Animal Replacement

Air pollution in the Chinese capital Beijing has reached levels judged as hazardous to human health. An international team of nuclear astrophysicists has shed new light on the explosive stellar events known as novae. The UK’s leading humane medical research charity, the Dr Hadwen Trust (DHT), and Queen Mary, University of London, have joined forces to lead the global development of human-relevant methods and alternatives to animal use in diverse areas of bio-medical research.

Material: Norovirus, superheroes and army underpants.

Winter vomiting, superhero physics and why military scientists design underpants.

Material: IQ tests, life on Mars, Santa up a chimney

Why IQ tests don't test intelligence, how a broken boiler control is hampering the search for life in Antarctica, why that frozen continent is a good model for life on mars and how Santa gets down a chimney courtesy of childrens presenters Dick and Dom.

Material World: Climate Talks; James Watson

With the on-going climate talks in Doha not hitting the headlines Quentin Cooper asks whether such large scale and largely incomprehensible meetings are effective at delivering anything worthwhile on climate change. Can science take the initiative from the policymakers and present the subject in a way which interests and inspires the public? We also interview James Watson the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA on the reissue of his classic work on the subject 'The Double Helix'

Material: Books, Intelligent roads, Old computers 22 Nov...

How to write award winning Science books, building intelligent roads to conserve energy and make our journeys safer and restoring a sixty year old computer.

Material: Bird deaths, Coffee, Ancient Tools

Why are birds migrating to the UK falling out of the sky and dying? Loss of the wild Arabica coffee crop could have significant implications for the sustainability of high quality coffee and a haul of stone blades from a cave in South Africa suggests that early humans were already masters of complex technology more than 70,000 years ago. . .

Material World 25 Oct: Earthquake, Ancient Tablets,...

Reaction to the six-year prison sentences handed to seven Italian scientific advisors for inadequate LAquila earthquake risk communication.Dr Jacob Dahl is trying to decrypt one of the oldest known written languages, proto-Elamite.And Dr Leonel Dupuy describes his breakthrough in the development of a see-through soil.

Material World 11th Oct: Nobel Prize Winners

Quentin speaks with three of this year's winners of the Nobel Prize; Prof. Sir John Gurdon for Physiology or Medicine, Prof. Serge Haroche for Physics, and Prof. Brian Kobilka for Chemistry.

Material World 27th September 2012: Gravity Fields

Quentin Cooper visits the "Gravity Fields" festival in Grantham, Lincs., which aims to celebrate the legacy of the town's most famous son, Sir Isaac Newton.

Material World 13 September 2012: Social Media,...

Material World this week is full of record breakers: an experiment involving 61 million people, an update on what is happening with the furthest-flung man-made object from Earth; the Voyager space craft, the largest botanical project ever completed - the Flora of Tropical East Africa and the biggest award for engineering - The Queen Elizabeth Prize.

Material World 30 August: Piano tuners' brains,...

Piano Tuners’ brains change over the course of their career, a solar system with two suns is discovered, geological unconformity on Mars, and chimps don’t do justice.

Material World: 16th August 2012

How a child with total paralysis could kick a football using a brain-controlled suit and the study of radiation impact on animals and plants in Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Material World 2nd Aug 2012: Phonics and neuroscience,...

We take a look at phonics and neuroscience, find out what mathematics can teach us about the historical basis of the oldest classical texts and discuss whether or not animals have empathy.

Material World 19th July 2012: Crowd funding

We take a look at crowd funding as a new means to fund scientific research. Matt Salzberg has set up Petridish.org to connect scientists and potential donors. Science communicator Alice Bell will join Quentin in the studio to discuss potential ethical pitfalls.

Material World: 5th July 2012: Higgs-like particle...

Scientists at CERN have discovered a Higgs-like particle. Also, show & tell at the Royal Society: a new method to read fossils, the sound of bubbles and the genetic spread of peoples in the UK

Material World 7th June 2012: Legionnaires’, Venus and...

Why the bacteriology of Legionnaires’ disease makes it so hard to detect, why the Transit of Venus is good for science and the truth behind the illusion of stripes.

Material World 24th May 2012: Perceptions of energy...

Energy generation perceptions, light loving bugs, fast chips, and predicting earthquakes.

Material World 3rd May 2012: North Sea wind power,...

Developing North Sea wind power, Bending Gamma rays to help cure cancer, the nature of horrid noises and a hackers guide to hacking.

Material World 12th April :

Titanic telecommunications, undersea earthquakes and do people sound how they look.

MW 29 Mar;Gas Bacteria, Geoengineering, SYWTBAS

Gas eating bacteria, how to save the world and what stripes might do to your figure.

MW 15 Mar; Hominin puzzle, Art, Robots and Avatars

A new set of hominin remains from a cave in China are difficult to fit on the Human family tree, while human-like "Robots and Avatars" assemble at a new exhibition in Liverpool.

Material World 01 March Science advisers, lab animals,...

Quentin looks in to the role of government science advisers, the use of animals in research, and a 400 million year old forest.

Material World 16 Feb: Star on the brink of a supernova...

Star on the brink of a supernova explosion; Our global water footprint; New Elizabethans.

Material World 2nd Feb 2012: A genome ethics survey,...

Quentin discusses sharing genetic information, the link between brain size and how many friends you have, researching emotion in art and what triggered the little ice age.

Material World: 19 January. 3D Maps, Darwin, Do Stripes...

Quentin hears about mapping the world in 3D, Darwins lost fossils, what stripes do for your body image, and drought and the fall of an empire.

Material 05 Jan 12 End of the World

Quentin asks if the world will end in 2012 and if not, why do people make apocalyptic predictions?

New planets, brain chips, amateur scientists, Christmas...

A new planet the size of the Earth, simulating the brain with analogue chips, the last four in the long list of potential amateur scientists, how robins choose a sexy mate and how a warming climate is bad for your Christmas tree

Rare Metals, Collecting Carbon, Strange Shrimp - 08 Dec...

Quentin Cooper asks if it's worth extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and how industry is planning for a world shortage of rare elements. A 500 million year old monster eye with 16 000 lenses and the first finalists shortlisted from listeners who want to be a scientist.

Material: 24 Nov 11: Scientists on risk, Insect flight

The UK’s top science advisers discuss communicating risk and uncertainty to politicians and the public. And Quentin explores the secrets of locust flight.

Fracking; Hidden Heroes; SYWTBAS? Periodic Knitting

This week: fracking for oil and gas and listening to the ground, Hidden Heroes at the Science Museum and a last chance for amateur scientists.

Material World at the National Maritime Museum.

Material World this week comes from the London Science Festival. Quentin Cooper presents an outside broadcast recorded in front of an audience at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The programme celebrates citizen science and do-it-yourself discovery, as part of 'So You Want to Be a Scientist?', Radio 4's search for the next BBC Amateur Scientist of the Year.

Stem cells, Black Death,Lawrence M Krauss and KickSat...

Quentin Cooper on the latest advances in stem cell technolgy, cloning and gene therapy, he unpicks the organism that caused the Black Death and converses with Lawrence Krauss

'So you want to be a Scientist?', Neutrinos faster than...

Material World announces the return of 'So You Want to Be a Scientist?' - the search for the BBC's Amateur Scientist of the Year. Also neutrinos faster than light and catalytic clothing.

Quentin reports from the British Science Festival in...

Quentin reports from the British Science Festival in Bradford on thorium reactors, plants to clean up explosives, lie detection, ethical tissue and artificial volcanoes to counter global warming.

Hand axes, New lithium batteries, Cloning wildcats, The...

Quentin Cooper hears about the first skilled toolmakers, a battery that won’t set your laptop ablaze, cloning wildcats and, despite Apollo 18, why we should go back to the Moon.

Jaws, Plesiosaurs, Time perception, Surgery, Bees

Quentin Cooper looks at tactile surgery, brainy bees, the evolution of jaws, viviparous sea monsters and our split-second perception of time

Material: Quentin on Milgram’s Obedience Studies, the...

Quentin Cooper discusses Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments on their 50th anniversary, the science behind illusioneering and new research which suggests our Moon’s lopsided shape is due to a collision with a companion moon.

Material World

Quentin Coopers hears about the arrival of NASA’s Dawn spaceprobe at the asteroid Vesta, the last Space Shuttle flight, reducing animal experiments, and the physics of cricket.

Krill, Royal Society sensations, Science of body art

Quentin Cooper hears how krill fertilise the ocean; he visits the Royal Society’s Summer exhibition to investigate sight, sound and smell and hears how science meets art in the artist’s body

Material World: City stress, Darwin's library,...

Quentin Cooper on city stress, Darwin’s annotated books and the debate of how science/health should be presented in the media. The producer is Tamsin Barber

Heart, Neolithic Building Boom, Amber

Quentin Cooper on how to make broken hearts heal themselves, how dating techniques have revealed a building boom in the Neolithic and an old tail in the hunt for fossils in amber.

Icelandic eruption, Electron shape, Urban gardens

Adam Rutherford investigates the latest Icelandic eruption, the shape of the electron and the benefits of urban gardens

Material: New epoch, Fungi discovery, Domesday Project

A new human geological epoch, a surprising fungi discovery and the rediscovery of the Domesday Project.

Ocean tea, Shuttle search for antimatter, Cosmati...

Quentin investigates ‘ocean tea’ in the Arctic and salt in the South; how the Space Shuttle will search for antimatter, restoring the ground under Kate and William’s feet and re-writing Azimov’s laws for robot ethics

Material World: Fossils, Biofab, Harrison Timekeeping,...

Oxford University's Leila Battison describes fossils of some of the first life forms on Earth, found by Loch Torridon in northwest Scotland. Also Dr Drew Endy, director of BIOFAB, the world's first open-source synthetic biology factory, on how he hopes to provide generic genetic parts to bioengineers to speed up developing new organisms. Quentin goes to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to see one of the oldest chronometers being refurbished ahead of the 300th anniversary of the 1714...

Material: Japan, Beaked whales, Birds, Sergei Korolyov

Japan is to decommission four stricken reactors at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant. Adam Rutherford talks to Dr. Jim Smith and Professor Gerry Thomas. Scientists from the University of St Andrews have found that beaked whales are particularly sensitive to unusual sounds. Professor Ian Boyd explains. A new study shows that large birds of prey and sea birds crash into wind turbines and power lines because they do not look where they are going. Adam talks to Professor Graham Martin. The...

Material: Japan Nuclear Power Crisis

In this week’s programme, Material World examines and explains the science behind the nuclear power plant crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. Quentin talks to Professor Andrew Sherry, Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, about the science and engineering of nuclear power stations. Professor Richard Wakeford explains what radiation is and its effects. Professor Geraldine Thomas, Chair in Molecular Pathology, Imperial College London, explains the health effects of...

Material: Women, Meteorites, Squirrels 03 03 11

The UNESCO 2011 Women in Science Awards recognises five outstanding women scientists. Quentin talks to Clare Lloyd, Professor of Respiratory Immunology at Imperial College, about the importance of these awards in encouraging female scientists. Researchers in America have discovered a meteorite which is rich in the gas ammonia. It could lend weight to the argument that life on earth may have been seeded from space. Quentin talks to Professor Sandra Pizzarello, who led the research and Dr...

Material: Human impact on flooding, Van Gogh’s fading...

Scientists have discovered that green house gases have significantly increased the risk of extreme rainfall. Dr Richard Allan and Professor Mark Maslin join Quentin to explain more. X-ray analysis has been used to explain why the bright yellows in his paintings have faded to brown over time.... Quentin talks to Professor Koen Janssens, from the University of Antwerp, who led the research. On February 14th NASA’s Stardust-NExT mission hooked up with the Tempel 1 Comet, which back in 2005 had...

Material: Cyclone,Extrasolar Sys,Ramsay,Lake Vostok

Cyclone Yasi – the strongest cyclone in a century - has battered the state of Queensland, Australia, leaving a trail of destruction. Quentin finds out about the extreme weather that has occurred in the country. The team from the Kepler Space Mission have announced the discovery of an extrasolar system consisting of a Sun-like star called Kepler-11 with six transiting planets. Few stars have more than one known transiting planet, making this very unusual. English Heritage are dedicating a...

Material: UK Swine flu autopsies, Genetic study of bed...

As swine flu is still an ongoing concern, Quentin looks at the latest reports from UK autopsies of last winter's swine flu deaths and how the research may help with diagnosis. He talks to pathologist Professor Sebastian Lucas and Dr Imogen Stephens. Bed bugs have plagued us since prehistoric times, but pesticide-resistant strains have now taken over New York and threaten to spread across the planet. The first genetic study of bed bugs promises to find the causes of that resistance and more...

Material: International Year of Chemistry

2011 is the International Year of Chemistry: Quentin hears about the largest synthesised molecule, how legitimate research on neurochemicals was subverted by designer-drugs makers, the value of rare earth elements, and green chemistry.

Material: New Hominid; Einstein; Cooking for Geeks 23...

DNA analysis of the fragment of finger bone found in Siberia has shown that it is likely to be a new species of hominid: we discuss the findings; Quentin meets former chemistry professor Peter Plesch who reminisces about family friend Albert Einstein; and Jeff Potter, author of 'Cooking for Geeks', tells Quentin how to cook a perfect Christmas turkey in just 15 minutes.

Material: Drugs policy, Space travel and Genome...

Quentin Cooper presents his weekly digest of science in and behind the headlines. In the programme this week he discusses the new government proposals to include fewer science voices on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Getting into space is still proving harder than it looks, Quentin looks back on recent mishaps in man's attempts to conquer space. Also in the programme, will we soon be sequencing our own genomes in our own homes?

Material: Recession and a warming world, Liquid...

Gareth Mitchell discusses the recession and its impact on the climate, high energy nuclear collisions at CERN, stranded cetaceans and Alan Turing's papers.

Material: Large Hadron Collider, snow and global...

Quentin Cooper presents this week’s digest of science in and behind the headlines. In this edition: The Large Hadron Collider and how smashing lead ions together help our understanding of what happened at the birth of our Universe; after the first snowfall this season, a look at what scientists have discovered about last year’s cold snap and how it relates to global warming; and the first steps to an invisibility cloak that will hide any object wrapped inside.

Material: Indonesia Tsunami; Merapi Volcano; Space...

Indonesian disasters: Quentin hears from the experts about the causes of this week's Sumatran earthquake and tsunami, and the latest eruption of Mount Merapi on Java, and how science can help. And pollution from space travel. As the world's richest line up for the first private flights into space, experts warn that rocket exhausts could exacerbate the problem of global warming. Also, after the last in the series A History of the World in a Hundred Objects celebrates the latest in electrical...

Material: Stem cell trials, Archaeology & human remains,...

Stem cell trials - Geron's spinal cord therapy starts after years of regulatory wrangles. Human remains and archaeology - researchers complain of burdensome regulations. And a brief encounter with a comet chaser NASA's Deep Impact space probe is closing in on the Comet Hartley 2; Quentin hears about the science astronomers hope to learn from the encounter.

Material: Gliese 581 g, Dry water, Mobile and internet...

Discovery of new planet Gliese 581 g, a demonstration of dry water, patterns in mobile phone and the internet usage and the lost correspondence of Francis Crick.

Material: So You Want To Be A Scientist Final

Quentin hosts the live final of the "So You Want To Be A Scientist" competition. The four finalists present their findings to a panel of judges. Who will be this year's best amateur scientist?

Material: Cluster Mission, SYWTBAS Update, Bioconcrete,...

The Cluster mission is ten years old this week; Quentin discusses how its findings help us understand the protective properties of the magnetosphere against solar winds. The problem of cracking concrete and its potential bacterial solution is discussed as he looks at bio-concrete which uses a strain of mineral-eating bacteria to do the job. As the humble fruit fly stars in its own conference Quentin takes a closer look at how important Drosophilia are in genetic experiments; and he...

Quentin Cooper investigates the news in science and...