5 Live Science Podcast

Dr Chris sitting in for Dr Karl with Giles answers all your science related questions.

This week we're taking a look at a breakthrough in understanding Alzheimer's Disease. We also find out why someone sent a cheese into space this week!

Dr Karl answers all your science questions.

Under the microscope this week we've got the bacteria that made headlines by using arsenic instead of phosphorus; so is this a tantilising sign that life evolved on Earth more than once? We also hear how a patient with an inflammatory bowel disease treated himself with a dose of worms.

Run for your lives the mole rats are coming! Well maybe not, but they don't drink water and do eat their own faeces. Nice! The perfect dinner guests. Dr Karl also tells us how a trick of the brain could cause obesity and how the desalination of sea water is pretty tricky. Plus has anyone ever found a magnetic monopole? Err...no.

This week Doctor Chris and colleagues look at the latest Aids research ahead of the 30th anniversary of the identification of HIV, the blood test that predicts a person’s age and the moon of Saturn with an oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Why the earth is pear-shaped, Newton's first law and the formula for gripe water occupy Dr Karl and Dr Rhod this week. They're joined by Brian Dunning who takes a look at what makes a quadrillion.