BBC Inside Science

The first ever spacecraft to bring Martian samples back to Earth has launched from Japan. However, before the spacecraft returns from Phobos in 2031 there are many complex challenges that lie ahead, leaving an anxious 5 year wait for the scientists involved. To help us understand just how ambitious a feat of engineering the Mars Moons eXploration mission is Tom Whipple is joined by Naomi Murdoch, research director at ISAE-SUPAERO.

What is it like to carry out scientific research when your work might lead to you being publicly cancelled or reviled? For the next few weeks, we are going to be hearing from finalists of Sense about Science’s John Maddox Prize, this week neuropsychologist Professor Sallie Baxendale discusses what it is like to continue their scientific endeavours despite being met with hostility.

Plus managing editor of New Scientist Penny Sarchet brings Tom a round-up of the science news you might have missed.

Produced in partnership with The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple

Back in May, we checked in on the developments in the eastern Pacific’s ocean currents, that we call El Niño. We said that stirrings in the surface suggested there might just be quite a big one. Now, it seems, everyone is talking about it, and it’s definitely big. What is the El Niño? And what is it really up to? Mark Maslin, Professor of Physical Geography at University College London, tells us.

This week the film Whalefall opens in cinemas - think Jonah, but with a lot more about the intricacies of whale digestion. But, is it an excellent bit of Hollywood nonsense? Or is it even remotely possible for this to happen? And even if it isn’t, can we still learn useful things about sperm whale biology? Only one man can answer that question...Deadly Steve Backshall.

For the next few weeks we talk to scientists from around the world, nominated for this year's John Maddox Prize, and whose evidence-based contributions to public discourse has not been universally well received. Dr Cyriac Abby Philips is a clinical hepatologist, based in Kerala, India, who is famous in his country for speaking out against traditional Indian medicine.

Produced in partnership with The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple

Tom Whipple investigates one of the biggest days in the 10,000 year history of maths. This week, overnight, OpenAI dropped hundreds of mathematical papers onto the internet. From the Margulis-Platonov conjecture to the Gaussian Propeller conjecture to Banach’s simple Lebesgue-spectrum problem. Decades of maths progress overnight. PhDs of work done in hours.

This week saw the Nobel Prizes awarded for Chemistry, Physics and Physiology or Medicine. From mice with blue lights in their brain to massive ice cubes with blue lights underground, science journalists Kit Chapman and Caroline Steel tell us what we need to know.

In 2016, President Obama reflected on the moon landings and on the delicate and dangerous task of putting humans there. He commented, when giving a former MIT programmer the Presidential Medal of Freedom: “Our astronauts didn’t have much time...but thankfully they had Margaret Hamilton.” Margaret led the programming team for the Apollo missions and was a pioneer, in every sense of the word, until her death this week.

Produced in partnership with The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple

Tom Whipple travels 100m below Switzerland to the tunnels of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) where the beams have been powered down to begin the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade. Paulo Fessia, deputy head of the upgrade project, shows us what they're doing and why.

In one of the cavernous halls on the site, Antti Onnela explains what the machinery is used for when it's not smashing particles together; understanding the formation of clouds. With Eva Sommer, Run Coordinator of the project, we learn how clouds are born from aerosol particles in a specialised chamber and how this informs climate models.

We also learn about what many hope is the next phase of European particle physics, the future circular collider (FCC). The FCC is due to be 3.4 times larger than the LHC and cost around £14 billion. Guy Wilkinson tells us why he believes the cost is justified.

And what will they do with all the substrate that is cleared for the new tunnels? Tom visits plant scientist Christiana Staudinger at the OpenSkyLab project in the fields above CERN's tunnels where they are making soil in hopes of replenishing the world's dwindling sources.

Produced in partnership with The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple

In October members of the General Conference on Weights and Measurements are voting to change how we keep time on Earth accurate. Currently an additional second, known as a Leap Second, can be added to make sure modern atomic clocks stay in sync with solar time. However, all of this might be about to change as the rotation of the Earth speeds up and interferes with our measurements. Tom takes a trip to meet Principal Scientist Setnam Shemar at the National Physics Laboratory to learn how our time lords keep us all on schedule. Plus, Associate Professor Claire Nichols from Oxford University helps us understand why the Earth's rotation puts our timekeeping in jeopardy.

Also on the show, professor of Mathematical Biology, Kit Yates, has scoured the news to bring us two of the hottest science stories this week. We find out how scientists can tell the body temperature of the Tyrannosaurus rex from fossils, and whether the record has been broken for the warmest temperature complex life – eukariotic cells – can tolerate on Earth.

Our coverage of the Royal Society Trivedi book prize is also heating up as the winner is announced next week. Ahead of the ceremony author, former winner and judge Bill Bryson shares with Tom why he holds the prize in such affection. We also hear from shortlisted author Lise Barnéoud whose book, Hidden Guests, uncovers the surprising science of microchimerism and how some of your cells are not your own.

Produced in partnership with The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple

Nuclear fusion energy, the idea of copying the sun’s heat source on earth to make limitless commercial energy is famously always 30 years away. This month, the UK and US have agreed to combine the brains of their nuclear fusion supercomputers in an attempt to improve models of plasma behaviour using AI. Tom Whipple is joined by interim CEO of UKAEA Tim Bestwick to understand what challenges must be overcome to make commercialised nuclear fusion a reality.

Also on the show, have researchers finally found Nefertiti's tomb? Nature Reporter Lizzie Gibney answers one of the most exciting questions in science news this week.

Produced in partnership with The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple

Is AI really plotting against us? In a week where an Anthropic researcher believes there is more than a 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans' we're delving deeper into the capabilities of AI agents. Tom Whipple is joined by Alex Mallen, from Redwood Research, the team whose recent investigation exposed the surprising, weird, and worrying scale of a website hack conducted by OpenAI agents.

Is this the most important story we will ever cover on Inside Science? Or is this all just credulous sci fi hype? Professor Stuart Russell helps us unpick how we might align AI with humanity’s hopes.

Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel has trawled the news to bring us the science stories you might have missed. This week Caroline discusses how AI has allegedly helped solve a Millennium Prize maths problem and why planetary scientists are turning their attention to a shrinking Mercury.

Produced in partnership with The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple

The quest for Dark Matter just got interesting. Researchers on an international project called the Lux-Zeplin (LZ) Dark Matter Experiment reported they may have discovered the signature of a bit of Dark Matter passing through an underground mine in South Dakota. Kimberly Palladino, professor of physics at Oxford and a member of that LZ collaboration, speaks to Roland Pease to explain how dark matter is being detected.

Probiotics have long been all the rage in health advice, but this week we discovered they may also be good for corals. Microbiologist turned ecologist Erika Santoro has been testing a probiotic treatment on reefs in the Red Sea and joins us to divulge her findings.

We’re continuing with a tone of optimism with this week’s shortlisted book for the Royal Society’s coveted Trivedi Science Book Prize. Despite it All: A Handbook for Climate Hopefuls by veteran environmental journalist Fred Pearce, focuses on the progress humanity has made in protecting the planet.

Plus, mathematician Kit Yates is back, bringing us some of the week’s most exciting science news, including how we might use the earth's magnetic field to authenticate artefacts and a puzzling ten-sided cloud structure on Saturn's south pole.

Presenter: Roland Pease

Reports about the impacts of datacentres, including carbon emissions, water usage and power consumption, vary drastically and the truth can be hard to decipher. Deborah Andrews, Emeritus Professor at London South Bank University, joins us for some myth busting.

Plus, science journalist Caroline Steel has been scouring the journals and brings us some of this week’s most exciting science news, including the failed attempts to save the Swift space telescope.

Presenter: Tom Whipple

This week Merck (known as MSD in Europe) and Moderna announced that a personalised cancer vaccine had significantly improved the outcomes of melanoma patients. Is the era of the cancer vaccine, at last, upon us? What does that mean? Anne Willis, a cancer cell biologist at the Medical Research Council, joins us to discuss.

In just a few weeks the Royal Society will be putting out the red carpet as the most coveted prize in non-fiction science is about to be awarded. We will be speaking weekly to the shortlisted authors for the Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize, and we are starting with Kit Chapman, author of the Age of Alchemy.

Plus, Penny Sarchet has, like an alchemist of old, been scouring the most obscure texts and journals to bring us the latest science knowledge.

Presenter: Tom Whipple