BBC Inside Science

By BBC Radio 4

Technology

What's BBC Inside Science about?

A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.

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Forever chemicals

11.23.2023

PFAS chemicals, also known as forever chemicals, don’t break down in the environment. They can accumulate in the body and are found to have an array of harmful effects on human health. A major mapping project has revealed worryingly high ...

BBC Inside Science episodes:

11.23.2023 Forever chemicals PFAS chemicals, also known as forever chemicals, don’t break down in the environment. They can accumulate in the body and are found to have an array of harmful effects on human health. A major mapping project has revealed worryingly high ...
11.16.2023 White phosphorus White phosphorous is an incendiary material and if it were to be used in any built-up civilian areas, the practice would violate international law. We find out what makes white phosphorus so dangerous, and we ask how easy is it ...
11.09.2023 Tumbling down the rabbit hole of assembly theory A paper recently published in the journal Nature claimed that assembly theory could help explain and quantify selection and evolution. But what exactly is assembly theory? In this episode Marnie Chesterton speaks to science writer Philip Ball and zoologist and ...
11.02.2023 Life beyond Earth Under the mighty radio Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank, Victoria Gill brings together some of the UK’s leading experts who were visiting the recent ‘bluedot’ science and music festival. They discussed the ongoing hunt for extraterrestrial life. We hear from ...
10.26.2023 The state of nature in the UK In this week’s episode Victoria Gill speaks to Nida al-Fulaij, conservation research manager at the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, about the UK’s new State of Nature report. Climate change, habitat loss and intensive agricultural practices have been blamed for ...
10.19.2023 Why is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rowing back on climate pledges? UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a hastily arranged press conference this week in which he confirmed he would be rowing back on some previously made government commitments regarding net zero - the point at which we remove as much ...
10.12.2023 The halfway point for sustainable development In 2015 the UN adopted 17 sustainable development goals aiming to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure people everywhere enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. Ahead of a summit next week in New York marking the half way point, ...
10.05.2023 What’s the cost of invasive species? Humans have introduced more than 37,000 alien species to places they do not naturally occur. A report launched this week by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services revealed the shocking extent of the damage. Gaia Vince speaks to ...
09.28.2023 How will climate change affect where we can live? Extreme weather is forcing communities to leave their homes and it's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. What can we do about it? In this edition of BBC Inside Science, Gaia Vince and her guests discuss what climate displacement means ...
09.21.2023 What makes a healthy river? River health has captured the public imagination, particularly as overspills from sewers have been getting more attention in the media. But the condition of a river is so much more complicated than what flows into it from our water treatment ...
09.14.2023 Why do we want to go back to the Moon? Two plucky spacecraft, one Russian and one Indian, are currently blasting towards the Moon’s South Pole. Both Russia’s Luna-25 and India’s Chandrayaan-3 are due to touch down next week. They’re heading to that particular region of the Moon in order ...
09.07.2023 Time is still ticking for the Amazon After decades of exploitation, time is running out for the Amazon rainforest. Eight South American nations came together this week for the first time in 14 years in an attempt to draw up a plan for a more sustainable future. ...
08.31.2023 Reality check: carbon capture and storage This week the UK government announced that around 100 new oil and gas licences for the North Sea will be issued. At the same time the Prime Minister said the government would back two new carbon capture and storage plants, ...
08.24.2023 Battles with flames We're in the heart of summer in Europe, where extreme heat has spiralled into out-of-control wildfires across the Mediterranean, leading thousands to flee their homes. Previously on Inside Science we've looked at how and why temperatures are soaring across the ...
08.17.2023 The wide-ranging effects of climate change This week China hit a record high temperature, a scorching 52.2°C, while Death Valley in California measured 53.9°C. Elsewhere, Europe has been battling searing heat and raging wildfires. In previous editions of Inside Science we’ve explored the effects of heat ...
08.10.2023 How social media can affect the health of teenagers The Threads social media app launched on 5th July. Instagram users were able to sign up with just a few clicks. It joins a plethora of other social media apps like Snapchat, Twitter and TikTok, all of which are readily ...
08.02.2023 Mapping the universe A rocket launch, super-massive black holes and ghost particles! This past week’s scientific findings are testament to how hard-at-work cosmologists and physicists have been seeking out the fundamental building blocks of our universe and the rules that govern it. Professor ...
07.27.2023 Heat and health Last summer saw intense heatwaves across the world. And already this year, global air, surface and sea temperatures have hit the highest levels on record. China, India and the US are currently experiencing heatwaves. In June, the UK’s Met Office ...
07.19.2023 The science of sound Scientists, conservationists and other researchers are using audio soundscapes in innovative ways to record the natural world in rich detail and help develop strategies to preserve it. Gaia Vince visits the Dear Earth exhibition at London’s Southbank Centre where she ...
07.13.2023 The Kakhovka dam and global food security On Tuesday, the United Nations reported that the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River in Ukraine will impact heavily on global food security, causing a rise in food prices and leaving many without access to clean ...
07.05.2023 An ocean of opportunities For World Ocean Day, Gaia Vince finds out how the planet’s seas could help us to generate clean power, capture CO2 and feed the world. Gaia is joined in the studio by science journalist and marine biologist Olive Heffernan. She ...
06.29.2023 AI and human extinction In the headlines this week eminent tech experts and public figures signed an open letter that read “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” One ...
06.21.2023 The benefits and problems of eDNA This week, we hear from the University of Florida’s Dr David Duffy. He heads up a team of researchers who are studying sea turtles. In order to track the animals and their diseases, the scientists devised a method of collecting ...
06.14.2023 Science in the making The Royal Society is the oldest scientific academy in the world. Since being established in 1660, it has painstakingly archived thousands of papers, letters, manuscripts and illustrations from some of science’s most enquiring minds. In this episode, Victoria Gill takes ...
06.07.2023 Can we prevent natural disasters? Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and hurricanes all have the power to cause deadly destruction. One event can lead to another, causing a chain reaction of devastation that can take years to rebuild from. But do all natural ...
05.31.2023 Wild Britain In 2020, the UK government committed to protecting at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030. Step seven years into the future with Gaia. The UK has achieved its biodiversity goal, but what does wild Britain look ...
05.24.2023 70th anniversary of the discovery of DNA’s structure James Watson and Francis Crick, who detailed the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, are perhaps two of the most iconic scientists of the 20th Century. Yet the story of how they made their incredible discovery is perhaps equally famous, ...
05.17.2023 Rocket Launch Pollution Whilst the globe struggles to shift to green sustainable energy sources, one industry has its sights set solely on the stars. Space X just launched the biggest rocket the world’s ever seen, and it won’t be their last even if ...
05.11.2023 Negotiation When was the last time you had to use your negotiating skills? Did you walk away satisfied? This week junior doctors are half way through their 4 day walkout, with senior NHS figures suggesting the cancellation of between 250,000 and ...
05.04.2023 Recycling In this special edition of Inside Science, Vic Gill prepares to rummage through our rubbish, to peek behind the curtain of the UK's recycling habits and see how well prepared we are as a nation to further our efforts of ...
04.27.2023 Net Zero Far away and not enough, those are criticisms of the government’s latest net zero initiative – a plan to reduce emissions . We ask Jim Watson Professor of Energy Policy and Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources for ...
04.20.2023 Covid – missing link found? Data collated from swab samples taken in Wuhan’s market in the early days of the Covid pandemic suggest animals sold in the market were carrying the virus at the time. It’s the strongest evidence yet for an intermediate species – ...
04.13.2023 Sweet Science Researchers from London’s Francis Crick Institute have found a type of artificial sweetener is able to dampen down immune system responses - at least in mice. Karen Vousden and Fabio Zani tell us about the implications. And Ronan McCarthy from ...
04.06.2023 Science superpower? The government has launched a new 10-point plan designed, it said to “cement the UK’s place as a global science and technology superpower”. We speak with Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute, for his take on the ...
03.30.2023 Covid leaks and conspiracies Science writer Philip Ball has followed the relationship between government and its scientific advisors throughout the pandemic. He discusses the role of scientific advisors in the light of conflicting information following the leak of a number of former Health Minister ...
03.23.2023 Antarctic Ice Special Sea ice coverage hit a recording-breaking low in the Antarctic this week, but what does this mean for the rest of the world? Why is the region so difficult to predict? And what could further changes in climate mean for ...
03.16.2023 Gene Editing Ethics, Killer Whale Mummy's Boys and Ancient Hippo Butchery Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui caused international outrage when in 2018 when he used the gene-editing tool known as CRISPR Cas-9 to edit the genomes of two human embryos. That experiment, described by the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology described ...
03.09.2023 Abundant energy This week’s programme is a thought experiment: What would the world be like if energy became superabundant and very cheap? Energy is vital for every aspect of our society, and the energy cost of extraction, processing, manufacture and transport is ...
03.02.2023 Exploring the New Environmental Improvement Plan Defra, the department for Environment, food and Rural affairs, released its latest Environmental Improvement plan this week. Many environmental groups have criticised the plan for having vague commitments, and landowners are asking where the money is going to come from ...
02.23.2023 Vegetarian school dinners What if all schools offered only plant-based options for 3 out of 5 lunches a week? Would that be enough to trigger a broader societal shift to eating less meat, and allow us to meet our sustainability commitments? We’re not ...
02.16.2023 Towards Net Zero Former Energy Minister Chris Skidmore’s report into Net Zero calls for ambitious policies to drive energy transition, framing it as a huge economic opportunity to drive national growth. Using and conserving energy in the home is one theme the report ...
02.09.2023 Chatbot plagiarism ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is an online conversational chatbot, launched by OpenAI in November 2022. To date it remains an online sensation, allowing users to generate poems, essays, code and images in seconds. But fear bubbles in academic circles that ...
02.02.2023 The UK's first satellite launch The UK's first satellite launch faced several delays in 2022, but Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl is prepped for imminent take off. BBC science correspondent Jonathan Amos has been following the activity in Newquay and, alongside Melissa Thorpe head of Spaceport ...
01.26.2023 Game changers Nations are racing to protect 30% of the planet by 2030 in an attempt to halt biodiversity loss, but one novel approach may be able to safeguard species under threat of imminent extinction. Vic visited Nature’s Safe in May, a ...
01.19.2023 A Scientifically Superior Christmas Dinner How many Scientists does it take to cook Christmas dinner? Marnie seeks help from a food scientist, a geneticist, a doctor and a botanist to create the perfect festive feast.
01.12.2023 Cancer cure, Strep A research and hopes for biodiversity Base editing is a technique for substituting the building blocks of DNA. It has only been around for a few years, so its use to apparently cure cancer was all the more remarkable, as BBC Health Correspondent James Gallagher tells ...
01.05.2023 Biodiversity The UN Convention on Biological Diversity summit, currently taking place in Montreal Canada, intends to develop ways of reducing the global loss of biological diversity by drawing up a series of international commitments to help humanity to live more harmoniously ...
12.29.2022 Killer smog For a week at the beginning of December 1952, London was under a blanket of deadly smog. As a result, the Clean Air Act came into force a few years later banning smoky sulphurous fuels. However air pollution researchers are ...
12.22.2022 Science funding The UK has the opportunity to access European science funding. However disagreements over the Northern Ireland protocol are preventing the UK from joining the multi billion pound Horizon Europe project which funds scientific partnerships between European institutions. BBC Science correspondent ...
12.15.2022 Climate science and politics As the COP27 environment summit draws to a close we look at some of the issues still to be resolved. BBC Environment correspondents Victoria Gill and Georgina Rannard join us from the meeting. And we head to the houses of ...

Older episodes

BBC Inside Science

What's BBC Inside Science about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

BBC Inside Science episodes:

Forever chemicals

White phosphorus

Tumbling down the rabbit hole of assembly theory

Life beyond Earth

The state of nature in the UK

Why is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rowing back on climate pledges?

The halfway point for sustainable development

What’s the cost of invasive species?

How will climate change affect where we can live?

What makes a healthy river?

Why do we want to go back to the Moon?

Time is still ticking for the Amazon

Reality check: carbon capture and storage

Battles with flames

The wide-ranging effects of climate change

How social media can affect the health of teenagers

Mapping the universe

Heat and health

The science of sound

The Kakhovka dam and global food security

An ocean of opportunities

AI and human extinction

The benefits and problems of eDNA

Science in the making

Can we prevent natural disasters?

Wild Britain

70th anniversary of the discovery of DNA’s structure

Rocket Launch Pollution

Negotiation

Recycling

Net Zero

Covid – missing link found?

Sweet Science

Science superpower?

Covid leaks and conspiracies

Antarctic Ice Special

Gene Editing Ethics, Killer Whale Mummy's Boys and Ancient Hippo Butchery

Abundant energy

Exploring the New Environmental Improvement Plan

Vegetarian school dinners

Towards Net Zero

Chatbot plagiarism

The UK's first satellite launch

Game changers

A Scientifically Superior Christmas Dinner

Cancer cure, Strep A research and hopes for biodiversity

Biodiversity

Killer smog

Science funding

Climate science and politics