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By Will Tingle
4.2
8787 ratings
The podcast currently has 109 episodes available.
The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

We're looking at the most critical variants of the coronavirus, and finding out how to tell whether they're flummoxing COVID vaccines. Plus: the cost of catching a serial killer; DNA with four strands instead of two; and a mutant fish whose fins have started turning into limbs! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The same thing that makes the patchwork colours on a tortoiseshell cat, also - according to some - is why human females live longer, see colour better, and even more often survive the coronavirus. It's all thanks to having two X chromosomes. Females compensate by switching one of them off, and the result is two distinct groups of cells in the body, each preferring one of the two X's. Welcome to the weird world of female mosaicism... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Do our genes control how we respond to COVID? The question has been nagging at the world since the pandemic began. Now we have the answer - and it's yes. In this programme, geneticist Nathan Pearson uncovers the specific bits of DNA that make you more likely to catch coronavirus, as well as the bits that might make you sicker.... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do we cope at the extremes of low temperature? Across the world, groups of people have historically made their home in icy and inhospitable landscapes... and even today, groups of thrill seekers push their bodies to the limits by going swimming in water close to freezing. In this month's programme, genes that help us handle - and even enjoy - being very cold. We've got two stories from the ancient ice, including the oldest ever DNA; plus, two modern genes found to be helping us out in interesting ways, whenever things get particularly chilly... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Meet the small DNA differences that make their mark by existing in the magical period of early development. We'll hear how mutations in the very first stages of human embryos have bizarre consequences for identical twins; and how even earlier in the process, sperm use selfish genes to get ahead of the competition. Plus, an immunologist untangles mRNA COVID vaccines, from efficacy numbers to delayed booster shots... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
The podcast currently has 109 episodes available.

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