Quick Fire Science, from the Naked Scientists

This week, reports suggest that the 2013 opium harvest in Central and South Asia was the largest on record. But what is opium? Here's your quick fire science with Kate Lamble and Simon Bishop. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week archaeologists in Queensland, Australia, found part of a fossil from an ancient platypus that was a metre-long. Archaeologists have already found the remains of many giant ancestors of modern creatures, so here's two modern day giant animals - Simon Bishop and Matt Burnett - with this week's Quick Fire Science looking at why animals grew so big in the past. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder treason and plot. We see no reason, why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot! So here's your quick fire science on gunpowder and fireworks just in time for Bonfire Night, with Kate Lamble and Simon Bishop. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week saw the final of the Great British Bake Off, a television programme in which 13 people spend a weekend in a tent, baking cakes and bread. Over 6 million viewers tuned in each week to catch the adventures of the amateur bakers, as they crafted three-dimensional novelty vegetable cakes, tricky millefeuille and choux pastry delights, while avoiding that ultimate sin against pastry - a soggy bottom. It has also inspired a new generation of home bakers. Here's your quick fire science on baking, with Matt Burnett and Simon Bishop. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

It's official: the UK has a slug problem. This week, researchers from the John Innes Centre in Norwich asked the public for help to help them track down the Spanish slug, a rapidly reproducing invasive species that eats crops and is not deterred by slug pellets. Here's your quick fire science on invasive species, with Matt Burnett and Simon Bishop. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, the Nobel Prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry were awarded. Here's your quickfire science on the life of the prize's founder, Alfred Nobel, and past recipients of the award with Matt Burnett and Simon Bishop. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A mummified body known as the Cashel man was recently found to be the oldest so called 'bog body' with intact skin anywhere in the world. Here's your quickfire science on how wetlands can preserve ancient human remains with Kate Lamble and Matt Burnett... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, salvage experts have been trying to raise the MS Costa Concordia, a cruise liner which partially sank near the island of Giglio off the coast of Italy in January 2012. Here's the quick-fire science on the Concordia and the salvage operation to raise it. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Zoo keepers in Edinburgh have said this week that they're uncertain whether a giant panda in the city's zoo might give birth to a cub. But why is it so notoriously difficult to get pandas to breed in captivity, and how can there be so much doubt over whether a panda is pregnant? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

You may have heard this week about a new building at 20 Fenchurch St, in the City of London. The 37-storey skyscraper, which has already been dubbed the 'Walkie-talkie' due to its unusual shape, has been blamed for cooking a number of vehicles parked nearby. Some suggest that this might be due to the novel shape of the building, which causes it to act as a parabolic reflector, targeting sun's rays. Here's the quick fire science behind parabolic reflectors and their uses. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists