Science unscripted

Today on Spectrum - is what you eat during pregnancy harming your baby for life? Plus, we head along to Germany’s first HIV research center. Meet a Senegalese woman doing her bit for the environment – by designing a novel smartphone app. And, are driverless cars the way of the future? All that and more on this jam-packed edition with host Jessie Wingard.

In Germany, an African virus, the so-called Usut virus, is responsible for the deaths of thousands of blackbirds. Researchers at the Bernhard-Nocht Institute in Hamburg are investigating what exactly is going on.

An African virus has been killing lots of blackbirds in Germany. A zoo in Prague has found an inventive way to finance itself. Lynx are coming back to Spain. And, is learning a foreign language your best bet for warding off dementia and other neurological diseases?

On this week's program, we're going to take a look at how robotics are helping paraplegics to walk again + How smoking cigarettes causes cancer in parts of the body that are never touched by smoke + And how music can be used to mollify the fear and pain of dying

We are biologically primed to like patterns, and that's why clowns terrify us - selfies are making people unhappy but also happy - and we find out why soccer players who head the ball a lot will likely give dull post-game interviews.

On this special edition of Spectrum, host Jessie Wingard comes to you from the European Space Agency’s main mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, as we learn the fate of the ExoMars lander, meet an astronaut and find out where space travel is headed in the future. A not to be missed program.

On this special Nobel edition of Spectrum, host Jessie Wingard chats with 2016 Nobel Laureate - Professor Ben Feringa. And, we hear about why computer science should be given Nobel Prize status, and find out what autophagy is all about.

Mosquito-borne outbreaks in India, Prague brings science to the streets, we hear what Ötzi has to say about being a celebrity mummy, we find out how the Netherlands is grappling with loneliness - and Rosetta has crash landed, long live Rosetta.

On this week's show, the science of registering refugees - the incredibly uplifting story of how a woman overcame MS - Using Mapswipe to help map disaster zones - What's an image really worth these days?

On this week's special edition of Spectrum from Rio de Janiero, Brazil, host Jessie Wingard takes a behind the scenes look at what goes into getting athletes to the Paralympic games – meets a Paracyclist using 3D printing technology in a world first. Along with meeting a world record holder of a different kind and we take a look into the future.