Scientifically...

Prof Andrea Sella on the shifting image of the scientist in popular culture, from Victor Frankenstein to Iron Man via victorious post-war boffinry and megalomanical Bond villainry.

The monster unleashed by Mary Shelley in her 1818 tale of gruesome gothic horror was in many senses not the creature itself, but the image of its careless creator. The recklessness of the lone scientist whose blind ambition fails to foresee the societal and practical consequences of his discovery or invention.

Throughout the last 150 years, the scientists in our science fictions have embodied the contemporary societal attitudes to science itself, sometimes in celebration, but often as a cartoon of our fears. At the same time professional scientists and science communicators have tried to share their work with wider audiences in an effort to democratize and enliven the endeavour.

These two approaches haven't always been in synchrony.

Presented by Prof Andrea Sella

Produced by Alex Mansfield

First broadcast on Saturday 9 October 2021.

This week in Scientifically… we celebrate the life of Sir Clive Sinclair with this episode from the series Computing Britain that looks at how 'micro computers' invaded the home in the 1980s.

In this episode, Hannah Fry discovers how the computer was transported from the office and the classroom right into our living room.

From eccentric electronics genius Clive Sinclair and his ZX80, to smart-suited businessman Alan Sugar and the Amstrad PC, she charts the 80s computer boom - a time when the UK had more computers per head of population than anywhere else in the world.

Presented by Hannah Fry

Produced by Michelle Martin

First broadcast on Tuesday 22 September 2015.

In an ideal (quantum) world, Jim Al-Khalili would be interviewing himself about his life as a scientist but since the production team can’t access a parallel universe, Adam Rutherford is stepping in to ask Jim questions in front of an audience at The Royal Society. Jim and his family left Iraq in 1979, two weeks before Saddam Hussein came to power, abandoning most of their possessions.

Having grown up listening to the BBC World Service, he had to drop his ts to fit in at school in Portsmouth where he was one of just three boys in a class of more than a hundred girls. He specialised in nuclear physics and spent fifteen years in front of a computer screen trying to understand an exotic and ephemeral sub-atomic phenomenon known as the halo effect. His ‘little eureka moment’ came in 1996 when Jim discovered that, for the mathematics to add up, these halo nuclei had to be a lot bigger than anyone had thought. It isn’t going to lead to a new kind of non-stick frying pan any time soon but it was exciting, nonetheless. More recently he has become interested in quantum biology. It started as a hobby back in the 1990s when physicists were sceptical and many biologists were unconvinced. Since then evidence has been stacking up. Several studies suggest that lasting quantum mechanical effects could explain photosynthesis, for example. 'It maybe a red herring’ Jim admits but Jim and his team at the University of Surrey are determined to find out if the idea of quantum biology makes sense. Could life itself depend on quantum tunnelling and other bizarre features of the sub-atomic world?

Produced by Anna Buckley.

CRISPR is the latest and most powerful technique for changing the genetic code of living things. This method of gene editing is already showing great promise in treating people with gene-based diseases, from sickle cell disease to cancer. However, in 2018 the use of CRISPR to edit the genes of two human embryos, which were subsequently born as two girls in China, caused outrage. The experiment was done in secrecy and created unintended changes to the children's genomes - changes that could be inherited by their children and their children's children. The scandal underlined the grave safety and ethical concerns around heritable genome editing, and called into doubt the ability of the scientific community to self-regulate this use of CRISPR.

CRISPR gene editing might also be used to rapidly and permanently alter populations of organisms in the wild, and indeed perhaps whole ecosystems, through a technique called a gene drive. A gene drive is a way of biasing inheritance, of getting a gene (even a deleterious one) to rapidly multiply and copy itself generation after generation, sweeping exponentially through a population.

In theory, this could be used to eradicate species such as agricultural pests or disease-transmitting mosquitoes, or to alter them in some way: for example, making mosquitoes unable to carry the malaria parasite. But do we know enough about the consequences of releasing a self-perpetuating genetic technology like this into the environment, even if gene drives could, for example, eradicate insects that spread a disease which claims hundreds of thousands of deaths every year?

First broadcast on Tuesday 3rd August 2021.

Professor Matthew Cobb looks at how genetic engineering became big business - from the first biotech company that produced human insulin in modified bacteria in the late 1970s to the companies like Monsanto which developed and then commercialised the first GM crops in the 1990s. Were the hopes and fears about these products of genetic engineering realised?

First broadcast on Tuesday 27 July 2021.

Biologist Matthew Cobb presents the first episode in a series which looks at the fifty year history of genetic engineering: from the concerns around the first attempts at combining the DNA of one organism with the genes of another in 1971, to today’s gene editing technique known as Crispr.

The first experiments to combine the DNA of two different organisms began at Stanford University in California in 1971. The revolutionary technique of splicing genes from one lifeform into another promised to be a powerful tool in understanding how our cells worked. It also offered the prospect of a new cheap means of manufacturing life-saving drugs – for example, by transferring the gene for human insulin into bacteria, growing those genetically engineered microbes in industrial vats and harvesting the hormone. A new industrial revolution based on biology looked possible.

At the same time some scientists and the public were alarmed by disastrous scenarios that genetic engineering might unleash. What if microbes engineered with toxin genes or cancer genes escaped from the labs and spread around the world?

In early 1974, responding to the public fears and their own disquiet about how fast the techniques were developing, the scientists leading this research revolution called for a global moratorium on genetic engineering experiments until the risks had been assessed.

This was followed by an historic meeting of 130 scientists from around the world in February 1975 in California. Its purpose was to decide if and how the genetic engineering research could be done safely. It was a rancorous affair but the Asilomar conference is held up as an idealist if imperfect example of scientists taking responsibility as they developed a powerful new technology.

First broadcast on Tuesday 20 July 2021.

This is the story, and the sound, of Puerto Rican scientist Wanda Díaz-Merced, who is revolutionising astronomy by turning data from space into audio that can be explored by ear.

This process, ‘sonification’, is not only making the universe accessible to people with visual disabilities, it takes advantage of the human ear’s ability to explore vast ranges of data and spot patterns that could be missed by other means. It’s already proved its worth scientifically, with discoveries being made that are complementary to those found by traditional analysis.

Growing up, Wanda was always focused on a career in science, but when she began losing her sight at university, she realised that most areas of science were becoming impossible for her.

An epiphany came when she encountered NASA’s Radio Jove and was able to hear the sound of radiation from the Sun. She knew immediately that this was her new direction, but also that if she wanted astronomy to develop into audio, she was going to have to make it happen herself.

Her drive and ambition led to her working with NASA, followed by a doctorate in computer science, so as to learn and experiment with creating tools that would allow astronomers to analyse data by simply listening to it.

Having achieved success and recognition for her work over several years, her next project takes her into one of the hottest areas of current astronomy, the hunt for gravitational waves. These tiny ripples in space-time were found for the first time only in 2015. As technology improves, more signals will be detected but these will be surrounded by masses of non-gravitational wave signals. The human ear is better than any computer at categorising these signals, so through a huge citizen science project, Reinforce, Wanda and her team aim to work with many thousands of volunteers to listen to and analyse reams of data, to help progress this new area of science.

Contributors to the programme are: Wanda Diaz Merced, Professor Steve Brewster (University of Glasgow), Professor Martin Hendry (University of Glasgow), Professor Katrien Kolenberg, and Grant Miller (Zooniverse/Oxford University).

Specially composed music: Thomas Hoey

Presenter: Kate Molleson

Producer: Anne McNaught

First broadcast on Tuesday 15 June 2021.

Mark Miodownik, explores the environmental consequences of the throwaway society we have become and reveals that recycling electronic waste comes second to repairing broken electronics. He asks what we can learn from repair cultures around the world , he looks at manufacturers who are designing in repair-ability, and discovers the resources available to encourage and train the next generation of repairers.

Presented by Mark Miodownik and produced by Fiona Roberts.

Many electronics manufacturers are making it harder and harder for individuals and independent repairers to fix their broken kit. There are claims that programmed obsolescence is alive and well, with mobile phone batteries designed to wear out after just 400 charges. The manufacturers say it's for safety or security reasons, but it drives the consumer model of constant replacement and upgrades. But people are starting to fight back.

Episode 2 - The Right to Repair

Mark Miodownik talks to the fixers and repairers who are heading up the Right to Repair movement which is forcing governments to act and making sustainability and value for money part of the consumer equation. He goes online for help replacing his broken mobile phone screen and dead battery and finds out how easy it is to dare to repair.

Presented by Mark Miodownik and produced by Fiona Roberts.

We love our electronic gadgets, gizmos and appliances. But when it comes to repairing and caring for them, UK citizens are second only to Norway when it comes to producing electronic waste. We have a culture of buying single-use, throwaway, cheaper-the-better, irreparable electronic goods. But the Age of Consumerism is over. If the kettles, toasters, phones and fridges we buy aren’t made to be repairable, and aren’t repaired, we are going to run out of things to buy, stuff to make them from and money to buy them with. Dare to Repair explores how we got to this unsustainable state, explores the fightback, whether it’s through global legislation or individual groups, and empowers listeners to prolong the life of their electronics and mechanical goods by fixing them.

Episode 1- How We Broke the Future

Materials scientist Professor Mark Miodownik of UCL looks back to the start of the electronics revolution to find out why our electronic gadgets and household goods are less durable and harder to repair now. As he attempts to fix his digital clock radio, he reveals that the drive for cheaper stuff and advances in design and manufacturing have left us with a culture of throwaway technology and mountains of electronic waste.

Presented by Mark Miodownik and produced by Fiona Roberts. First broadcast on Tuesday 27 April 2021.