Special Editions

Although Covid-19 is dominating the headlines perpetually at the moment, it's very important not to lose sight of other significant diseases that don't yet have vaccines and do have a higher cumulative death toll. Malaria is one of them and kills half a million people, mostly children, every year. One serious problem is that the parasite that causes the disease is rapidly becoming resistant to the remaining antimalarial drugs we're using, so scientists have been searching for new ways to treat the disease. So far, more than 7 million chemical compounds have been screened to try to discover new... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Earlier this year a devastating heatwave in the pacific northwest of the United States killed almost 200 people with record-shattering temperatures; and, in 2019, the UK recorded its highest ever temperature of 38.7 degrees here in Cambridge. Alarmingly, new research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology suggests that there's more of this to come. Eva Higginbotham heard why from Erich Fischer... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A question we're being asked quite a lot is whether the extra lengths we're going to in terms of hygiene to protect us from COVID-19 might cause us immune problems later because we're living lives that are too clean. This is the basis of what's dubbed the "hygiene hypothesis". But a report out this week says that, actually, it's the environment we've created - rather than the way we clean it - that matters, because modern living conditions and building materials select for the wrong sorts of microbes. Microbiologist and author of the report, Graham Rook, spoke to Chris Smith... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The general view is that waterways, such as rivers and underground water sources, will dry up during severe drought - but eventually recover and resume their normal flow when the rains return. But new findings from Australia pour cold water on that idea. When researchers analysed 30 years of rainfall and flow data from 161 water catchments in southeast Australia, they discovered that one-third of these water catchments had not recovered almost eight years later. Charlotte Birkmanis heard more from Monash University's Tim Peterson... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

An ancient skull, uncovered decades ago in China, has recently been revealed to be possibly the closest ever relative to humankind. It's called "Dragon Man", and based on trace uranium inside the skull, it's been dated to at least 146,000 years old - but could well be much older! This puts it at a critical time period in human evolution, when our ancestors were first emerging within Africa. But there's some disagreement about whether the fossil is from an entirely new species, or is linked to other sets of fossils found in East Asia. Palaeoanthropologist John Hawks, who wasn't involved in the... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Few animals inspire the imagination like Tyrannosaurus rex. And the mighty tyrannosaurs did dominate the lands that eventually became central Asia and western North America for millions of years. But during that time, fossils show that medium-sized predators all but disappeared. Why? Thomas Holtz from the University of Maryland dug deep into the records, and - as he tells Charlotte Birkmanis - thinks teen T-rexes are the answer... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Previously, researchers knew that sharks can travel back and forth across entire oceans, accurately returning to specific locations. But what we didn't know was whether they memorise these routes, or if they have some sort of inbuilt GPS. To find out how sharks navigate, Charlotte Birkmanis mapped the course with Florida State University's Bryan Keller... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

New technology may help save bees by providing an antidote for deadly pesticides. The new solution allows beekeepers to feed their bees 'pollen patties', a pollen-sized microparticle filled with enzymes to prevent the bees from ingesting certain pesticides. Carlotte Birkmanis chatted with Cornell University's James Webb to get the latest buzz on their sweet technology. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Covid viruses, vaccines and variants: Chris Smith talks to Radio New Zealand National to bring Kim Hill up to speed with the latest developments on the pandemic front, including the recent case in NZ's Wellington... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Eastern Australia is currently in the grips of a mouse plague. Mice live everywhere people do, often undetected. Right now though, highly favourable conditions have caused mice populations to explode in the eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales. A year of abundant rainfall after several years of drought has led to bumper crops, providing lots of food for mice, allowing them to not only thrive but also reproduce at an astonishing rate. Farmers are using zinc phosphide-coated wheat bait to combat the pests, the only registered in-crop rodent killer for the management of mice in... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists