Special Editions

Erosion is carrying away millions of tonnes of the soil we depend upon to keep our crops alive, every year. To try to prevent soil losses, farmers have moved away from some traditional techniques, like deep ploughing, and they're also planting short-lived "cover-crops" that protect the soil surface over winter. They then sow seed directly through these cover crops for the next season. The problem is that, without periodic deep ploughing, soils can become highly compacted. Plants don't tend to send their roots through compact soils so well, meaning they miss out on nutrients, and this can dent... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Anyone who's had surgery knows that recovery is often accompanied by discomfort. But scientists in Germany, writing in the British Medical Journal recently, explain how playing music and soothing words to patients while they are "under" during surgery results in less self reported pain and lower use of painkillers - specifically opioids - afterwards. Katie Haylor spoke to Ernil Hansen from Regensburg University Hospital in Bavaria... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Amid accusations of "despicable behaviour", the EU are backpedalling furiously. With fewer than 2% of EU citizens vaccinated compared with 12% of the UK population, Brussels faces a rising tide of disquiet from EU members as the bloc fails to get a vaccine programme on track. They blamed AstraZeneca, then invoked laws to erect a border across Ireland to block movements of vaccines made in Belgium. Many cannot believe the behaviour of the Brussels bureaucrats. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

You've probably heard of catnip, which makes cats go crazy. There's also another plant called silver vine, which has a similar effect. Now scientists have been nailing down what in silver vine makes cats so excited, but also a surprising bonus effect of the chemical - it makes an effective mosquito repellent! Eva Higginbotham heard how from lead author on the study Masau Miyazaki from Iwate University, which has just been published in the journal Science Advances...Ref: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/4/eabd9135 Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Although knitting and other handicrafts are having a bit of a moment during the pandemic as we all try to keep ourselves busy at home, the art and practice of knitting goes back a long way through history. Eva Higginbotham spoke with Loretta Napoleoni, a journalist and author who last year wrote a book about the power, and history, of knitting... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Now in the UK it is dark and dreary, but there's been a recent colourful scientific discovery to brighten up the day, as a new flamboyantly-dressed dinosaur has recently been described by scientists at the University of Portsmouth and the State Museum of Natural History in Germany. Eva Higginbotham heard the story from lead scientist on the project, Dave Martill... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Kim Hill talks to virologist Chris Smith about Covid-19 in 2020, in retrospect and right now. What's the situation with global access to vaccines for the new coronavirus, and will the "new variant" emerging in the UK defeat the present vaccine repertoire? Where did this variant come from, what does it tell us about how viruses evolve, and is the UK looking at another lockdown post Christmas? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Do you have any winter holiday traditions? This month, as we were gearing up for our holidays here at the Naked Scientists, we thought it would be a fun experiment to explore the science behind holiday celebrations around the world with the help of Chunendra Sahu, Cristina Rodriguez, Ljiljana Fruk, and Olgo Loblova - all researchers at the University of Cambridge... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The WHO estimates that up to 650,000 people globally die each year from the flu, and one of the tools in our arsenal against it is the seasonal flu vaccine. Recently there's been a huge breakthrough in the search for a universal flu vaccine, that is one vaccine that would give broad protection from lots of different strains of flu. Just published in the journal Nature Medicine, Eva Higginbotham spoke to one of the scientists behind the work: Lynda Coughlan... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Traditionally, when someone says "vaccine", the image of a syringe and needle usually springs to mind. But injections need trained staff to administer them, and they're unpleasant, even for people who are not scared of needles. So vaccines you can inhale sound altogether more attractive. And that's what researchers at Rutgers University in the US have been working on. They've found a particular clutch of chemical compounds that are very good at passing harmlessly through the lungs and entering the bloodstream where they can interact with the immune system. What's exciting is that these... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists