What is cyber hacking and what can we do about it? Jasmin, Ellie and Antonia explore the different types of cyber hacking, compare it to the movies, and consider whether it can ever be ethical or "good"? They also discuss the best ways to combat cyber-attacks personally, and what companies are doing to protect us and their client information.

You might know that nuclear reactors are used along with turbines to generate electricity but what else could nuclear technology power? While battling brain fog brought on by fatigue, Laura and Antonia discuss future uses of high temperature heat to feed industrial clusters and look at two novel uses of nuclear power production that don't require reactors, but could be used to power space missions.

Read about heat requirements of smelting metals, power requirements of the experimental rig known as ALSEP as well as  the fateful Apollo 13 mission to the moon and the fuel cells for the command module, and diamond batteries.

How do we debunk myths and see through fake news? Ellie, Antonia and Emma come together to discuss common myths and how they resist change both in academia and in a general population. They also discuss the impact of social media, AI and how we can learn to look at things with a critical eye.

Watch the video from Münecat

Read research about countering misinformation and how one research group has tackled misinformation in real time during a US presidential election.

Antonia mentioned research about mothers recognising the cry of a new born baby.

And how are researchers tackling it? Antonia, Emma and Ellie discuss how we got here and what might be done in the future to counteract these drug resistant bacterial strains. Plus we take a sneak peak into the life of PhD student Emma and explore how computational simulations could be helping develop the antibiotics of the future.

We’ve seen how science can rapidly alter how nations respond to emergencies like a pandemic, but why is the response to the climate emergency so slow? Laura and Antonia discuss multiple ways that scientists can help shape national policy, how people’s beliefs and behaviours are accounted for, and how the general public can have a voice too.

A guide by the British Ecological society helps explain how policy relates to legislation. You can read more about how many civil servants we have in the UK, read a report from the House of Commons library about what led to the Climate Change Act 2008, and read about how research from universities influenced the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Everything humanity does has an impact on the natural world, but we’re also highly dependent on it. Laura, Ellie and Jasmin discuss how panda populations have declined and then improved, the work of zoos, instances of adapting nature to live with us, and how research is uncovering complex way that wildlife, farming, fishing and garden birds interact with us.

Here’s the study that Ellie mentions about artificial reefs dramatically improving marine species numbers.

Read news of some specific studies into how feeders affect garden birds and statics on UK bird populations, both mentioned by Laura

Read news about squirrel train travel and contraception mentioned by Laura.

Could mining on the Moon become a future industry? Ellie and Jasmin hold a "Dragons Den" style discussion in which the pros and cons and of course the financial details of what it would take to set up a Moon mining operation are discussed. They take a look at private space as it looks today and consider the legal implications. They even explore whether the mining practices could be expanded to other planets and asteroids in Solar System.

They come up in some surprising places and movies have been made about them but why should we care? Antonia, Jasmin, Laura and Soo-Mei talk about a type of forever chemical called PFAS, discuss the important aspect of their chemistry, talk about the environmental and health impacts, and make a decision about actions they will take.

Technology has changed a lot, but does it make our lives better? Ellie, Laura and Antonia discuss the differences between invention, product development and scientific discovery. They take a look at some technology we use today including the internet, music platforms, air conditioning and sewing machines. They also speculate about what we might have in the future based on current scientific discoveries including a tiny gallium person that can melt though bars (watch the video here), semi-transparent photovoltaic cells that could be used in windows while also generating electricity, and fundamental work using giant lasers to look at tiny crystal structures.

Antonia mentioned Simone Giertz video about why she spent three years working on a coat hanger.

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience from the Engineering Development Trust's Insight into University programme.

The Paris Olympic Games are well underway so of course we have questions! Ellie, Antonia and Jasmin debate whether skill or physical ability is more important and consider whether equipment, psychology, or other factors affect them.

Read more:

• Here’s the blog Antonia mentions about gymnasts getting older