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PODCAST

Oxford Sparks Big Questions

"Will my bacon sandwich kill me?", "Is vaping better than smoking?", "How do you become an astronaut?" - just some of the Big Questions we ask some of the brightest minds behind Oxford science. Join us in each podcast as we explore a different area of science.

science natural sciences

All Episodes

12:44

How do you make scientific equipment space proof?

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/12/21

Since the 1960’s man has been sending missions to Mars. Some successes, some failures. This hasn’t stopped scientists trying to explore this incredible red planet. The question though is, how do they design devices to survive millions of kilometres travel to planet Mars (it’s 54.6 million km) and yet be sensitive enough to measure something like wind on the surface of the planet? In this week’s episode of Oxford Sparks Big Questions podcast we speak to Colin Wilson, researcher at the atmospheric

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13:07

What would life be like if Parasitoid Wasps didn’t...

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/12/14

Our Festive episode of our Oxford Sparks podcast follows the traditional Christmas story of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. In our narration though, the role of George Bailey is played by the Parasitoid Wasp and its guardian angel is postdoctoral researcher Chris Jeffs. In this podcast as part of our Big Questions series, we ask the question: what would life be like if these insects didn’t exist?

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11:42

Can bubbles help cure cancer?

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/12/02

On this episode, can bubbles cure cancer? What do you think of when you hear the word ‘bubble?’ Does it make you think of soap bubbles you would have blown when you were a small child? In our latest podcast, as part of The Big Question series, we ask Professor Eleanor Stride from Oxford University's Institute of Biomedical Engineering whether bubbles can be used help cure cancer.

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12:49

Are exhausts causing dementia?

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/11/21

Many people are exposed to exhaust emissions every day in different ways. But what are the harmful effects of these fumes when we breathe them in? Could we see difficulties in other areas of our bodies? What is it doing to our brains? In our latest podcast we look at the tiny particles within these fumes to find out what they could be doing to our health. Teaming up with Oxford University of Earth Science and Lancaster University, we ask the question whether breathing in these fumes can lead to

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12:01

How do you make a reliable weather forecast?

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/11/04

Latest episode from Oxford Sparks, this episode on how to predict the weather.

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11:04

Is my bacon sandwich really going to kill me?

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/10/25

Statistician Dr Jennifer Rogers discusses the numbers linked to processed meat and bowel cancer. It hit the headlines last year that 'processed meat has been classified as a ‘definite’ cause of cancer', due to a report from The World Health Organization (WHO). But what really is the risk to your health if you eat a bacon sandwich? And are there other carcinogenic substances that have a higher risk than processed meat?

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11:13

The Canary in the Coal Mine: could seabirds be the...

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/09/28

Dr Annette Fayet tells us about the Manx Shearwater; a little seabird that makes a huge journey. Every year they breed and raise their chicks in the UK before migrating to Argentina for winter, clocking up thousands of miles in their lifetimes. But what’s the price of parental devotion? Annette discusses how the harder parents have to works, the bigger the knock-on effects to their migration and breeding the following year are, and what this has to do with what’s going on in the oceans. Podcast

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12:11

'Light' Part 3 - How does sunlight damage DNA?

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/08/03

Once we've received our genetic make-up from our parents our genomes are stable, right? What causes mutations in our DNA as we live and grow, and how do our cells repair damage? We all know we should be careful when in the sun, but Prof Catherine Green's interests lie in understanding how Human cells manage to copy the enormous amounts of DNA they have without making mistakes and how they cope with threats; like sunlight. Cath describes what happens when DNA gets damaged and how her work seeks to

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06:40

'Light' Part 2 - Harnessing a single photon

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/07/27

What's the use of just one photon, the smallest bit of light? And what does it take to study it? We speak to Joelle Boutari about her work in quantum photonics where she's harnessing single photons, trying to understand their beheaviour better, all part of paving the way to better understand quantum features - the weird and unintuitive phenomena that you see at the smallest scales. Joelle describes her experiments and her hopes for the research.

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10:31

'Light' Part 1 - Connecting to the internet through...

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/07/25

Can we receive information through our lighting? Prof Dominic O'Brien explains how light might be the answer to adding more capacity to our wireless internet connections. You might be used to connecting to the internet through a wireless network that works through radiowaves, but what if we could use lights in buildings to send information; like data from the internet? Dominic describes where he's at with his work and where the challenges are.

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12:28

'Senses' Part 3 - Seeing across the galaxy

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/07/08

How can you spot what's happening in space billions of light years away from right here on Earth? Dr Garret Cotter works in the boundary of astronomy and high energy particle physics: gamma ray astronomy. Researchers use the Earth's atmosphere like a giant high energy particle detector to record particles that have travelled across space and reached Earth; not too dissimilar to the LHC, but thousands of times more energetic. By looking for tell-tale 'flashes' in the sky, researchers can actually

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13:42

'Senses' Part 2 - Getting a feel for surgery

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/06/29

How do you train surgeons to do complex surgeries? How do you measure a trainee's progress? How can you accurately simulate the look and feel of surgery? Patrick Garfjeld Roberts is researching into simulation as a training method for surgeons doing keyhole surgery on joints. The aim is to be able to recreate the look and feel of keyhole surgery, where it's necessary to learn what's up and down all over again using their specialist instruments. Patrick discusses the progress that has been made in

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13:57

'Senses' Part 1 - When the senses collide

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/06/27

Can sounds change how things taste? How can we alter our experiences by taking advantage of how our senses mingle? From driving safety to gastronomic experiences, Prof Charles Spence discusses his groups work that focuses on the surprising effects seen when the senses 'talk to each other'. He describes how rather than being individual senses that never affect one another, stimulus of one sensory type can alter the perception of other sensory experiences. He describes how this has a multitude of

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08:43

'Land, Sea and Air' Part 3 - What happens when we fly

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/06/17

Oxygen levels are slightly lower when you fly on commercial airlines, so what effects does this have on people? Can it cause any problems? Dr Thomas Smith is both a researcher and a clinician with an interest in heart and lung function, specifically in relation to aviation. He describes what happens to the body when we fly and how the decreased pressure, equivalent to being 8,000ft up a mountain and equivalent lower oxygen levels, affects our bodies. This usually isn't a problem for healthy

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16:15

'Land, Sea and Air' Part 2 - The state of the oceans

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/06/10

What's in the deep ocean? And how can we study these remote and extreme ecosystems? And how is climate change affecting ocean ecosystems? Prof Alex Rogers explains his research in deep sea ocean hot spots, in some of the most remote and deepest parts of the ocean where there are still complex ecosystems to be found. He describes the challenges of working in extreme environments and how technology is essential for research. He also discusses the adverse effects that climate change is having on ocean

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11:36

'Land, Sea and Air' Part 1 - How mountains are made

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/05/27

How do we discover the origins of mountains? Rock climber, mountaineer and geologist, Professor Mike Searle, explains how his work to understand mountain ranges, particularly the Himalayas, can unearth clues about the origins of mountains. From trekking across mountains to map them, to using new technology to understand how the continents have moved in the past, and how they're behaving today. He also discusses last years tragic Earthquake in Nepal. Read more about his work at

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11:57

'Learning' part 3 - Learning from Nature

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/05/24

How can Chemistry take inspiration from nature to create cleaner and more efficient ways of producing and using Hydrogen as a source of clean energy? Professor Kylie Vincent explains how bacteria may hold the key to harnessing Hydrogen as a clean energy source: Chemists are looking to understand how bacteria make use of Hydrogen as efficiently as they do using common metals. The hope is that we may be able to learn from them to inspire our own fuel cells. Currently, we have to use really expensive

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11:53

'Learning' part 2 - Stimulating learning

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/05/13

Can a little electrical stimulation help people learn quicker? And how would technology that does this be used? And why would you want to use this over medicines? Professor Roi Cohen Kadosh describes a phenomena that they've noticed where giving people a little electrical stimulation to the scalp appears to help people learn things quicker; and rather than using this to make super-geniuses, could this be used to help people with learning difficulties? Roi discusses how it might work, and discussed

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09:24

'Learning' part 1 - Sleep for success

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/05/05

Sleep is really important. But do we realise how important it is, particularly for helping us think straight? Are teenagers lazy? Are their body clocks different? Dr Christopher-James Harvey talks us through the 'TeenSleep' project which is asking whether sleep education and later school start times might help teens do better in their exams. You can also find out more with our animation bit.ly/making-you-tick.

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09:11

'Relationships' part 3 - Networks: the science of...

Oxford Sparks Big Questions ·

2016/04/29

What is a network and how can you use mathematics to unravel the relationships between a variety of different things? How can this understanding then be applied to a range of different settings? Professor Mason Porter studies how things are connected using mathematics. He builds up models of these connections to represent them as networks. But what are the basic components of a network? Mason describes how from social networks online, to transport and huge range of other applications, mathematics of

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209 results

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