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Discovery

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Explorations in the world of science.

science

All Episodes

26:29

The Life Scientific: Julia Simner

Discovery ·

2026/02/23

Imagine if you were listening to an opera or a Taylor Swift concert, and as the lights in the auditorium dimmed, the music was accompanied by a rainbow of colours only you could see. Perhaps while listening to your friends talking, you simultaneously experience a smorgasbord of tastes, with different words evoking different flavours, maybe a delicious ice cream, or something as disgusting as ear wax...This merging of the senses is known as synaesthesia, and it’s the rich research world of

26:29

The Life Scientific: Caroline Smith

Discovery ·

2026/02/16

Caroline Smith is passionate about space rocks, whether they’re samples collected from the surface of asteroids and the Moon and hopefully Mars one day soon, or meteorites, those alien rock fragments that have survived their fiery descents through our atmosphere to land here on Earth. She is Head of Collections and Principal Curator of Meteorites at the Natural History Museum, home to one of the finest meteorite collections in the world. Her interest in rocks began while wandering the foothills of

26:29

The Life Scientific: AP De Silva

Discovery ·

2026/02/09

From humble beginnings in his native Sri Lanka, to a more than 40 year academic career at Queen’s University Belfast, Prof. AP (Amilra Prasanna) De Silva’s research into molecular photosensors has led to a pioneering career in that’s evolved from chemistry to medical diagnostics on one hand, to information processing on the other. Prof. De Silva challenged cultural expectations and overcame the lack of opportunities in chemistry that were available in Sri Lanka in the early 1970s. He first moved to

26:29

The Life Scientific: Eleanor Schofield

Discovery ·

2026/02/02

In July 1545, King Henry VIII watched from Southsea Castle on England's south coast as his fleet sailed out to face the French - only to witness his prized warship, the Mary Rose, sink before his eyes. Raised from the Solent in 1982, the ship is now the centrepiece of the Mary Rose Museum, along with thousands more artefacts that were recovered from the seabed. But keeping the 500-year-old ship and its associated Tudor relics in good condition is no small task, which is where Dr Eleanor Schofield

26:29

The Life Scientific: Peter Knight

Discovery ·

2026/01/26

There are problems and tasks so hard and complicated that it would take today’s most powerful supercomputers millions of years to crack them. But in the next decade, we may well have quantum computers which could solve such problems in seconds.Professor Sir Peter Knight is a British pioneer in the realms of quantum optics and quantum information science. During his three decades as a researcher at Imperial College London, he has advanced our understanding of the physics which underpins how quantum

26:28

Frontiers of Earth Science

Discovery ·

2026/01/19

The very latest developments in the world of Earth science with Roland Pease, recorded at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in New Orleans, where thousands of Earth, atmospheric, glacial, ocean and hydrologic scientists come together to promote discovery in Earth science for the benefit of humanity.Twenty years on, we discuss the enduring lessons from the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005, hearing from Lieutenant General Russel Honoré who led the military relief effort, and Roland speaks

26:28

Frontiers of Space Science

Discovery ·

2026/01/12

The very latest developments in the world of space science with Roland Pease, recorded at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in New Orleans, where thousands of space and planetary scientists come together to promote discovery in space science for the benefit of humanity.Roland talks to Andy Rivkin, planetary astronomer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, about planetary defence from asteroids, including the small potential for asteroid 2024 YR4 to hit the moon in

26:28

What is Quantum?

Discovery ·

2026/01/05

Quantum theory – our best understanding of the world at the smallest level – is famously weird and notoriously confusing. It’s a theory that seems to say particles can be in two places at once, or somehow “know” if you’re looking at them. Or at least, that’s what you might have heard. But is that really what quantum theory tells us about reality?To find out, presenter Marnie Chesterton travels to the birthplace of quantum theory: the remote, windswept island of Helgoland. Here, a century ago, a

26:29

The Life Scientific: George Church

Discovery ·

2025/12/29

"My ideas are often labelled as impossible, or useless, or both. Usually when people say that I'm on the right track." George Church is a geneticist, molecular engineer, and one of the pioneers of modern genomics. He's also someone who makes a habit of finding solutions to the seemingly impossible. Over the course of his career so far, George developed the first method for direct genomic sequencing, helped initiate the Human Genome Project, and founded the Personal Genome Project: making huge

26:29

The Life Scientific: Gareth Collett

Discovery ·

2025/12/22

Movies might have us believe that bomb disposal comes down to cutting the right wire. In fact, explosive devices are complex and varied - and learning how to dispose of them safely involves intense training, as well as the ability to stay calm under pressure. This was the world of Dr Gareth Collett, a retired British Army Brigadier General and engineer, specialising in bomb disposal; whose 32-year military career took him around the world, including heading up major ordnance clearance projects in

26:28

The Life Scientific: Sonia Gandhi

Discovery ·

2025/12/15

Many people will be familiar with Parkinson’s disease: the progressive brain disorder that causes symptoms including tremors and slower movement, leading on to serious cognitive problems. You might not know that it’s the fastest-growing neurological condition in the world. Today it affects around 11.8 million people and that’s forecast to double by 2030. Dr Sonia Gandhi is one of the scientists working to change that trend. As Professor of Neurology at University College London and Assistant

26:29

The Life Scientific: Mark O'Shea

Discovery ·

2025/12/08

How do you feel about snakes? What about highly venomous ones?For Mark O’Shea, close encounters with the world’s most rare and deadly snakes are not only his profession, but his passion.Mark is a Professor of Herpetology - the area of zoology focusing on reptiles and amphibians - at the University of Wolverhampton.After dropping out of college in his teens, Mark's life could have taken a very different direction; but prompted by a fascination with reptiles that started with a childhood trip to the

26:28

Different Voices

Discovery ·

2025/12/01

What’s it like to wake up with a brand new voice?For those with foreign accent syndrome, this is their reality. Patients who develop this rare speech disorder start speaking in a brand new accent that they often have no connection to.So how does losing the voice you’ve known your entire life shape, or break, your identity?Presenter Ella Hubber speaks to Althia Bryden, who developed foreign accent syndrome last year, and Sarah Colwill, who has lived with the condition for the past 15 years. They

26:28

The Animal Employment Agency

Discovery ·

2025/11/24

We live in a time of automation and robotics; the machines run the factories, and AI will soon take all the jobs. And yet, even today, there are certain niche jobs where only an animal will do. Comedian and biologist Simon Watt is out to meet some of them, and the people who train them, study them, and love them. And he asks the key questions: HOW do they do what they do, and WHY, with all our ingenuity, haven't we invented anything that can compete with them?We start with a business of ferrets

26:28

Bodies

Discovery ·

2025/11/17

The London Anatomy Office accepts around 350 human bodies donated for medical research and education annually. You may imagine that these bodies are presevered in chemicals for medical students to study over weeks and months. And some are. But many are used - almost fresh - to train surgeons in the procedures which may one day save your life.Journalist Jenny Kleeman gains rare access to a surgical training course at Brighton and Sussex Medical School which uses these "fresh" donor bodies. She talks

26:30

The Life Scientific: Kevin Fong

Discovery ·

2025/11/10

There can't be many people in the world who've saved lives in hospital emergency rooms and also helped care for the wellbeing of astronauts in space – but Kevin Fong’s career has followed a singular path: from astrophysics and trauma medicine, to working with NASA, to becoming an Air Ambulance doctor.Kevin is a consultant anaesthetist and professor of public engagement and innovation at University College London. He’s worked on the front line in hospitals, dealing with major incidents and helping

26:28

The Life Scientific: Dame Pratibha Gai

Discovery ·

2025/11/03

Chemical reactions are the backbone of modern society: the energy we use, the medicines we take, our housing materials, even the foods we eat, are created by reacting different substances together. If we zoom in, it’s the atoms within these substances that rearrange themselves to give rise to new substances with the properties we need.However, chemical reactions are far from perfect. They're often inefficient and their waste products can be harmful to the environment. Getting to grips with what goes

26:29

The Life Scientific: Catherine Heymans

Discovery ·

2025/10/27

Have you ever considered the lighter side of dark matter?Comedy has proved an unexpectedly succesful way to engage people with science - as today's guest knows first-hand.Astrophysicist Catherine Heymans is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh and the current Astronomer Royal for Scotland. She’s spent her career studying dark matter and dark energy: the mysterious ingredients that make up an estimated 95% of our cosmos, but which we still know surprisingly little about. Using increasingly

26:28

The Life Scientific: Tim Coulson

Discovery ·

2025/10/20

As a young man, traveling in Africa, Tim Coulson - now Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford - became seriously ill with malaria and was told a second bout would probably kill him. Aged only 20, this brush with his own mortality led him to promise himself he would write a complete guide to science: life, the universe and everything. His aim was to understand the existence of all living things - no mean feat!Over the course of a colourful career, Tim's work has taken him all over the

26:27

The Life Scientific: Brian Schmidt

Discovery ·

2025/10/13

Have you ever pondered the fact that the universe is expanding? And not only that, it's expanding at an increasing speed - meaning everything around us is getting further and further away? If that isolating thought makes you feel slightly panicked, don't worry: this programme also contains wine! Brian Schmidt is a Distinguished Professor of Astrophysics at the Australian National University, known for his work on supernovae: massive explosions that take place when stars come to the ends of their

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