Naked Scientists Special Editions Podcast

You may never have heard of the disease lymphatic filariasis, but it affects 120 million people in 70 countries around the world, causing dramatic swelling of the limbs and other parts of the body, known as elephantiasis.It's caused by tiny parasitic worms, transmitted between people by mosquito bites, which can lie low in the body for many years, hiding from the immune system.But how do they do that? Kat Arney spoke to Michael Kimber from Iowa State University to find out. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Scientists in America have helped a paralysed man to take his first steps in over 5 years. They've done it by developing a system that eavesdrops on the patient's brainwaves and can detect when he wants to walk. The computer then activates a stimulator system that can signal the patient's leg muscles to move, enabling him to stand, and then walk unaided. The device, which is the first of its kind, provides a way for patients paralysed by spinal cord injuries to bypass the roadblock preventing the flow of instructions from the brain to motor nerves and muscles and recover their ability to move.... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Does being a good parent shorten your lifespan? It turns out the answer is yes, at least if you're a burying beetle. Results from researchers at The University of Cambridge published this week show that beetles can sacrifice their own fitness for the good of their offspring. Rosalind Davies went to speak to Professor Rebecca Kilner to find out more. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

It has been found that endangered Asian elephants age faster and have fewer offspring if their mothers are stressed when they are born. Researchers at the University of Sheffield measured a hormone associated with stress to determine the time of year that the elephants most feel the pressure. Charis Lestrange spoke with lead author Hannah Mumby to find out more. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

People can spend their lives looking for love. We go on awkward dates and let our friends set us up with complete strangers. All in the hope of finding 'the one'.But what's the point of it all? Why do we bother? If all we're supposed to do is continue our species surely we're better off just picking someone half-decent and making do.Now scientists in Germany have found that, for zebra finches at least, there is a point to love... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Early intervention is likely to be critical for preventing many age-related diseases; but detecting these diseases at a sufficiently early stage to make a difference is often problematic. Now this may be about to change, because scientists in the UK have identified a molecular signature present in our cells that corresponds to our biological age - in other words, how well "lived in" our bodies are. Joanna Kerr spoke with researcher James Timmons to hear how it works... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A well known benefit of growing up on a farm is the reduced chance of developing allergies. Evidence shows that children who are exposed to a dusty farm environment from an early age have fewer allergies than those who don't. Now researchers have discovered that it is a special property of the dust found on dairy farms which protects the lungs from allergies. Sam Mahaffey spoke to Professor Bart Lambrecht from Ghent University to find out more Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, Cambridge based company Innovia Technology have taken charge of the "Mission Zero Corridor Project". This project aims to make a 12 mile stretch of highway in West Georgia completely sustainable, with no carbon footprint! This will be the first road of its kind, and hopefully will encourage others to jump on the carbonneutralbandwagon. The project is inspired by Ray C Anderson, the late CEO of a carpet manufacturing company in the USA. He aimed to reduce the carbon footprint of his company to zero a target they are on track to achieve by 2020. Andy Milton from Innovia Technology,... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Getting accurate clocks is really important for all kinds of technologies, especially when monitoring the distant heavens. But even if the clock itself is accurate, how do you know that the right time is being transmitted across to other devices, so for example telescopes? David Gozzard from the University of Western Australia has found a new way to make sure that disturbances in the transmission from a clock are accounted for, meaning that multiple high-precision clocks aren't needed. He was speaking about his work at the Perth Science Festival, and Georgia Mills wasted no time in finding out... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

It's long been known that traumatic memories forged in stressful situations can lie buried in the subconscious, yet they can bubble to the surface unexpectedly, triggering strong reactions, flashbacks and more serious psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Researchers have discovered that memories made under such conditions - or under the effects of drugs or alcohol - tend to only be recalled when a person is back in that state again: something known as state-based learning. By putting mice under the influence of a drug called gaboxadol, a team of scientists... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In the UK we are a nation of dog lovers but how did man's best friend become the speedy, bouncy animal we know today? Well for a long time it has been thought that dogs got faster as their prey did, in a sort of arms race, but new research from Professor Christine Janis and a team at Brown University has shown that actually, long term climate change may have been the key. Connie Orbach finds out more. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

New research has shown that babies born severely prematurely or underweight are likely to suffer in adulthood with a socially withdrawn personality. Amy Goodfellow met with Professor Dieter Wolke from the University of Warwick to find out more... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Scientists at King's College London have discovered that genetics makes an unexpectedly large contribution to children's GCSE grades across a wide range of subjects. Kat Arney met with Professor Robert Plomin to find out more. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

About 8000 people in the UK develop a cancer in their oesophagus - the tube that connects the back of the throat to the stomach - every year. The majority of these people have detectable changes in the cells lining the oesophagus for many years before they develop the cancer. These changes are referred to as Barrett's oesophagus. But only a minority of people with Barrett's - which is actually relatively common - will actually go on to develop cancer, which makes screening for the disease an expensive headache. Now Rebecca Fitzgerald, a physician from Cambridge, has developed a sponge - packed... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A decade ago a landmark study was published showing that treating Kenyan children for worm infections could increase their attendance at school, as well as bringing health benefits. Since then, many development agencies across Africa have taken the idea on board, as it seems like a cheap, effective and simple way to boost attendance. However,researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have been taking a closer look at the original data, and found that the benefits of de-worming may have been overstated, as Alex Aiken explained to Kat Arney. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How does the way you think influence the music you choose to listen to? Scientists at Cambridge University have developed a test that marries up a person's personality traits including how empathic they are, and how systematically they think, with the tunes most likely to resonate with them. Tom Crawford went to see the lead researcher David Greenberg to discover what the test revealed about his own musical tastes... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Fizzy drinks are often very high in sugar, and doctors suspect that they're likely to be linked to the growing rates of obesity in many countries. Now, by bringing together data from all of the previously published studies in the world, public health doctor Nita Forouhi has uncovered a strong link between sugary drinks and type 2 diabetes. In fact, as she explained to Amy Goodfellow, regularly consuming one sugar-rich drink boosts your diabetes risk by up to 13 per cent... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Punting is one of the most typically 'Cambridge' of activities, with hundreds of tourists being punted lazily along the river Cam at any one point during summer. Now, though, the Cambridge Science Centre has decided to liven things up a little with a rocket-powered punt, running on Chelsea buns from local cafe Fitzbillies. Yes you read that correctly! James Farr spoke to John London, the world's first 'punt-onaut' Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Growing a human heart from a single cell may seem like science fiction, but scientists at the Gladstone Institute at the University of California San Francisco, have taken a huge step forward, by producing the first three-dimensional, beating, human heart chamber. Previously, it had been possible to produce a two dimensional sheet of beating heart cells, but to really gain an understanding of heart formation in a developing foetus and perhaps more importantly, how drugs given to women during pregnancy may affect this development, a three dimensional structure was needed. By treating stem cells... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Volcanic eruptions can be both beautiful and destructive at the same time, but now scientists have found evidence they may have also been linked to plagues, and even the fall of the Roman Empire. When a volcano erupts, chemicals are released into the atmosphere in huge quantities, which reflect light away from the earth and therefore cause climate change, in the form of summer cooling. These chemicals are also locked away in the ice, providing a snapshot of the time of an eruption. Now scientists have dated the ice cores, and the records of summer cooling, from tree rings and have found they... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists