Naked Scientists Special Editions Podcast

A species of tropical vine attracts its bat pollinators using acoustic signals, rather than bright colours or smells, according to a study published in the journal Science this week. In this special podcast, Dr Marc Holderied discusses this unique discovery. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: why scientists are planning on drilling three kilometres beneath the Antarctic ice sheet in one of the most ambitious exploration projects ever undertaken; and how worms that feed on dead whale bones at the bottom of the ocean may be distorting the whale fossil record. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week, why understanding rip currents at Perranporth in north Cornwall could help save lives; how exactly does carbon capture and storage (CCS) work and how can scientists be sure that carbon will be stored forever? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, why weathermen are using a converted World War II bunker to monitor clouds; how thug species such as bramble, nettle and bracken can be just as damaging to woodlands as alien plants; and why scientists are going to Greenland to deploy a network of sensors in some of the country's glaciers. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, we venture into the synchrotron along with members of the public to bring you a glimpse of the Inside Diamond open days. We meet the engineers and technicians that design the components of the synchrotron to keep it running smoothly, hear from Diamond CEO Gert Materlik about the main highlights of these open days. Plus, we talk to a scientist working on one of Diamonds latest Beamlines, I-24, that's enabling research that wasn't possible before including new insight in the fight against allergies! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - what UK farmers are doing to protect the country's vanishing bumblebees, butterflies and other pollinating insects; how scientists are trying to figure out how many types of microbes there are on our planet and why they all matter; and why birds are more amazing than we ever imagined. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Professor Jenny Morton provides new insight into the cognitive abilities of the supposedly dim-witted sheep and explains how these quick learning animals can be used to model Huntington's Disease... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Anything in the deep sea, whether that's the microbes that live down there, or the research vehicles sent down to take samples of them face the same challenges from being way down deep. So why study the deep ocean depths? And how do we do it? For this naked scientists special, Sarah Castor-Perry went to Scripps Institution of Oceanography to find out, from Professor of Marine Microbial Genetics, Professor Douglas Bartlett, and engineer extraordinaire Kevin Hardy. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast - the cunning tricks the cuckoo uses to get another bird to do the parenting, why researchers are studying snow in Sweden, and how an improved radiocarbon dating technique may put a few scientists' noses out of joint. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

One of the biggest problems when it comes to caring for the ocean realm is that it is out of sight and out of mind. It's hard to care about something you don't know about, and most people, most of the time, don't have a chance to see ocean life for themselves. Underwater photography is helping to bridge that gap between people and the oceans. In this special podcast, Helen Scales chats to National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry to find out about the challenges of taking pictures underwater, from the technical constraints of taking electrical equipment into salty water to finding ways of... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do marine animals hear, see, touch, and smell the world around them? Life underwater is obviously very different to life on land and it can be difficult for us air-breathing humans to imagine what goes on down there beneath the waves. But understanding how animals find their way around the ocean plays a vital role in our efforts to conserve marine life. In this special edition of the Naked scientists, Helen Scales meets sensory biologist Jelle Atema from Boston University to find out what we know about the ways marine animals build a picture of the world around them. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The saying goes that we known more about the surface of the moon than we do about the deep sea - and that's probably true. But modern technologies are opening up the mysterious depths allowing scientists to venture further than ever before into this alien realm. In this special podcast, Helen Scales explores the wonders of the deep with biologist Tim Shank from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US. He recently led a pioneering expedition into the deep sea around Indonesia where his team discovered dozens of new species and shed light on extraordinary ecosystems in the dark depths... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, why removing some man-made coastal flood defences might not be such a harebrained idea, what it's like studying gas exchange in the wilds of the Southern Ocean, and, in what could be the first case of 'natural' geoengineering, how forests could be whitening the clouds right above them. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how a specially-designed twin turboprop research plane is helping scientists in a huge range of subjects from archaeology to ecology, and why a violent space storm could spell trouble for communications systems across the world. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast, how last year's eruption of the Eyjafjallajkull volcano in Iceland gave scientists an unparalleled opportunity for research, and why sediment from rivers like the Thames can act like time machines to bygone eras. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month we attract your attention to the power of magnetism as we explore just what magnetism is and how it can be induced. We also explore the role of magnetism in superconductors, as well as a class of materials known as multiferroics! Plus, we bring you the latest news and events from the light source. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Traditionally viewed as a poor verbal practise, the ums and ers uttered by parents may in fact play a critical role in helping toddlers to learn new words, as Rochester University researcher Richard Aslin, publishing in the journal Developmental Science, discovered recently... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how scientists plan to measure the Earth's magnetic field from space, why one researcher is in the frozen town of Churchill in northern Canada, and how the Chernobyl disaster still affects Northern Ireland 25 years on. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: how the famous White Cliffs of Dover could be made of fish poo (at least partially), why one researcher is so interested in dead whales, and why the Japan earthquake was so powerful and devastating. Join Richard Hollingham and Sue Nelson to find out more... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Coral reefs are vibrant ecosystems packed with spectacular underwater life that protect coastlines and provide food and income for millions of people. But coral reefs are at risk. How threatened are reefs today? Why are they in trouble? And what hope is there for the future of reefs? In this special podcast, Helen Scales meets the people behind Reefs at Risk Revisited, a groundbreaking new study that draws a global map of reefs and the problems they face today. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists