Naked Scientists Special Editions Podcast

What do fish and aircraft have in common? Well, water and air are both fluids. And when fish move their tails and bodies from side to side, they push against the surrounding water and leave behind a mini whirlpool or vortex, which contains information about the drag forces experienced by the fish as it moved along. And if you can wind back the events that produced the vortex you can work out how it formed in the first place and therefore how much drag the fish felt. This is what Florian Huhn, from the German Aerospace Centre, has managed to do. And because aeroplanes produce very similar... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Rejoice because at midnight tonight, a second will be added to clocks across the world. Seeing as you now have all of this extra time, here's Naked Scientist Tom Crawford with everything you need to know about the leap second... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

One of the world's most widely-used classes of drugs could significantly increase your risk of suffering a heart attack; that's according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University, in California and published in PloS One this week. Nick Leeper and Nigam Shah used a computer programme to identify patients who were using so-called proton pump inhibitors or PPIs; these block stomach acid production so they're useful for treating conditions like heartburn. But there might be serious side effects, as Nick Leeper explains to Chris Smith... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Hawkmoths live a shadowy existence; they stick their tongues down the flowers' neck, all the while being tossed about in the wind. And as if that wasn't enough, they do it all in the pitch black. With tiny brains and even tinier eyes - they seem to defy what's physically possible. So how do they do it? Simon Sponberg has uncovered the secret and explained his findings to Graihagh Jackson Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

While Jurassic World may be wowing the crowds at the cinema, a new study from researchers at Imperial College has been making waves in the world of real-life dinosaurs. Although scientists have previously found evidence for soft tissues, such as blood, in very well-preserved dinosaur fossils, this has been controversial. Now cutting-edge microscopy techniques have revealed what looks like blood cells and even protein fibres in fossilised bones dating back 75 million years. Kat Arney took a trip to the Natural History Museum to meet the fossils - as well as researcher Susannah Maidment - to dig... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Scientists in the US have developed a new brain implant that can be used to record information from nerve cells, and also to transmit signals into the nervous system, to stimulate parts of the brain. Unlike existing electrode devices, which can trigger a scar to form around the implant that eventually prevents it from working, the new device is made from a polymer-coated nickel mesh resembling miniature chicken wire, which can be rolled up before it is introduced into the brain. Chris Smith spoke to Harvard's Charles Lieber... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Saturn is one of the most well-known planets in the solar system, perhaps owing to its distinctive set of rings. The largest of these rings, the H-ring, was only discovered as recently as 2009 and cannot be seen from Earth. Now, using images taken by NASA's WISE spacecraft, scientists at the University of Maryland have given us the first insights into the structure and formation of Saturn's outermost ring. Thomas Crawford spoke to lead researcher, Doug Hamilton, to try to remove the shroud around Saturn's most mysterious ring... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Coffee is an essential part of life for many of us, but could it help to cut depression? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Earthquakes occur at faults, or fractures, in the Earth's crust - where two big slabs of rock meet. Movement under the surface tries to push the rocks past each other but the rough edges get stuck together until enough stress builds up to jerk them past each other - and this violent jerking can cause devastating quakes. But a new instrument, and an experiment in France, has shown that we might actually be able to relieve this stress using fluid injection, as Jean-Philippe Avouac explains to Heather Douglas Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The specific genes that cause schizophrenic symptoms have been found by researchers at Cardiff University. A huge study of the DNA of over 10,000 schizophrenics and 15,000 controls helped identified the genes involved, and determine that they are in fact the cause rather than an effect. Chris Smith spoke to Professor Michael Owen about the impact these findings could have on our understanding of this mental illness... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How our ears screen out sounds so that we can listen selectively only to those sounds we want to hear - like a friend's voice across a noisy room for instance - has been revealed by scientists in Australia. Gary Housley, from the University of New South Wales, has found that the inner ear, known as the cochlea, contains a population of sound-sensitive "hair cells" that communicate with the brain and work like miniature amplifiers to control the sensitivity of the ears to different sound frequencies... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Humans, like all other primates, are a sociable bunch and we tend to pick friends who are fairly similar to us in terms of education, religion, personality and so on. Now researchers studying a troop of wild Chacma baboons living in Namibia have discovered that these animals pick their buddies in the same way, tending to hang around with animals that share similar personality traits. To find out more about these cliquey monkeys, I took a trip to London Zoo to meet primate expert Guy Cowlishaw, who was part of the study team. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Dressing in red around the office might have your colleagues seeing you in a different light! A new study from Durham University's Robert Barton has found that when the same person is shown wearing a red-coloured top, rather than a blue one, they tend to be rated as dominant, aggressive, and even more anger-prone by others Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The incidence of many diseases, including heart attacks and multiple sclerosis, peaks in winter time. Now it looks like this could be an unfortunate throw-back to our prehistoric origins. Cambridge University scientist John Todd has found that the immune system goes through annual cycles of activity, with peak levels of inflammation coinciding with winter time. Historically, this would have protected our ancestors, but in the more luxurious modern era we inhabit, it's boosting our disease risk, as he explained to Georgia Mills... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A campaign to combat "over-treatment" of patients has been announced by doctors' leaders this week. Called "Choosing Wisely", the initiative promotes more open conversations between doctors and patients, rather than an obsessive - and frequently financially incentivised - adherence to targets and guidelines. Consultant cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra authored the report, which was published this week in the British Medical Journal... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Plants and animals are incredible constructions, built from the fundamental building blocks of cells. But how are we made? By modelling how algae cells literally turn themselves inside out, researchers are hoping to understand how our own bodies are formed. Heather Douglas spoke to Professor Raymond Goldstein, Schlumberger Professor of Complex Physical Systems at the University of Cambridge, to find out how Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Content curation and news filtering by Facebook, as well as other social media websites, likely leads to ideological biases in the information individuals see and read, a new study has shown. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

If you are thinking of raising money for charity, what's the best way to ensure you hit your fundraising target? According to Nichola Raihani from UCL, you need to be an attractive woman so men will compete with each other to donate the most to your online giving page. Kat Arney went to find out why this is the case... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

You are not alone! Your body is home to a whole host of bacteria that live in and on you: your microbiome. You might be slightly repulsed by this idea, but these tiny organisms are really important for our health. There is now growing evidence that our microbes at risk from our modern lifestyles? Comparing samples of human bowel bugs from America with remote populations in Papua New Guinea, a research team have identified significant differences between the two microbiomes, and what's more, they think they know why. Georgia Mills spoke to Jens Walter from the University of Alberta Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Salmonella bacteria can be modified to make a safe anti-cancer treatment, scientists have shown. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists