Naked Scientists Special Editions Podcast

Has the likelihood of alien life existing just become a lot more likely? Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics announced this week that they have found what's being dubbed the "Godzilla of Earths" - it's a rocky planet orbiting a distant star over 500 light years away. But it's over twice the diameter and 17 times the mass of the Earth. So it's exciting for two reasons - first, space scientists had thought that planets could only be that big if they were made of gas, like Neptune or Jupiter, rather than rock, like Earth; and, second, the star this planet is orbiting is... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Gannets are using fishing boats as fast-food outlets, chasing them for miles over the ocean. Thomas Bodey explains to Chris Smith how GPS tracking on both the birds and ships shows that the gannets can tell trawlers from yachts. But there might be a downside to this kind of convenience cuisine. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Does Nicolas Cage cause people to drown in swimming pools? Does margarine consumption lead to divorce? Tyler Vigen looked at relations between seemingly unrelated statistics to highlight how correlation can be misleading. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The course of true love never did run smooth and this can be seen across the animal kingdom too. The Malacological Society of London held their annual meeting and this year it was all about sexual selection. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

With as much as 30% of all species potentially at risk of extinction, there is a 'Noah's ark' problem of selecting which species to save. This week the Royal Society held a meeting to discuss extinction risks and the best strategies to prioritise conservation. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The peculiarities of the naked mole-rat: what can we learn from them? Cambridge University pharmacologist Ewan St John Smith hosts this meeting of Cafe Scientifique, Cambridge, kicking off with an interview about the naked mole rat with Chris Berrow... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

UK Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts, becomes his own radio presenter; here, on a tour organised by the UK's Science and Innovation Network, he charts his meetings with scientists and entrepreneurs in Chicago, including discovering how researchers are trying to develop new batteries, he meets MIRA the Argonne supercomputer, attends a synthetic biology convention, talks to technology start-up CEOs, addresses the AAAS fellows forum and talks in depth to his travelling companions, Nottingham chemist Martyn Poliakoff and Edinburgh Vice Prinicipal Mary Bownes... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Addressing the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2014 meeting in Chicago, David Willetts, UK Minister for Universities and Science, outlines how the special relationship between Britain and the US, coupled with competition and collaboration, is driving discovery and the next generation of technology... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Moving house is one of life's most stressful events; so imagine packing up 4 million artifacts of a museum collection. That's exactly what they are doing at Cambridge University's museum of Zoology. Harriet Johnson went to find out how they're getting ready for the 3 year project to update and improve the museum, and also sneaked a look at some of the best bits of the collection before it all gets packed away... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Polio might not have been seen in Britain since the 1980's, but despite worldwide efforts the potentially fatal disease is still endemic in three countries. Kate Lamble caught up with the Director of Immunisation at the Department of Health, Professor David Sailsbury as he visited St Johns college in Cambridge to speak about the global effort to eradicate the disease. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

In The Naked Scientists Guide to Genetics, Simon Bishop explores some common genetics terms, meets a creature from the depths of the sea floor, and befriends a family of fancy rats! The terms DNA, genes, chromosomes and inheritance are explored PLUS are humans really 50% banana? Music featured: Adventure, Darling by Gillicuddy http://freemusicarchive.org/music/gillicuddy/; Dan-O, at http://danosongs.com. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Recorded at the 2013 Genetics Society Autumn Meeting 'From Genes to Shape', Simon Bishop meets Harriet Johnson, who works on the genes behind left-right asymmetry... in snails. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Recorded at the 2013 Genetics Society Autumn Meeting 'From Genes to Shape', Simon Bishop meets Marco Reitz, who works on the conserved gene 'Tubby'. So-called because mutant Tubby creates obese mice, the gene has a very different role in plants - salt and drought tolerance. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

The mental scars left after trauma and how ecstasy can help treat post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Could plankton hold the key to understanding ancient climate conditions? New research suggests ocean temperatures from 200 million years ago could be encoded in sea shell chemistry. Simon Bishop spoke to Professor Simon Redfern from the University of Cambridge, about the work. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Tuberculosis is a major world problem, but extremely difficult to treat - vaccines are toxic to humans, and the disease-causing bacteria have a habit of hiding in the very cells tasked with destroying them. Immune system bodyguard drugs that fend off TB before it can hide could soon be possible, according to new research. Simon Bishop speaks to Professor Kurt Drickamer about the work. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Super energy-rich biofuels could soon be possible because of new research, dramatically reducing the environmental impact of intensive farming. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Dr. Jack Gilbert explains some of the surprising effects that microorganisms can have on our lives. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

How do you look for the cause of a brand new medical problem? Simon Bishop speaks to Professor David Goldstein about using genetic sequencing to uncover the cause of new disorders. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

HIV attacks the immune system, invading one type of cell called a CD4 lymphocyte. The virus encourages infected cells to sidle up alongside healthy, uninfected cells before making them unload an infectious cargo of HIV, passing on the virus. Now researchers have discovered that a molecule called ADAP plays a critical role in this process. They've found a way to alter this ADAP molecule so that it can still do its normal job inside an immune cell - so the cell stays healthy - but it can't cooperate with HIV, stopping the virus spreading. Chris Rudd from Cambridge University is the lead author... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists