April 2013 - Party for a Past Fellow and the Future of Medicine

April 2013 - Party for a Past Fellow and the Future of Medicine
In this episode, we ask if growing old is an illness, hear about the potential of stem cells to treat visual impairment and discuss the prospect of personal avatars in computational biomedicine. We also explore the perils of predicting the weather and celebrate the work of Darwin's friend, Sir John Lubbock.

00:40 Dr John Clark on Sir John Lubbock,
07:40 Dr Rachel Pearson from the Edinburgh Science Festival on her work using stem cells to treat visual impairment,
13:07 Prof Peter Coveney FRS and Prof Peter Hunter FRS on computational biomedicine for Interface Focus,
19:05 Dr Matthew Piper URF on his Cafe Scientifique: Is growing old an illness?
25:05 David Shukman, Science Editor for BBC News, Tim Palmer FRS, Professor of Climate Physics, and Liz Howell, Head of BBC Weather on predicting and reporting adverse weather,
32:57 Dr Rachel Pearson answers, Why Science?

March 2013 - Spring Smörgåsbord

March 2013 - Spring Smörgåsbord
In this episode, we will find out why our fingers wrinkle in the bath, the science of British Sign Language, and what a former President of the Royal society thinks about the role scientists can play in science education.

00:28 Sir Martin Rees, former PRS, on SCORE and science education,
05:55 Professor Gordon Plotkin, winner of the 2012 Royal Society Milner Award, on the symantics of programming language,
08:58 Professor Bencie Woll, on British Sign Language,
16:47 Dr Tom Smulders, Biology Letters paper author, on wrinkly fingers,
21:02 Sir Martin Rees, answers why science?

February 2013 - The Secret Life of Life

February 2013 - The Secret Life of Life
In this episode, we will span both the big and small, finding out more about our solar system and our genes. We hear about a mission to find life on one of Saturn’s moons and a quest to find the secrets of life and disease inside the human genome.

00:20 Professor Michele Dougherty, Discovery of a dynamic atmosphere at one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus. (Public Lecture)
04:16 Dr Ewan Birney, What can we learn from our genes? (Café Scientifique)
08:24 Professor Adrian Bird, Genetic, Epigenetics and disease. (The Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Prize lecture)
11:30 Prof. Dougherty: Why science?

January 2013 - Happy new year from the Royal Society

January 2013 - Happy new year from the Royal Society
In the first episode of 2013 we present a scientific smörgåsbord of recent Royal Society happenings. We look inside volcanoes at a Café Scientifique and into ponds with a school benefitting from one of our Partnership Grants. We also hear from some of our University Research Fellows and an author from one of our recent journals.
(00:35) Thames Ditton Junior School.
(02:28) What's going on inside volcanoes? Dr Alison Rust.
(06:24) University Research Fellows: Chris Aldridge (UCL) and Eddie Cussen (University of Stratchlyde).
(12:20) Why Science? Professor Michael Elphick (Queen Mary, University of London)

December 2012 - Science in Industry and Romance in Chemistry

December 2012 - Science in Industry and Romance in Chemistry
In this month’s episode: hear from the winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, find out about our forthcoming Year of Science and Industry and explore the new Royal Society exhibition: Romantic Chemistry.

(00:16) James Gleick, winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.
(02:21) Simon Campbell, Year of Science and Industry coordinator.
(04:48) Professor Tim Leighton, winner of The Brian Mercer Award for Innovation in 2011.
(06:19) Professor Vincent Walsh, Royal Society Industry Fellow, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL.
(09:25) Romantic Chemistry with Martyn Poliakoff, chemist and foreign secretary of the Royal Society.

November 2012 - The Royal Society Young People's Book Prize

November 2012 - The Royal Society Young People's Book Prize
This month’s episode celebrates the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize. We hear from the children and adults who took part in the judging process, the shortlisted authors and the winner, Robert Winston.

(00:39) Mark Champkins, Inventor in Residence at the Science Museum and one of the judges, with Alex Frith, author of shortlisted ‘See inside Inventions’
(02:13) Young judges at Northlands School
(05:23) Robert Winston, winning author of ‘Science Experiments’
(06:08) Clive Gifford, author of shortlisted ‘Out of this world: all the cool bits about space’
(07:20) Richard Platt, author of shortlisted ‘Plagues, pox and pestilence’
(09:03) Christiane Dorion, author of shortlisted ‘How the weather works’
(10:23) Richard Dawkins, author of shortlisted ‘The magic of reality’

October 2012 - Scientific Heroines and Heroes

This month: discover how the Royal Society are trying to tackle the lack of information about scientific Heroines on Wikipedia and hear what this year’s Royal Society Wilkins-Bernal-Medwar Lecturer had to say about scientific Heroes. We also learn about handling uncertainty in weather and climate prediction.

(00:26) Dr Roger Highfield: Director of External Affairs at the Science Museum Group and this year’s Royal Society Wilkins-Bernal-Medwar Lecturer.
(10:11) Professor Uta Frith FRS: scientific heroine and new Wikipedia editor.
(13:13) Professor Tim Palmer FRS: Chair of the Royal Society Theo Murphy International Scientific Meeting on handling uncertainty in weather and climate prediction and Liz Stephens who spoke at the meeting.