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BBC Inside Science

BBC Inside Science

By: BBC Inside Science
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A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.Copyright BBC Inside Science Science
Episodes
  • Is there time on Mars?

    Is there time on Mars?
    Oct 22 2026
    The first ever spacecraft to bring Martian samples back to Earth has launched from Japan. However, before the spacecraft returns from Phobos in 2031 there are many complex challenges that lie ahead, leaving an anxious 5 year wait for the scientists involved. To help us understand just how ambitious a feat of engineering the Mars Moons eXploration mission is Tom Whipple is joined by Naomi Murdoch, research director at ISAE-SUPAERO. What is it like to carry out scientific research when your work might lead to you being publicly cancelled or reviled? For the next few weeks, we are going to be hearing from finalists of Sense about Science’s John Maddox Prize, this week neuropsychologist Professor Sallie Baxendale discusses what it is like to continue their scientific endeavours despite being met with hostility. Plus managing editor of New Scientist Penny Sarchet brings Tom a round-up of the science news you might have missed. Produced in partnership with The Open University. Presenter: Tom Whipple Producer: Alex Mansfield, Keiran Manetta-Jones Editor: Martin Smith

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    26 mins
  • The climate changing power of 400 billion toasters

    The climate changing power of 400 billion toasters
    Oct 15 2026
    Back in May, we checked in on the developments in the eastern Pacific’s ocean currents, that we call El Niño. We said that stirrings in the surface suggested there might just be quite a big one. Now, it seems, everyone is talking about it, and it’s definitely big. What is the El Niño? And what is it really up to? Mark Maslin, Professor of Physical Geography at University College London, tells us.This week the film Whalefall opens in cinemas - think Jonah, but with a lot more about the intricacies of whale digestion. But, is it an excellent bit of Hollywood nonsense? Or is it even remotely possible for this to happen? And even if it isn’t, can we still learn useful things about sperm whale biology? Only one man can answer that question...Deadly Steve Backshall.For the next few weeks we talk to scientists from around the world, nominated for this year's John Maddox Prize, and whose evidence-based contributions to public discourse has not been universally well received. Dr Cyriac Abby Philips is a clinical hepatologist, based in Kerala, India, who is famous in his country for speaking out against traditional Indian medicine.Presenter: Tom Whipple Producers: Ben Mitchell, Alex Mansfield, Katie Tomsett, Keiran Manetta-Jones Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

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    26 mins
  • The future of mathematics in the age of AI

    The future of mathematics in the age of AI
    Oct 8 2026
    Tom Whipple investigates one of the biggest days in the 10,000 year history of maths. This week, overnight, OpenAI dropped hundreds of mathematical papers onto the internet. From the Margulis-Platonov conjecture to the Gaussian Propeller conjecture to Banach’s simple Lebesgue-spectrum problem. Decades of maths progress overnight. PhDs of work done in hours. This week saw the Nobel Prizes awarded for Chemistry, Physics and Physiology or Medicine. From mice with blue lights in their brain to massive ice cubes with blue lights underground, science journalists Kit Chapman and Caroline Steel tell us what we need to know.In 2016, President Obama reflected on the moon landings and on the delicate and dangerous task of putting humans there. He commented, when giving a former MIT programmer the Presidential Medal of Freedom: “Our astronauts didn’t have much time...but thankfully they had Margaret Hamilton.” Margaret led the programming team for the Apollo missions and was a pioneer, in every sense of the word, until her death this week. Between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, there is a volcano inhabited by Chinstrap penguins. People don’t visit Zavodvski island much, but if you had been there in 2011 you would have been outnumbered by chinstraps 600,000 to one. Today, almost half a million have gone missing. Professor Norman Ratcliffe from the British Antarctic Survey tells us what he thinks is going on. Presenter: Tom Whipple Producers: Ben Mitchell, Clare Salisbury, Katie Tomsett Editor: Martin Smith Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

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    26 mins
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