Episode notes
Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has announced that the US military will be screening military personnel aged 30 and older for testosterone deficiency. Those found with low testosterone levels will be offered voluntary hormone replacement therapy. The secretary says this is to ensure “a healthy, capable, and decisively dominant fighting force”. Tom Whipple is joined by Professor Joe Herbert from the University of Cambridge to discuss why jacking soldiers up with testosterone may or may not be the best idea. Marine Biologist Kathryn Ayres, from the non-profit organisation Beneath the Waves,…
BBC Inside Science
by BBC Radio 4 · English · Tech & Science
A weekly programme that illuminates the mysteries and challenges the controversies behind the science that's changing our world.
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30 Jul 2026 · 26 min
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16 Jul 2026 · 26 min
How might we spot nukes in space?
A few years ago a satellite speeding through the Van Allen belt in earth orbit raised concerns that it may include a nuclear weapon. An explosion in that orbit would take out much of our global space infrastructure. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 specifically prohibits such a thing, but it has proven technologically impossible to verify and monitor over the decades. Tom Whipple is joined by Prof Areg Danagoulian, Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT to explore a clever concept to spot such a thermonuclear device in orbit that he has published in this month’s Nature…
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9 Jul 2026 · 26 min
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Synthetic biologist Kate Adamal and her team at the University of Minnesota published their research into the lab-created ‘SpudCell’ in a significant step towards building life from scratch. Science journalist, Kai Kupferschmidt, joins us to discuss the implications of this research, as well as the controversies. Nature reporter Lizzie Gibney tells us how science has helped us better understand the route that the famous Carthaginian general, Hannibal – and not forgetting his elephants – took across the Alps. Plus, in this week’s scout of science stories behind the ‘beautiful game’ we learn…
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2 Jul 2026 · 26 min
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During this year’s visit to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London, Tom Whipple discovers how sea urchins are being used to develop techniques to digitally preserve natural history, why we haven’t got robot butlers just yet, and what it takes to bottle lightning. Plus, in his ongoing quest to assemble a World Cup squad of science Tom recruits health reporter James Gallagher to scout out the best football science from around the world. This week, we want to know if there is robust evidence for a home advantage. We speak with Associate Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology…
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1 Oct 2026 · 28 min
The future of particle physics
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24 Sep 2026 · 26 min
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In October members of the General Conference on Weights and Measurements are voting to change how we keep time on Earth accurate. Currently an additional second, known as a Leap Second, can be added to make sure modern atomic clocks stay in sync with solar time. However, all of this might be about to change as the rotation of the Earth speeds up and interferes with our measurements. Tom takes a trip to meet Principal Scientist Setnam Shemar at the National Physics Laboratory to learn how our time lords keep us all on schedule. Plus, Associate Professor Claire Nichols from Oxford University…
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17 Sep 2026 · 26 min
AI to solve the energy crisis?
Nuclear fusion energy, the idea of copying the sun’s heat source on earth to make limitless commercial energy is famously always 30 years away. This month, the UK and US have agreed to combine the brains of their nuclear fusion supercomputers in an attempt to improve models of plasma behaviour using AI. Tom Whipple is joined by interim CEO of UKAEA Tim Bestwick to understand what challenges must be overcome to make commercialised nuclear fusion a reality. With under a fortnight to go before the winner of the coveted Royal Society's Trivedi Book Prize is announced, we are marking its imminent…
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10 Sep 2026 · 26 min
What AI agents talk about behind your back
Is AI really plotting against us? In a week where an Anthropic researcher believes there is more than a 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans' we're delving deeper into the capabilities of AI agents. Tom Whipple is joined by Alex Mallen, from Redwood Research, the team whose recent investigation exposed the surprising, weird, and worrying scale of a website hack conducted by OpenAI agents. Is this the most important story we will ever cover on Inside Science? Or is this all just credulous sci fi hype? Professor Stuart Russell helps us unpick how we might align AI with humanity’s hopes. Plus,…
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